Elon
Musk
tweeted
late
Wednesday
night
that
he’s
never
gone
to
therapy,
a
fact
that
he
wants
to
be
immortalized
on
his
gravestone.
And
whatever
you
think
of
the
billionaire’s
attitude
to
mental
health
treatment,
Musk’s
tweet
would
seem
pretty
unremarkable
in
isolation.
However,
Musk
keeps
tweeting
about
this
for
some
reason,
including
three
times
in
the
past
two
months
alone.
But
those
are
just
the
most
recent
times
Musk
has
tweeted
about
therapy.
Another
instance
of
Musk
using
the
same
language
happened
in
July
2023,
when
the
Tesla
CEO
was
responding
to
a
far-right
influencer
on
X
who
suggested
white
liberals
have
more
mental
illness
than
the
general
population.
“Why
is
mental
illness
so
prominent
amongst
Liberal
Whites?”
the
account,
which
goes
by
the
name
The
Rabbit
Hole,
tweeted.
“’Never
went
to
therapy’
Please
put
that
on
my
gravestone,”
Musk
responded.
Obviously the choice to go to therapy is a personal one and Musk is free to decide if he’d find that kind of thing helpful. But if he’s truly “never” gone to therapy it does seem a little odd that he’d think he can make an effective judgement about whether it would work for him. After all, the billionaire microdoses ketamine for depression, according to a Wall Street Journal report from last year. Typically, any drug interventions for mental health issues require treatment from a professional.
Musk
has
made
repeated
suggestions
that
he’s
often
struggled
with
mental
health
issues,
including
on
the
Lex
Fridman
podcast
when
he
referred
to
his
mind
as
a
“storm”
last
year.
“My mind is a storm. I don’t think most people would want to be me. They may think they’d want to be me but they don’t know, they don’t understand,” Musk told Fridman.
Musk was asked about that comment—that his mind is a storm—in an interview with the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin on November 30, 2023 at the DealBook Summit in New York. Sorkin tried to probe deeper into the issues that may be troubling Musk and after an achingly long 12-second silence in front of a live audience, Musk said completely unprompted that it felt like he was in a therapist’s office.
“I
wish
we
were
like
on
a
psychiatrist
couch
or
something.
You
know,
I
think
to
some
degree
I
was
born
this
way,
but,
and
then
it
was
amplified
by
a
difficult
childhood
frankly.
But
I
can
remember
even
in
happy
moments
when
I
was
a
kid
that
there’s
just,
it
just
feels
like
there’s
just
a...
a
rage
of
forces
in
my
mind
constantly,”
Musk
explained.
Musk
said
that
sometimes
this
disturbance
in
his
mind
would
make
him
productive.
But
after
listing
successes,
Musk
seemed
to
get
troubled
and
introspective
again.
“So these demons of the mind, you know, are for the most part, harnessed to productive ends. But that doesn’t mean that once in a while they don’t, you know... go wrong,” Musk said.
Musk also brought up the topic of suicidal ideation at a young age.
“I
mean,
I
did
have
this
existential
crisis
when
I
was
around
twelve
about
what’s
the
meaning
of
life?
Isn’t
it
all
pointless?
Why
not
just
commit
suicide?
Why
exist?”
Musk
recalled.
That
interview
is
probably
best
remembered
for
Musk’s
defiant
attitude
in
the
face
of
advertiser
backlash
over
comments
that
were
widely
seen
as
anti-Semitic.
But
these
comments
are
worth
revisiting
as
the
billionaire
keeps
repeating
that
he
doesn’t
need
therapy.
Again, Musk can hold whatever opinions he likes about the mental health profession and is free to choose whatever path he wants to make in life. He is, after all, the wealthiest man in the world who is doing just fine in a material sense. But given the frequency Musk tweets about how he’s never been to therapy, it’s clearly a topic that’s on his mind, and some people do find it useful to just have someone to talk with.
More
than
50,000
Americans
died
by
suicide
in
2023,
slightly
higher
than
the
49,449
suicide
deaths
in
2022
and
48,183
suicide
deaths
in
2021,
according
to
the
CDC.
And
while
therapy
isn’t
magic,
it
can
help
people
who
find
themselves
in
desperate
circumstances.
If you or someone you know is having a crisis or contemplating suicide, please call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
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