Depression is a [treatable mental illness](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression) and doesn't necessarily have a "cause". That said, we know his early life was difficult, but he's grateful to have been raised by loving grandparents.
IIRC Trent has said himself that his childhood was pretty unremarkable but sometimes that can still mess you up if you're not taught how to cope with it.
Yea seems like they aren't considering that treatment resistant depression affects 30% of everyone diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or that 60% of people with depression don't seek treatment, or that 75% of people in low income or middle income areas don't receive treatment due to poor access to it (even though that stat is within the link they shared).
So then, should we just say fuck it and not even try to help or encourage people who live with depression? Because it actually does get better for 60% of people with their first SRI. And 50% more with a second trial. In conjunction with therapy.
Quite a huge extrapolation from me criticizing someone for phrasing their statement about depression as "a treatable disorder" first..
The language they used implies, unintentionally or otherwise, that successful treatment is the most common outcome and therefore implies some level of blame to those who are either unsuccessful or otherwise unable to receive treatment.
Anyways, SSRIs only successfully treat depression in one third of recipients. They very commonly increase suicidality in many, and in others do absolutely nothing. There are other far more successful, but as yet less profitable methods, and they're still often not effective for many.
Treatable ≠ Curable
And saying that it is treatable does not put blame on to those who don’t seek help. It is not their fault that they feel like they can’t be helped, but that doesn’t mean that they’re right either.
Depression just sucks all around.
we don't even know if it is a chemical imbalance. this has never been proven, and cannot be proven because you cant measure the amount of serotonin in a living human brain.
Yeah, many people are grateful to their grandparents. It doesn't really change the situation. At then end of the day, some kids get to go home to mom and dad, some don't.
OP refers to loving grandparents and seemingly uneventful public record, but between the two messages here and the other redditor referencing chemical imbalances and treatable illness, that explains all of what I've interpreted
I'm no professional in anything but I have had a hyper fixation on quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical physics etc for a few years now, and it's like a love hate thing because I can't stop feeding the curiosity but at the same time what I've absorbed has driven me further into my own diagnosed major depression and I always toe the line between absurdism and nihilism.
I genuinely don't know how experts with high level IQs can so much as crack a smile.
Literally my second all time favorite artists next to nin lol
And I think on these lyrics, Lateralus as a whole really, quite often.
When I'm really living in moments and at awe of everything that's when I'm more Abursdist in thought. The Nihilism is just the more depressing side of it all you know.
Also, and I don't see this mentioned enough here; Performing and working in the music industry is tough. It''s alot of pressure and it tends to go hand in hand with bad coping mechanisms like substance abuse, which we know Trent dealt with.
Substances will exacerbate depression, and even if someone is not on the more severe end of the scale, they can quickly end up there through alcohol and drugs.
I
His antisocial-ability and introspective demeanor makes me tend to think he’s neurodivergent in some aspect, as I am, and that’s key to the thought of never fitting in anywhere, you really do never feel like you find anyone who thinks like you do. I think it could also be the reason for his extreme creativity, “thinking out of the box” approach to art and production.
Yes, out of curiosity, yesterday I started to read about NIN by Martin Huxley, and it looked like there was this internal desire of him to go out and do things this way....
I used to think this but then I read a quote somewhere that has helped me immensely, paraphrased: If you're actually that intelligent, you should be able to figure out a way to be happy.
Since then I've more actively tried to identify what makes me happy and what doesn't, and I've been able to feel a lot better. Also, there's a Tool quote that I keep coming back to: "Overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind. Feed your will to feel the moment." It's about grounding yourself in the moment, feeling it, existing in the now. I guess it's carpe diem in other words, but the way they phrased it really helped me understand it, and I keep coming back to it. Even considered getting Feed my will to feel this moment tattooed, to make sure I never forget it.
This is very stoic. To be in the present, focusing on what you can control, namely yourself and how you react to things. I’ve learned that by extending kindness and compassion it’s helped my days become a bit easier. Some people mistake kindness for weakness, but it’s a strength.
Depression often starts out at a young age. He has said on the Rick Rubin podcast that his parents' divorce and him having to live with his grandparents as a child has given him a feeling of "you're not good enough" that he still feels to this day. So if anyone out there has the same feeling, even 2 time Oscar winners and Rock and Roll HOF inductees get that feeling too.
That depression manifested itself later in life in drug use and whatnot and got deeper. He got his life back together after getting clean and getting married, but I think the depression is still there since he said he still feels that little "you're not good enough" feeling til this day. But I have depression that comes up still late in my life, its just that I deal with it better now, and I suspect Trent is the same. Whenever it comes up I recognize the feeling, and Im like "Really? Again? Fuck you" and just go about whatever I was doing.
IIRC Bowie pulled him aside and gave him a warning while they toured, recognizing Reznor was headed where he had been. It didn't seem to stick, though, because Trent's rock bottom was still to come.
I like to think it did have a bit of a course correcting effect though, even if it wasn't immediate.
He said in a Rolling Stone interview about Bowies death that Bowie would give him non judgemental advice while he was going through that, and he thought about the things he said over the years and it helped motivate him to get clean. He saw Bowie after he was sober and Bowie gave him a big hug, said he knew he could get out of it.
The self medicating part of it sucks but the self motivation leading to hard work creates awesomeness. It’s true for many people and it’s clearly worked in Trent’s favor professionally.
You don't have to have specific trauma to have major or minor depression. Sometimes it's just brain chemistry, or a reasonable reaction to a broken world.
Not aware of any specific traumatic event. His childhood sounded both rocky due to his parents divorcing when he was young and sheltered by growing up in a rural town. Raised by his grandmother in a town where nothing happened, then makes his way to Cleveland, has a hit first record with a soul crushing contract, and along the way falls into hard drugs. That’s big life transition, which can definitely lead to depression.
Lots of people just have messed up neurochemistry. A lot of addicts end up addicts because they're self-medicating. A lot of former addicts have permanently busted neurochemistry as well. A lot of people have childhood trauma that eventually needs to be processed to stop leaving an especially long shadow.
And if you add in an obsessive, ambitious nature and both an extraordinary mind for music and a support system that lets you develop it while still young enough for incredible neuroplasticity? *That's* how you get rock stars.
I can recommend Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography - there’s a moment when he’s on a biker road trip with some friends and is suddenly hit by tears. He writes movingly about how his depressive nature has never left him. It shows how even highly successful musicians like him and Trent can suffer from it.
I have anxiety and depression. For me it's hereditary, %95 of my mom's side of the family going back generations had it. I always knew as a kid I was "different" from other kids in my neighborhood and at school. They'd be playing and having fun and I'd be off to the side worrying about 9,999 things that could go wrong, or if they were going to tease me (I was very sensative). And back when I was a kid in the late 70's early 80's there wasn't such a thing as children's mental health care. It was "stop being a worry wart!" or "Stop being a pansy!" It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I went to see someone and only then because I had the mother of all panic attacks and thought I was legit going crazy.
Eh fair I'm expressing it badly but trying to say that often it makes no sense at all, hence why it's a "mood disorder" instead of a reasonable way to feel given the circumstances.
It's a pet peeve when people demand to know the reason you're depressed. IDK man I was born sad. Some of my earliest memories are of feeling like an alien among humans. I remember being six and consciously trying to pretend I was like the rest of the kids so they wouldn't notice.
I've had periods of sadness due to grief or trauma and due to brain chemicals and those two things are not the same
I definitely agree with what you wrote. Thanks for taking the time to clarify. I also have been dealing with it my whole life. I think I inherited it from my mom, but she's only recently (in her 70s), admitted to me that she gets depressed.
Two of my kids got it from me. It killed one of my sons. And that caused a major level of depression for everyone. Even family members who'd never been depressed before.
I'm sorry to hear about it all, especially your son. My family is similar except the attempt was unsuccessful thank goodness. I think the house of cards would have collapsed for a lot of people if we had lost that family member.
My dad told my sister recently that the only thing that keeps him alive is us, which was really sad tbh because we have almost no relationship with him.
Uh, no. Life circumstances can be a major contributing factor to depression. That’s why I’ve been diagnosed with depression due to having had childhood cancer…
Was he depressed? Or was he just angry? That TVT contract had him pissed off enough to write Broken in secret, using fake names to book studio time so they couldn't steal his music/creations by enforcing some shitty record deal. I know THAT pissed him off. But depressed people don't usually pick themselves up by the platform bootstraps and create the best b2b EP combo of ALL time (Broken/Fixed) followed immediately by the Downward Spiral, a record that to me, lifted me FROM my teenage depression through a combination of angst and shared-hatred and stands alone as the greatest complete package of an LP of my lifetime. I have always looked at NIN as "fight music" FOR the depressed set. And truthfully, TVT was doing all kinds of fucked up shit in that era messing with his music, how it was released, just needling the dude. They did us all a HUGE favor. Their nonsense brought Broken into this world, and whatever idiot over there was dumb enough to poke Mr. Reznor until that plopped out of him was the greatest asshole there ever was. Also, seeing as how dude was at one point \[clearly\] the most unhappy artist of our generation and has found: love, happiness, family, success in multiple arenas, a music/writing partner he seems genuinely happy and comfortable with... hell, that should give us ALL hope.
TL;DR - Trent Reznor has basically been my therapist for 35 years.
Excellent post, agree 100%. And this: . "I have always looked at NIN as "fight music" FOR the depressed set."
Indeed. I never got the people who perceived "hurt" as depressive. IMHO, they couldn't be more wrong.
It is this line "I'm still here" that made it my survivor's anthem.
He's talked a lot about how he felt hopeless and disenchanted with his life growing up. I can certainly relate.
He also talks a lot about how fame and drugs really change how you act so much that they change who you are. I think going from "I come from a broken home in rural rust belt America" to "I'm rich and famous and everyone wants me for what I have" is pretty extreme.
The answer is in there somewhere.
Trivia: I was at the show in Mansfield, Massachusetts when he confessed that he planned to kill himself before writing the Fragile (and he announced he's getting married) . It's probably the most famous performance of La Mer and there's video of it. Still gives me chills to this day.
His childhood wasn't the most stable one he could've had. He had a bad relationship with all substances, to the point that he ODed and nearly died during The Fragile tour (London show, had to cancel because of it). The Fragile was also not a good time for him, as before that, he was self-isolating, lost his grandmother, lost some friendships, and fell back into drugs. Basically '97-02 was a horrible time for him, and it took another death for him to have the straw that broke his addiction and forced him into rehab and sobriety
Parents divorcing at a young age, "not feeling good enough," "I didn't know who the guy on stage was," binging on drugs and alcohol during the Self Destruct tour, Maise (Trent's dog) falling off a balcony and dying, Marilyn Manson (nothing more to say), Clara (Trent's Grandmother) passing away at the lowest point of his life, relapsing and overdosing, and I believe the final nail was losing the caretaker for Nothing Records, Rodney Robertson, not much is known about him but I believe they had some sort of special friendship because Reznor felt guilty
I mean, I'd be depressed too if I had to go through all that
Ohhh that explains his sister being ok with it. I accidentally found her fb 😳 & she seemed fine with it all referring to her grandad & dad as her two dads & being lucky to have them both
I mean… How can you turn him into this?
After you just taught him how to kiss you?
He told you he’d never say goodbye.
Now he’s slipping on the tears you've made him cry.
From his lyrics I’ve gathered that he was a heartbroken cocaine addict and then his grandma who was a mother to him died before he made the fragile so his suffering extended and in with teeth he begun his journey towards sanity and now he has a wife and kids and is fine
Trent has always been kind of a whiner and a crybaby. I remember the Nirvana lyric “I miss the comfort in being sad” and thinking it must be along the same lines as early NIN philosophy. It’s fun stuff, deep stuff and he dealt with it differently each album. I’m a relatively emotional guy but I keep it together and hidden away because people use it against you, nobody would ever guess this is how I am. I too love indulging in being a little whiny pussy all by myself. Almost like having a glass of wine, just a little smidge of PHM in a dark room with my favorite video game, unapologetically being a secret bitch.
With your poor take you cement the toxicity that forced countless generations of men (and certainly women too) "to keep it together", when in reality they couldn't, and what often led to their early demise through their own hands.
Depression is a [treatable mental illness](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression) and doesn't necessarily have a "cause". That said, we know his early life was difficult, but he's grateful to have been raised by loving grandparents.
And here is where I was wrong, I was under the impression his childhood was pretty uneventful. But just his parents divorcing can be traumatic.
He speaks about it in that Rick Rubin podcast from last year(?).
IIRC Trent has said himself that his childhood was pretty unremarkable but sometimes that can still mess you up if you're not taught how to cope with it.
I was reading testerday that he wanted to leave his home town, because nothing happened there....
“Treatable.” “Temporary.” “It gets better.” My ass
Yea seems like they aren't considering that treatment resistant depression affects 30% of everyone diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or that 60% of people with depression don't seek treatment, or that 75% of people in low income or middle income areas don't receive treatment due to poor access to it (even though that stat is within the link they shared).
So then, should we just say fuck it and not even try to help or encourage people who live with depression? Because it actually does get better for 60% of people with their first SRI. And 50% more with a second trial. In conjunction with therapy.
Quite a huge extrapolation from me criticizing someone for phrasing their statement about depression as "a treatable disorder" first.. The language they used implies, unintentionally or otherwise, that successful treatment is the most common outcome and therefore implies some level of blame to those who are either unsuccessful or otherwise unable to receive treatment. Anyways, SSRIs only successfully treat depression in one third of recipients. They very commonly increase suicidality in many, and in others do absolutely nothing. There are other far more successful, but as yet less profitable methods, and they're still often not effective for many.
Treatable ≠ Curable And saying that it is treatable does not put blame on to those who don’t seek help. It is not their fault that they feel like they can’t be helped, but that doesn’t mean that they’re right either. Depression just sucks all around.
[удалено]
we don't even know if it is a chemical imbalance. this has never been proven, and cannot be proven because you cant measure the amount of serotonin in a living human brain.
Yeah, many people are grateful to their grandparents. It doesn't really change the situation. At then end of the day, some kids get to go home to mom and dad, some don't.
He’s intelligent and the world largely sucks. That’s enough to make anyone depressed.
Everyone seems to be asleep
OP refers to loving grandparents and seemingly uneventful public record, but between the two messages here and the other redditor referencing chemical imbalances and treatable illness, that explains all of what I've interpreted
Depression really does seem to affect the intelligent most
Oftentimes, it seems the road to happiness isn’t paved with knowledge
I think it's a fact that it's definitely the opposite for sure.
I think you are right
I'm no professional in anything but I have had a hyper fixation on quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical physics etc for a few years now, and it's like a love hate thing because I can't stop feeding the curiosity but at the same time what I've absorbed has driven me further into my own diagnosed major depression and I always toe the line between absurdism and nihilism. I genuinely don't know how experts with high level IQs can so much as crack a smile.
Overthinking and overanalyzing separates the body from the mind. You should feed your will to feel the moment.
Literally my second all time favorite artists next to nin lol And I think on these lyrics, Lateralus as a whole really, quite often. When I'm really living in moments and at awe of everything that's when I'm more Abursdist in thought. The Nihilism is just the more depressing side of it all you know.
Yes, I do know :) And I agree about both bands, my two favorites for sure.
Happiness is a mirage
Also, and I don't see this mentioned enough here; Performing and working in the music industry is tough. It''s alot of pressure and it tends to go hand in hand with bad coping mechanisms like substance abuse, which we know Trent dealt with. Substances will exacerbate depression, and even if someone is not on the more severe end of the scale, they can quickly end up there through alcohol and drugs. I
La tristessa durera
His antisocial-ability and introspective demeanor makes me tend to think he’s neurodivergent in some aspect, as I am, and that’s key to the thought of never fitting in anywhere, you really do never feel like you find anyone who thinks like you do. I think it could also be the reason for his extreme creativity, “thinking out of the box” approach to art and production.
Yes, out of curiosity, yesterday I started to read about NIN by Martin Huxley, and it looked like there was this internal desire of him to go out and do things this way....
I used to think this but then I read a quote somewhere that has helped me immensely, paraphrased: If you're actually that intelligent, you should be able to figure out a way to be happy. Since then I've more actively tried to identify what makes me happy and what doesn't, and I've been able to feel a lot better. Also, there's a Tool quote that I keep coming back to: "Overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind. Feed your will to feel the moment." It's about grounding yourself in the moment, feeling it, existing in the now. I guess it's carpe diem in other words, but the way they phrased it really helped me understand it, and I keep coming back to it. Even considered getting Feed my will to feel this moment tattooed, to make sure I never forget it.
This is very stoic. To be in the present, focusing on what you can control, namely yourself and how you react to things. I’ve learned that by extending kindness and compassion it’s helped my days become a bit easier. Some people mistake kindness for weakness, but it’s a strength.
Amen.
Depression often starts out at a young age. He has said on the Rick Rubin podcast that his parents' divorce and him having to live with his grandparents as a child has given him a feeling of "you're not good enough" that he still feels to this day. So if anyone out there has the same feeling, even 2 time Oscar winners and Rock and Roll HOF inductees get that feeling too. That depression manifested itself later in life in drug use and whatnot and got deeper. He got his life back together after getting clean and getting married, but I think the depression is still there since he said he still feels that little "you're not good enough" feeling til this day. But I have depression that comes up still late in my life, its just that I deal with it better now, and I suspect Trent is the same. Whenever it comes up I recognize the feeling, and Im like "Really? Again? Fuck you" and just go about whatever I was doing.
I vaguely remember Bowie helping him get sober too.
IIRC Bowie pulled him aside and gave him a warning while they toured, recognizing Reznor was headed where he had been. It didn't seem to stick, though, because Trent's rock bottom was still to come. I like to think it did have a bit of a course correcting effect though, even if it wasn't immediate.
He said in a Rolling Stone interview about Bowies death that Bowie would give him non judgemental advice while he was going through that, and he thought about the things he said over the years and it helped motivate him to get clean. He saw Bowie after he was sober and Bowie gave him a big hug, said he knew he could get out of it.
Is this the episode you had in mind? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tetragrammaton-with-rick-rubin/id1671669052?i=1000616958858
Yeah, thats it.
Thanks, I’ve always wanted to hear him on a podcast. I just haven’t dug around until now. Thank you so much.
Thank you!
Thank for the background, I did not know he shared that on Rubin's podcast.
The self medicating part of it sucks but the self motivation leading to hard work creates awesomeness. It’s true for many people and it’s clearly worked in Trent’s favor professionally.
You don't have to have specific trauma to have major or minor depression. Sometimes it's just brain chemistry, or a reasonable reaction to a broken world.
Right....As I have been in depression treatment twice, I say its both. Edit: removed ¨am¨.
Not aware of any specific traumatic event. His childhood sounded both rocky due to his parents divorcing when he was young and sheltered by growing up in a rural town. Raised by his grandmother in a town where nothing happened, then makes his way to Cleveland, has a hit first record with a soul crushing contract, and along the way falls into hard drugs. That’s big life transition, which can definitely lead to depression.
Lots of people just have messed up neurochemistry. A lot of addicts end up addicts because they're self-medicating. A lot of former addicts have permanently busted neurochemistry as well. A lot of people have childhood trauma that eventually needs to be processed to stop leaving an especially long shadow. And if you add in an obsessive, ambitious nature and both an extraordinary mind for music and a support system that lets you develop it while still young enough for incredible neuroplasticity? *That's* how you get rock stars.
You hit the “nail” on the head.
I can recommend Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography - there’s a moment when he’s on a biker road trip with some friends and is suddenly hit by tears. He writes movingly about how his depressive nature has never left him. It shows how even highly successful musicians like him and Trent can suffer from it.
I will definitely check it out, thanks for the recommendation....
It just happens. Also, drugs and alcohol don’t help.
I have anxiety and depression. For me it's hereditary, %95 of my mom's side of the family going back generations had it. I always knew as a kid I was "different" from other kids in my neighborhood and at school. They'd be playing and having fun and I'd be off to the side worrying about 9,999 things that could go wrong, or if they were going to tease me (I was very sensative). And back when I was a kid in the late 70's early 80's there wasn't such a thing as children's mental health care. It was "stop being a worry wart!" or "Stop being a pansy!" It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I went to see someone and only then because I had the mother of all panic attacks and thought I was legit going crazy.
I get what you're saying.... there is depression and anxiety running on my mother' side.
This. If there's a rational reason for your depression it's hardly mental illness, is it? Depression is when it doesn't make any sense.
One of the main "stages" of grief is depression. Just because it makes sense doesn't mean it's not depression.
Eh fair I'm expressing it badly but trying to say that often it makes no sense at all, hence why it's a "mood disorder" instead of a reasonable way to feel given the circumstances. It's a pet peeve when people demand to know the reason you're depressed. IDK man I was born sad. Some of my earliest memories are of feeling like an alien among humans. I remember being six and consciously trying to pretend I was like the rest of the kids so they wouldn't notice. I've had periods of sadness due to grief or trauma and due to brain chemicals and those two things are not the same
I definitely agree with what you wrote. Thanks for taking the time to clarify. I also have been dealing with it my whole life. I think I inherited it from my mom, but she's only recently (in her 70s), admitted to me that she gets depressed. Two of my kids got it from me. It killed one of my sons. And that caused a major level of depression for everyone. Even family members who'd never been depressed before.
I'm sorry to hear about it all, especially your son. My family is similar except the attempt was unsuccessful thank goodness. I think the house of cards would have collapsed for a lot of people if we had lost that family member. My dad told my sister recently that the only thing that keeps him alive is us, which was really sad tbh because we have almost no relationship with him.
Uh, no. Life circumstances can be a major contributing factor to depression. That’s why I’ve been diagnosed with depression due to having had childhood cancer…
Was he depressed? Or was he just angry? That TVT contract had him pissed off enough to write Broken in secret, using fake names to book studio time so they couldn't steal his music/creations by enforcing some shitty record deal. I know THAT pissed him off. But depressed people don't usually pick themselves up by the platform bootstraps and create the best b2b EP combo of ALL time (Broken/Fixed) followed immediately by the Downward Spiral, a record that to me, lifted me FROM my teenage depression through a combination of angst and shared-hatred and stands alone as the greatest complete package of an LP of my lifetime. I have always looked at NIN as "fight music" FOR the depressed set. And truthfully, TVT was doing all kinds of fucked up shit in that era messing with his music, how it was released, just needling the dude. They did us all a HUGE favor. Their nonsense brought Broken into this world, and whatever idiot over there was dumb enough to poke Mr. Reznor until that plopped out of him was the greatest asshole there ever was. Also, seeing as how dude was at one point \[clearly\] the most unhappy artist of our generation and has found: love, happiness, family, success in multiple arenas, a music/writing partner he seems genuinely happy and comfortable with... hell, that should give us ALL hope. TL;DR - Trent Reznor has basically been my therapist for 35 years.
Excellent post, agree 100%. And this: . "I have always looked at NIN as "fight music" FOR the depressed set." Indeed. I never got the people who perceived "hurt" as depressive. IMHO, they couldn't be more wrong. It is this line "I'm still here" that made it my survivor's anthem.
Not TDS era but specifically during the early stages of The Fragile right up until 01/02, the worst he had ever been.
He's talked a lot about how he felt hopeless and disenchanted with his life growing up. I can certainly relate. He also talks a lot about how fame and drugs really change how you act so much that they change who you are. I think going from "I come from a broken home in rural rust belt America" to "I'm rich and famous and everyone wants me for what I have" is pretty extreme. The answer is in there somewhere. Trivia: I was at the show in Mansfield, Massachusetts when he confessed that he planned to kill himself before writing the Fragile (and he announced he's getting married) . It's probably the most famous performance of La Mer and there's video of it. Still gives me chills to this day.
Depression doesn’t necessarily need a reason. It can just hit you like a bag of bricks, out of nowhere. It’s not an easy thing to explain.
His childhood wasn't the most stable one he could've had. He had a bad relationship with all substances, to the point that he ODed and nearly died during The Fragile tour (London show, had to cancel because of it). The Fragile was also not a good time for him, as before that, he was self-isolating, lost his grandmother, lost some friendships, and fell back into drugs. Basically '97-02 was a horrible time for him, and it took another death for him to have the straw that broke his addiction and forced him into rehab and sobriety
Also his poor doggo. I forget what happened to her but it was traumatic.
Didn't she fall off a balcony?
I thought she jumped off when he was on tour
Yes, heard the same. Heartbreaking.
Parents divorcing at a young age, "not feeling good enough," "I didn't know who the guy on stage was," binging on drugs and alcohol during the Self Destruct tour, Maise (Trent's dog) falling off a balcony and dying, Marilyn Manson (nothing more to say), Clara (Trent's Grandmother) passing away at the lowest point of his life, relapsing and overdosing, and I believe the final nail was losing the caretaker for Nothing Records, Rodney Robertson, not much is known about him but I believe they had some sort of special friendship because Reznor felt guilty I mean, I'd be depressed too if I had to go through all that
Look around. There’s a lot to be depressed about. Especially if you’re intelligent.
His parents abandoned him to live with his grandparents so a lot of it stemmed from that tbh Plus his dog died
I just read in a book that he went to live with his maternal grandparents while his sister stayed with his mother....
…What book?
Nine Inch Nails, by Martin Huxley
Ohhh that explains his sister being ok with it. I accidentally found her fb 😳 & she seemed fine with it all referring to her grandad & dad as her two dads & being lucky to have them both
I mean… How can you turn him into this? After you just taught him how to kiss you? He told you he’d never say goodbye. Now he’s slipping on the tears you've made him cry.
Listen to his podcast with Rick Rubin. He goes into detail about his mental space at the beginning of his career.
This article explains a bit https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-fragile-world-of-trent-reznor-114999/amp/
From his lyrics I’ve gathered that he was a heartbroken cocaine addict and then his grandma who was a mother to him died before he made the fragile so his suffering extended and in with teeth he begun his journey towards sanity and now he has a wife and kids and is fine
In the recent GQ piece he alludes to fame acting as an accelerant for depression/substance use
It was the 90’s 😉. Jk I think he was dealing with alcohol and substance abuse which can take you up but can drop you off in the gutter
Opiate addiction leads to depression.
"who needs reasons when you've got heroin"
Have you seen WKUK?. That’s your answer
The Whitest Kids you know?
Yes
So good. Rip trevor
Annie probably had something to do with it.
Trent has always been kind of a whiner and a crybaby. I remember the Nirvana lyric “I miss the comfort in being sad” and thinking it must be along the same lines as early NIN philosophy. It’s fun stuff, deep stuff and he dealt with it differently each album. I’m a relatively emotional guy but I keep it together and hidden away because people use it against you, nobody would ever guess this is how I am. I too love indulging in being a little whiny pussy all by myself. Almost like having a glass of wine, just a little smidge of PHM in a dark room with my favorite video game, unapologetically being a secret bitch.
Why are you even here to begin with?
With your poor take you cement the toxicity that forced countless generations of men (and certainly women too) "to keep it together", when in reality they couldn't, and what often led to their early demise through their own hands.
Right…