Classic Rock
Duff McKagan talks about his fight with depression
The Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan is currently promoting his new solo album called “Lighthouse” and this year he started to talk more about mental health, sharing his fight against depression and panic attacks. In an interview with People magazine he said that people need to understand that depression is not always started by something bad happening in your life, but by something chemical that is missing in your brain.
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He also said that Slash and Axl Rose are people who helped him through his panic attacks and that can understand him better than his own wife.
Duff McKagan talks about his fight with depression and panic attacks
“They always said panic disorder is a symptom of depression, but I [didn’t realize I had] depression until I was about 50. I had this massive fall off the cliff, and it lasted about three weeks. It wasn’t anything going on in my life, my life was great. It’s a chemical fucking imbalance. It’s not my fault.”
“When people think of depression, it’s like, ‘Oh, snap out of it, man.’ I couldn’t drive or fucking tie my shoes! And it’s happened to me a couple of times. It’s broken a couple of times. I’ve sought and received help, and I have a weekly help. And I had to medicate through that, and that’s totally fine. I needed it.”
“I’ve had some panic attacks out here, but not the darkness. Two of the guys I’m with, I’ve been with since I was 20 years old, and we’ve been through so much together that it just feels like a place of safety for me.”
“We’ve seen so much that we can’t explain to anybody else. I can’t even explain to Susan (Wife) what it was like. I can tell her a story, but those two other guys truly understand, and they’ve seen me having panic attacks since we met,” Duff McKagan said.
