David Nail Addresses Ongoing Depression Battle
David Nail opened up about his continuing struggles with depression in a social media post on Thursday (April 20).
"Depression is always in the back of my mind. It doesn't hang around for months at a time like it used to, but it still pops up now and then," he tweeted. "It doesn't matter how good your life is going, or what a wonderful family you have. Someone can hand you a million dollars, and it will smother any joy you feel right into the ground. The more you try and 'look at the bright side,' the worse it makes you feel."
Nail first revealed his depression publicly in 2014, admitting that he had struggled with it for most of a decade. It came to a head after he scored a No. 1 hit in 2012 with "Let It Rain."
"I had all these good things going on, and I just wasn’t happy," he shares, recalling a conversation with Chris Young at the American Country Music Awards.
“I remember walking away and being so blessed to have been at this party and so many nice things that were said,” he says. “I should be on top of the world, but I just couldn’t physically get there or mentally get there.”
He sought professional help and began to take "a lot of expensive medicines," and with help from his wife Catherine, he began to slowly beat back his depression, though he says that like an addict, "I know I'll deal with this the rest of my life."
"I know now, that with medicine, and therapy, I'll eventually wake up one day soon without the weight of it wearing me down. But when you're in the middle of the storm, it can make you feel as bad as you've ever felt," he writes. "There are far more good days than bad, but when the bad ones do come, they can paralyze."
Nail ends by encouraging others dealing with depression investigate a range of options, saying that while there is no cure, their "quality of life will greatly increase."
After his longstanding relationship with MCA Nashville ended in February 2017, Nail has recently been in the studio working on new music, which he is enthusiastic about.
"It’s truly amazing how you think you’ve written all there is to say about something, and 4/5 years later, it falls out in about 15 minutes!" Nail shared on Wednesday night (April 19). The next morning he added, "Didn’t think it got more raw and real than with 'Fighter,' and 'I Won’t Let You Go.' I may have just dove into deeper water!"
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