Machine Gun Kelly has started therapy
The 30-year-old musician-and-actor - whose real name is Colson Baker - has been "taking steps" to stop taking drugs and look after himself more, though he's frustrated change doesn't happen overnight
2 December 2020
He said: "Currently, my drug of choice is happiness and commitment to the art, rather than commitment to a vice that I believed made the art. I’m taking steps. I had my first therapy session last Thursday. That’s the first time I ever went, 'Hey, I need to separate these two people,' which is Machine Gun Kelly and Colson Baker. The dichotomy is too intense for me.
"I’m early in the process. The tools that I’ve been given to start with seem helpful, I think. I’m still kind of ripping my hair out. Why am I not changing overnight? How am I supposed to meditate for 10 minutes when I can’t even sit in my own brain for two minutes without distracting myself by doing something? That’s really hard.
"But the commitment to change is inspiring, and I think will reverberate through the universe and definitely through my family. I can see it already with the people around me. The willingness to finally be happy with my own self has invited a much more vibrant energy around us than before."
The 'Midnight in the Switchgrass' actor is thankful for the support of his partner Megan Fox and close friend Travis Barker.
Asked if he has a mentor during a conversation with his friend Dave Franco for Interview magazine, he said: "Travis Barker has been huge in the process of grounding me, because he’s lived it. It’s much different than a priest or something, where I’m like, 'How can you relate to me? It’s easy for you to tell me I can get through it when you’ve never faced these obstacles.' Whereas with Travis it’s like, 'I know for a fact that you went through what I’m going through.'
"And then obviously, when you have a partner sitting there with you on those dark nights when you’re sweating and not being able to figure out why you’re so in your head, to help you get out of your head and put it in perspective, that really, really helps."
MGK admitted he reached a point with his drug abuse where he was "scared" to go into the recording studio without substances to rely on.
He said: "I think I watched myself believe that drugs were how you attained a level, or unlocked something in your brain, and I’ve seen the pros and cons of it. Adderall was a huge thing for me for a long time.
"And I went from orally taking it to then snorting it, and then it became something where I was scared to ever go into a studio if I didn’t have something.
" I wouldn’t even step out unless there was a medicine man who was going to visit me and give me what I needed. And that’s where it becomes a problem."
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