Eminem: Mental Health Underlies His Musical Recovery and Relapse
Eminem asked, “Didn’t you ask the doctors when I started recording new shit, when I first started rapping again, and sent it to you, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanted to make sure he didn’t have brain damage? ‘” The podcast host confirmed that he was in fact concerned during the recovery process that there might be some “permanent problems” with his health. “My addiction didn’t start in my early days when I was coming up. We used to drink 40s (forty-ounces of liquor) on the porch and just battle rap each other,” the 49-year-old star recalled of creating The Slim Shady LP. “My addiction didn’t start in my early days when I was coming up,” he explained in a personal essay for XXL in September 2022. “My drug usage started at the beginning of that first album.”
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“It wasn’t like I was stumbling around all day,” he admitted. “I was fully functioning — I wrote more songs then than I do now. That was the scary part.” “I had what I call a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he continued. He had to sit down then-fiancée Meg Ryan and explain what was going on. “Drinking caused weight gain,” he told Today in September 2022, “but it also weighed down my mental state.” After publicly celebrating six years of sobriety on tour in 2018, the singer stunned fans later that same year with the release of the confessional single “Sober,” which revealed that she had relapsed.
How did Eminem get his start in music?
- He has exhibited a concern for a better world, as with his anti-war track “Mosh.” And many of his songs demonstrate healthy values in line with being a good father and loyal friend.
- At its best, hardcore music is a ferocious middle finger to the establishment.
- You can marvel at the lyrical aptitude conveyed on the Dr. Dre co-produced “Lucifer,” one of the record’s best, or bristle at its dated reference to Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s relationship.
- His addiction struggles began at age 14, when he started drinking Budweiser and Andrès Baby Duck, before he started dabbling in drugs like Vicodin, Xanax and OxyContin.
Like many of Eminem’s albums, “The Death of Slim Shady” rests on tropes and themes he’s explored time and again. There are numerous whacks at Caitlyn Jenner and Christopher Reeve (20 years after his death, mind you); transphobia, fatphobia and homophobia; digs at the mentally disabled. Pretty much everything you’d expect from Eminem, ever the provocateur. Eminem, as far as I know, has not suffered negative or traumatic experiences, such as assault, by anyone in the queer community. So, what he’s doing is channeling a ton of effort in order to exude intense vitriol toward a group with whom he’s never really engaged.
Phil lived out of his car before packing up his whole life and moving across the country to find a home
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is regarded by many as the most influential rapper in the business. Let us not forget that Eminem is an artist who has raked in Grammys and Academy Awards. He’s gone triple platinum, and in 2001 his Marshall Mathers LP broke records for the fastest-selling album and single of all time.
Eminem’s rise to stardom, back in 1999, made him a scourge of the syrupy late-nineties pop scene. But he also managed to alter stereotypes about the criminality of the rap genre in the eyes of the general public. He dominated the portable CD players of turn-of-the-century youth, who emulated his style by dying their hair blonde and donning tank tops https://sober-home.org/what-is-abuse-counselor/ and oversized pants. “If I had been black, I wouldn’t have sold even half of it,” he acknowledged in one of his songs. I might link his success to his sporadically prominent mental health. He has expressed homophobic ideas but he has also done things like “the hug heard around the world,” when he embraced Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
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“Pissed me off to no end and embarrassed me. I’m a pretty strong-willed person but that was the one thing in my life that I couldn’t get to stick.” In late 2011, he was hospitalized with pancreatitis and was told that if he didn’t stop drinking, he wouldn’t see his next birthday. “I still put it off and was trying to slow down on my own, like, ‘All right I’m only gonna let myself take two pills today. I’m only gonna drink this much of my bottle and make a mark on the bottle,'” he recalled. “And it would work a couple days—and then somebody throws a party.”
The dizzying back and forth has maintained his popularity and albums like “Recovery” represent the most recent round of psychological fighting, in this case, a mean right hook that has dropped the psychological villain to his knees. And sometimes, as with https://sober-home.org/ “Relapse,” this part of the famed rapper wins out. Mental illness overwhelms, the result of which are all of its unattractive and unappealing features—passivity, unregulated negative emotions, dishonest self-presentation, and interpersonal conflicts.
Since making the lifestyle change, Holland noticed he “could sleep better” and “handle problems better.” Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, posted a photo on Instagram April 20 of his recovery coin with the inscription, “Unity, service and recovery.” Eventually, Eminem lost 90 lbs and, per Billboard, he weighs 140 lbs today. Fans have been left particularly moved by “Temporary,” which he recorded for Hailie to listen to in the event of his death. Meanwhile, Stevie is Kim’s child with Eric Hartter, who died in 2019.
And in that way, “The Death of Slim Shady” succeeds in making you question what being politically correct really means. This Eminem is alive and kicking, occasionally winning a round or two in his eternal and internal boxing match. This Eminem, I would argue, is what keeps him separated from so many other successful but fleeting artists of our time. This healthy Eminem has buffered him from the paralyzing dysfunction of his problematic predispositions and upbringing, constantly fed a loyal following, and kept him attached to the limelight. As with many people, early external chaos can become internalized.
On 4/20, legendary rapper Eminem celebrated fifteen years sober and fans are delighted for him. He accurately reflects on personality flaws (an inconsistent father figure), confesses professional hiccups (critiques his previous album), and describes an orientation toward others and his life that is characterized by renewed vigor and honesty. In short, his introspection is insightful, and the world he is reconstructing for himself (for others to see and model) hints at a healthier lifestyle. And the maladaptive mental processes fostered by his experiences and personality traits may be reflected in his music.
“And I’m allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription and then I’m also augmenting that.” She said her friends at the time “kind of cosigned” her drug use and “it just kind of becomes this dark pit, bottomless pit.” But, during the pandemic, Cyrus said she was noticing challenges and felt she wasn’t emotionally present. “I was completely nodding off and falling asleep,” she recalled. “And unable to keep my head up or keep my eyes open, because I was so far gone.” Eminem isn’t the only star to open up about their addiction and sobriety. “I remember when I first got sober and all the s–t was out of my system,” he reflected on the Paul Pod podcast in September 2022.
Eminem stated that it was rapping that helped him to start earning a little bit of respect. For these reasons, Eminem has become a hero for many who have experienced bullying or difficulties in their life. Even more impressive than the fact that Eminem has managed to sustain a decades-long career are the sheer number of obstacles that the rapper has overcome in his life. Read on to learn about Eminem’s tragic early life and how the musician is doing these days.
The track is just one of the many highlights of the debut album from the extraordinary north-east Arnhem Land eight-piece, led by blind, keytar-wielding Yolngu elder Andrew Gurruwiwi. With its haunting string samples and drum loops, ‘Hair Down’ is a trip-hop ode to feeling secure in a relationship. ‘Take 2’ conveys fully fleshed R&B swagger despite its lean arrangement, while the dreamy title track evokes the mercurial soul of SZA and Frank Ocean through swooning synths and dramatic timpani rolls. It’s his first in four years, following the surprise release of the loosely structured, mixtape-feeling Music to Be Murdered By. This time, he’s sounding a little more focused, although sometimes it feels like he’s concentrating on winning Facebook comment section arguments. In his recovery, the rapper hasn’t found it the easiest, and has relapsed on one occasion.
The tearjerking song includes audio recordings of childhood videos of Eminem and Hailie playing together — and ends with a particularly cute snippet of Eminem teasing his then-young daughter over the fact that he’d recorded her swearing. Eminem would even show up for Hailie and Alaina at school during the height of his fame, accompanying them on field trips and attending their classes to read to the students for reading month. Houdini, from the album, is number four on this week’s singles charts – it previously reached number one last month. But that doesn’t seem to have mattered this week on the charts. The US rapper’s 12th album – in which, he kills off his alter ego, Slim Shady – had a mixed critical reception.
“It was only until I saw myself after that I was like, ‘All right, I need to fix myself,'” he recalled in June 2021 when he said he was more than one month sober at the time. “It was like a few pictures of me on a boat and I’m all, like, bloated out, and I call it pills-and-booze face….My face was just like 10 times more than it is now. And I just didn’t like myself very much, so then I made a change.” But he was also at the height of his drug addiction, as that’s when he overdosed — and according to Billboard, he tipped the scales at 230 lbs when he was in the throes of his addiction. Hailie, who launched a podcast in 2022, actually did get married earlier this year, and Eminem was present to walk her down the aisle — with photos of them enjoying a father-daughter dance at the ceremony surfacing online at the time. It appears to have been written from the rapper’s perspective if he had died at this time, referencing all of the important things in his family’s life that he would have missed. Eminem took Alaina in and raised her as his own when Dawn was struggling with drug addiction.
The star of Hunt for Red October does not often speak to his sobriety journey, which began almost forty years ago. “And then you would just reach that moment where you’re like ‘Wow, I shouldn’t have had that last beer,'” the actor continued. “And you wake up the next day and you have a terrible headache.”
Eminem legally adopted Stevie in 2005, when they were 3 years old. In the same interview, Eminem also opened up about caring for his younger brother Nate, who was taken into foster care when he was 8 years old and Eminem was 23. Kim has also had well-documented troubles of her own over the years, including going on the run from the police in 2003 after she was arrested for possession of cocaine. And Eminem’s Houdini – from The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) – is fourth on the singles chart.
At its best, hardcore music is a ferocious middle finger to the establishment. A loud, stomping soundtrack to venting frustrations – about politics, class, gender, whatever! – alongside a close-knit community of like-minded moshers with a strong sense of belonging. Not every song is as sunny and spirited, but thankfully Gurruwiwi is just as captivating on deep and dubby tracks including ‘Wata Mäwi’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’ – a solemn reflection on the horrendous Gäṉgan massacre.