MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH DR. MARC BRACKETT WELCOMES DUFF MCKAGAN
15th May 2024For Mental Health Awareness Month, Musician, Author, Composer (Guns n’ Roses, Velvet Revolver) and mental health advocate Duff McKagan join Dr. Marc Brackett on a new episode of “Dealing With Feelings”. The pair discuss Duff’s childhood, sobriety, martial arts, Duff’s mission to inspire others.
Duff recalls how training in martial arts was a catalyst in helping him maintain his sobriety and change his outlook on mental health and personal growth. Marc and Duff use their shared experiences with martial arts to discuss emotion regulation techniques they’ve learned throughout their lives.
Duff takes Marc through his mental health journey and details how alcohol and drugs were used as self-medication for his panic attacks, and since becoming sober, how he deals with that. He talks with Marc about his childhood, and the ‘emotional climate’ of his household while he was growing up.
Duff says, “My childhood, there was chaos, big family, the last of eight kids, and my parents went through an awful divorce. Infidelity, and I saw it, coming home from second grade and seeing the infidelity on the bed, and your mom’s at work and your dad’s retired? To have to keep that secret because I didn’t want to destroy my mom. These types of things really influenced me. You can say ‘Keeping stuff in? That’s probably why you got panic attacks later on.’ Maybe, who knows? But I can say all these things, gnarly stuff like I just told you, and there was plenty of it. But, didn’t we all go through it, some version of it?”
Duff also details about not having much of an opportunity to talk about his feelings with anyone while growing up, but finding the bass changed that.
DUFF: “If you hear Slash play a guitar solo. Every night it’s a different thing. He’s a guy who doesn’t talk a lot, and never has, I’ve known him for 40 years. But, man, when he plays there it is. He’s talking to you, he’s talking to everybody.”
As a husband, parent, and artist, Duff speaks about his emotions and the emotions of his loved ones within the context of his family. When speaking about what it’s like in a band Duff says, “Being in a band is like being in a big family… Once you realize everyone wants the best out of a song, nobody’s trying to hammer down on your part like ‘That sucks. You suck, What’re you even doing?’ Nobody means anything like that. We want the best song we could have. On stage, nobody’s trying to upstage somebody else. Once you realize these things about your bandmates, hopefully, you can get your band to that place.”
Upcoming guests on “Dealing With Feelings” include star of AMC’s The Walking Dead and musician Emily Kinney, EPIC leadership founder Rich Hua, former Navy SEALs Rich Diviney and Cory Zillig, Dr. Jenny Wang, and more.
This episode comes during Mental Health Awareness Month. “Dealing With Feelings,” hosted by Dr Marc Brackett, premiered in February and has welcomed groundbreaking science experts, musicians, actors, and others sharing their expertise and mental health journeys including Singer/Songwriter Jewel, Author, Angela Duckworth, Dr. Ethan Kross and Dr. Alfie Breland-Noble among many others.
The webcast offers viewers practical ways to improve their emotional lives with proven emotion regulation strategies to achieve greater well-being. Marc and his guests exchange personal stories of triumph, failure, and everything in between while tapping into cutting-edge research to create better tools for success.
Dr. Marc Brackett
ABOUT Dr. Marc Brackett
Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is one of the most sought-after experts in the field of emotional intelligence. He is the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, a professor in Yale’s Child Study Center, and lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by 5,000 schools across the globe reaching hundreds of thousands of adults and millions of children. Marc also is the author of the bestselling book Permission to Feel (Celadon/Macmillan 2019), which has been translated into 25 languages. He is an in-demand speaker traveling around the globe to bring his expertise to educators, businesses, schools, political officials, royalty, and other influential people. Marc is frequently featured in the media including guest appearances on Unlocking Us with Brené Brown, PBS, Good Morning America, and The Today Show as well as being quoted in print media including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, The Seattle Times, and The Los Angeles Times, among many other outlets. Marc sits on the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council, founded by Selena Gomez, and on the program board for Kenneth Cole’s Mental Health Coalition. In the last year, Marc has been a lead speaker at Samsung, Apple Headquarters, Prince William’s and Princess Katherine’s World Mental Health Day Forum, and Richard Branson’s Necker Island, to name a few.
REVIEWS OF PERMISSION TO FEEL
“More than any other book on human feelings, Permission To Feel integrates psychological research, educational practice, and compelling stories, including Marc Brackett’s own life experiences, to make emotional intelligence come alive. This is one book that leaders, educators, parents, students, and researchers will all find valuable… and fun to read.”
Peter Salovey President of Yale University and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology
“I love this book! Marc Brackett has inspired me to be more open; taught me how to become an emotion scientist; and given me the tools to heal wounds in my own life. Permission To Feel is raw, insightful, accessible, and in the end, empowering.
Timothy Shriver Chairman, Special Olympics
“We often create a false dichotomy between thinking and feeling. In this dichotomy, thinking is important, strong, and adaptive, but feeling is not. Marc Brackett shows us how emotions―and our ability to feel, understand, and use them ― are key to fulfilling our potential.”
Carol Dweck Author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
“A compelling and complete journey that delivers on its promise of giving us permission to feel. Marc Brackett shows us that emotional intelligence is not a gift but a skill ― one that we can all learn, and benefit from immensely.”
Angela Duckworth Author of Grit, CEO, Character Lab, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania
