Like a good NJ girl, I went to see the biopic about Bruce Springsteen opening weekend.  I was curious about the movie’s focus on the period of his life in which he wrote and recorded the album Nebraska, when he was suffering from intense depression. Although I’m not a movie critic, I can share that I really enjoyed the movie, not only because of my beloved Bruce, but because of its raw depiction of the experience of his depression – how it developed, how it affected him, and how he worked his way through it.  It’s a rare, and I think brave, peak behind the show curtains of a profoundly talented artist and performer.  As a big Bruce fan, I’m touched by all he’d been through, but as a mental health professional, I’m even more grateful for his candid portrayal of his pain and his receptivity to getting treatment.  I can only hope it will help others, especially young men, to identify their depression and empower them to understand and work through it.

One in four people are likely to be diagnosed with depression.  While more women than men receive a diagnosis of depression, there is a large gender disparity in how depression manifests in women and men that is thought to explain the difference.  Women tend to exhibit more “classic” symptoms, like sadness, guilt, and worthlessness, while men tend to externalize their distress through anger, irritability, risky behavior, or substance abuse.  Women are socialized in a way that often can help them identify their distress and reach out to others for support.  Traditionally, men are socialized to be stoic and are not taught how to interpret or recognize their emotions, which makes it more difficult for them to label their need for help and to ask for it.  In several studies, when “male-type symptoms” were added to the criteria, the differences in the rates of depression between men and women were eliminated.

In the movie, we see how a young Bruce is shaped by his father’s mental illness and abuse and his mother’s over-reliance on him.  He’s pulled into the role of protector and is exposed to feelings and situations far more complicated than a child can handle.  He has no one to talk to about it and is confused by the swirling of anger, love, fear and loyalty to his family.  He uses his music to channel the build up of his pain.  In time, he becomes so burdened by his anger and guilt, he withdraws from relationships, puts himself in risky situations, and begins to implode from the weight of his distress (classic depressive symptoms in men). We see how a sensitive child struggles in transitioning into manhood/adulthood amidst such a chaotic environment.  As Bruce Springsteen describes in a follow up interview, “Mental illness ran through my family.  These were the people that I loved.  But no one got any help whatsoever. There was no medication.  There was no interactions with any psychological help.  And so, everybody just suffered through it.”  Springsteen credits his manager for saving his life after the release of his album Nebraska, identifying his depression and setting him up with a therapist.  He shares about being in therapy for ten years and his episode after Nebraska as being the “first” of his “breakdowns.”

Deliver Me from Nowhere is a movie about Bruce Springsteen, but more so, a study of coming of age in a state of fragile manhood.  I think it couldn’t be more timely or necessary as we watch the epidemic of isolation and loneliness of our young people combined with a resurgence of toxic masculinity.  How does a young man make sense of his anger and intensity?  How does he channel the emotion or release the tension?  Where does he turn if no one will listen or understand or if the people he loves are the source of his stress?  How does he express his fear and vulnerability?  His grief and disappointment?  So much of the work I do with young men and adult men in therapy is to translate their anger into understanding the sadness underlying it.  Being sad is hard in our male culture.  It requires feeling helpless, vulnerable, and even powerless.  But it’s a large part of the human experience and of the repercussions of growing up and taking risks and making mistakes.  Or of being dependent or in need of others.  All important consequences of and elements to being in connection and living with intimacy.  

In the movie, after sharing with his manager that he is lost and doesn’t know how to go on, Bruce meets with his therapist for the first time.  The young man, so gifted with his words and his story telling, is so overwhelmed he can’t speak.  Slowly, the tears start coming and the path to healing begins.