Counting Crows Singer Admits He Suffers From Mental Illness
Adam Duritz recently revealed that during the peak of his fame as lead singer for the group Counting Crows he suffered from mental illness, including severe depression.
He was quoted by OK! Magazine as saying, "I've been dealing with mental illness, but I didn't want to say anything for a long time. I went crazy. It was scary."Duritz said he went through years of not knowing what was wrong with him, but was recently diagnosed with a dissociative disorder.
Dissociative disorders, which involve some sort of alteration in identity or sense of self, are thought to be developed as a coping mechanism for trauma. The most well-known dissociative disorder is dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder. Other types are dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder.
"Being crazy is bad," said Duritz. "It's scary when the world isn't real to you. You come untethered. Everything seems imaginary. You look around the room and nothing seems real. You don't feel pain. I stopped letting myself feel."
The Counting Crows just released a new album called Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, a double album inspired by Duritz's experiences with mental illness. "The album is about a downward spiral, losing my mind and about trying to get it back," he said, "not about getting it back but trying to get it back."
Photo Credit: Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images
Comments
I’m so impressed that Adam Duritz had the courage to come out with this. We have to start being honest and we’ll see how many people really suffer from depression.
I’ve tried all kinds of approaches (one really good article has helped me. But I like the quote: “Not aobut getting it back but trying to get it back.” That’s so honest!
Consider reading some of Thomoas Szasz’ work or do an internet search on him. He questions if much of what is termed “Mental Illness” is actually so and writes of the “Medicalisation of the Mind”(of mental/emotional issues). He writes of how Freud and post Fredudians have benefitted from “Medicalisaing of the Mind”, and he sees much of what is termed “Depression” as the normal reactions/responses of people to how life is in this world. None of this changes at all how we feel when we get / are depressed, etc, but it allows us to look at things differently and perhaps not to let ourselves be labeled as defective. Szasz suggests that the Doctors and other Mental Health people have become the accepted authorities of the mind now just as Priests once were the accepted authorities of Mind and Soul.
Good luck!
Wow, way to go Adam Duritz for having the guts to say whats real in your life and sharing it with us! I shared that diagnosis when I was 21 and took me a good many years to get well but I did. (I’m 38 now) You can do it too and thank you for giving others the hope that even famous folks fight with mental disorders and need help. BTW, now I’m just left with “major depressive disorder in partial remission”. It gets better friends… NEVER give up!
Sorry, Richad, but much of what is termed “liver damage” is just a result of the modern Western lifestyle, not a medical problem.
In some contexts, “depression” (elevated cortisone) and “dissociation” (allowing one to function in acutely traumatic situation) are “normal,” just like coughing when dust is in your throat can be normal. Mood disorders and dissociative disorders are as real as allergies, influenza, and pneumonia. Using depression as an example, there is no way any reasonable person can argue that it is healthy to have, for weeks or months or years at a time, elevated levels of hormones in the bloodstream, plummeting glial cell:neuron ratio, brain atrophy, increased suspectability to things like heart disease, insufficient BDNF production, etc. You can tell that something is wrong with a depressed person by looking at a brain scan–without ever being told that this person is depressed or even has low mood or anything about them.
*show brain scan*
Holy! Who is this? They have major hippocampus shrinkage! They seem depressed.
:P
“Against Depression” by Peter Kramer is just for people like you. Read it.
For anyone interested, here is a short, light summary: http://psycheducation.org/mechanism/MechanismIntro.htm It doesn’t go into many details, and some information has not been updated, but it gives you an idea.
http://amenclinics.com/bp/atlas/ has interesting brain images, for people who like to visually examine brain damage. I found it through http://crazymeds.us/ .
Not to say that doctors or any other “professionals” are all perfect at all times. I fired my last doctor because she was unpleasant to me, refused to look at the facts (that she could have verified by looking them up in standard medical resources, rather than just taking my word for it), seemed more interested in making me comply with what she liked to do rather than helping me, and threatened me. Doctors used to mutilate and remove reproductive organs of women who behaved oddly by their standards, claiming that they were mentally ill and fixing their femaleness would help them. Many doctors aren’t interested in learning more, don’t question what they’re told, won’t attend conferences, won’t read journals, etc. Freud himself had extremely dangerous, stupid, inaccurate ideas, and reversed his opinion on one idea he used to have that was actually good, true, and important. I could go on and on. That’s not even mentioning the “expert” and “dependable” motor vehicle shippers, animal trainers and behaviorists, schoolteachers, lawyers… Kill blind faith, including faith in this Szasz person. Look at the evidence for yourself and apply logic.
And I can totally understand Duritz’s feelings on derealization. Forever watching a movie of your life, observing a dream…never being able to come back to the actual world can be a very frightening experience.
I think it’s great that Adam Duritz came
forward and public with his mental illness. What a brave guy to admit what
is wrong with him. Like Adam, I had to
go through hell and back with my mental illness, which started 20 years ago, shortly after my mother’s death. But I really can understand what Adam’s talking about when he said “it’s scary when the world isn’t real to you.” At one point, I had to be on antipsychotics
for a period of time. It sounds worse
than it is, the meds I mean. Kudos to Adam for being a real man and admitting
how he feels!!! It’s so refreshing to see a guy like that!