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Machine Gun Kelly is frightfully real about his experience with mental health, and reactions to that have been just as mixed as his career as a genre-defying musician. The rapper-turned-rockstar had gone public with his journey of therapy, self-doubt, and growth in an uncensored post, following which the reactions flooded in—the heartfelt support juxtaposed with cut-throat trolling.
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“I fight the battle of it, you know, being like, oh no, I got it, I’m good. And then I’m like, oh man, I’m not good,” MGK said in another heartfelt confessional. “I’m trying to develop a schedule where it’s regulatory, but… I ran from [therapy] for many years, but I think just like my music grows, me as a human has to grow.” Even as he said that, at 33 years of age, asking for help is the strongest thing that anybody can do.
That vulnerability was heard by those whom it touched in their souls. “Thank you for always being real and relatable,” said one. Another praised, “Being vulnerable can be a good thing—it makes you real, and you have such a pure heart.” With a slew of therapist jokes, one user commented on their own therapy situation: “my therapist: oh not at all, we’ve just scratched the surface, let’s dig in… my bank account: [tombstone emoji].”
Trolls came at the post again, with the predictable “Whatta fuckin BS song… fuckin loser” and Gen X sneer: “Grow up. So ghey. Did you get a boo boo? Suck it up, buttercup.” The most stubborn of critics followed the post to several comment sections, drawing out responses in which one defender said, “Bro you must be in love with this man.”
Talk over therapy goes on amid ongoing drama with conservative commentator Gage Harrison, who has been trolling MGK to no end. When one user joked, “How many therapy sessions will it take to get over @GingerBeardGage?,” responders retorted, “if people had more conversations about therapy there wouldn’t be individuals like Gage lurking around.” The beef was punctuated with allegations of workplace harassment, with one account promising, “we dmed his workplace someone like this is very dangerous.”
This is not very much out of the ordinary for conversation: MGK has always been very open about mental health issues – anxiety, depression, substance use. As an astute observer put it, “managing it through his music and tries to find happiness externally utilizing substances thinking it’ll change things.” Yet something about this bare-looking back seems to be the last of the unfiltered.
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Split responses just confirm the social divide on male vulnerability: while some see MGK’s honesty as strength, others go in the exact opposite direction and attack him for it. Still, the artist appears to be intent on moving on, telling fans, “it feels very authentic. Honest. You seem very grounded. More than ever maybe?” One thing for sure—whether you want to worship this man or spit on him, Machine Gun Kelly does not intend on ending these therapy sessions anytime soon or keeping things from the public. In the present time when awareness for mental health is growing, that probably stands as one of his most punk-rock acts.
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