Emma Swift Had a Complete Mental Breakdown. Found Health. Made Music About It.

While the acclaimed musician Emma Swift had experienced painful periods of depression in the past, fed by grief or the first Trump presidency, her psychotic break and mental breakdown in 2023 was new territory. She lost touch with reality, believing that her electronic devices had been hacked, that she was being followed, images of heaven and hell emerging. Emma actually had a sense that she was losing her mind and went to the hospital, reporting as much, but she was turned away because she wasn’t deemed sick enough. Finally, she flew back to her native Australia and went directly from the airport to a hospital where she remained for several weeks.Looking back on it now, she sees some hormonal changes, a mugging in London, and the hard times of the covid pandemic - especially for a musician - being possible contributing factors. But says there’s no real way of knowing for sure why it happened for sure, which made it all the more frightening.In the end, she got treatment, “came out the other side,” as she says, and was helped by a variety of treatments including hormonal therapy.Emma Swift’s new album, The Resurrection Game, was largely written in response to this traumatic period. We talk to her about the breakdown and about the music that came out of it in a revealing conversation that is both honest and harrowing.Wits Reunion Show at the Fitzgerald TheaterJohn Moe’s writing classes at the Loft Literary CenterThank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group. Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

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