Content warning: This article contains references to suicide
Elon Musk tweeted late Wednesday night that he’s never gone to therapy, a fact that he wants to be immortalized on his gravestone. And whatever you think of the billionaire’s attitude to mental health treatment, Musk’s tweet would seem pretty unremarkable in isolation. However, Musk keeps tweeting about this for some reason, including three times in the past two months alone.
- “Put ‘Never Went to Therapy’ on my gravestone,” Musk tweeted on February 28.
- “He’s dead right. Please put ‘Never went to therapy’ on my gravestone,” Musk tweeted on January 29 in response to a video of film director Wernher Herzog.
- “Please put ‘Never Went to Therapy’ and ‘Invented Car Fart’ on my gravestone. Those are my only requests,” Musk tweeted on January 8, adding an extra element for his hypothetical tombstone.
But those are just the most recent times Musk has tweeted about therapy. Another instance of Musk using the same language happened in July 2023, when the Tesla CEO was responding to a far-right influencer on X who suggested white liberals have more mental illness than the general population.
“Why is mental illness so prominent amongst Liberal Whites?” the account, which goes by the name The Rabbit Hole, tweeted.
“’Never went to therapy’ Please put that on my gravestone,” Musk responded.
Obviously the choice to go to therapy is a personal one and Musk is free to decide if he’d find that kind of thing helpful. But if he’s truly “never” gone to therapy it does seem a little odd that he’d think he can make an effective judgement about whether it would work for him. After all, the billionaire microdoses ketamine for depression, according to a Wall Street Journal report from last year. Typically, any drug interventions for mental health issues require treatment from a professional.
Musk has made repeated suggestions that he’s often struggled with mental health issues, including on the Lex Fridman podcast when he referred to his mind as a “storm” last year.
“My mind is a storm. I don’t think most people would want to be me. They may think they’d want to be me but they don’t know, they don’t understand,” Musk told Fridman.
Musk was asked about that comment—that his mind is a storm—in an interview with the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin on November 30, 2023 at the DealBook Summit in New York. Sorkin tried to probe deeper into the issues that may be troubling Musk and after an achingly long 12-second silence in front of a live audience, Musk said completely unprompted that it felt like he was in a therapist’s office.
“I wish we were like on a psychiatrist couch or something. You know, I think to some degree I was born this way, but, and then it was amplified by a difficult childhood frankly. But I can remember even in happy moments when I was a kid that there’s just, it just feels like there’s just a… a rage of forces in my mind constantly,” Musk explained.
Musk said that sometimes this disturbance in his mind would make him productive. But after listing successes, Musk seemed to get troubled and introspective again.
“So these demons of the mind, you know, are for the most part, harnessed to productive ends. But that doesn’t mean that once in a while they don’t, you know… go wrong,” Musk said.
Musk also brought up the topic of suicidal ideation at a young age.
“I mean, I did have this existential crisis when I was around twelve about what’s the meaning of life? Isn’t it all pointless? Why not just commit suicide? Why exist?” Musk recalled.
That interview is probably best remembered for Musk’s defiant attitude in the face of advertiser backlash over comments that were widely seen as anti-Semitic. But these comments are worth revisiting as the billionaire keeps repeating that he doesn’t need therapy.
Again, Musk can hold whatever opinions he likes about the mental health profession and is free to choose whatever path he wants to make in life. He is, after all, the wealthiest man in the world who is doing just fine in a material sense. But given the frequency Musk tweets about how he’s never been to therapy, it’s clearly a topic that’s on his mind, and some people do find it useful to just have someone to talk with.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. In an emergency, call 000. If you are concerned about your health, speak to your GP who will be able to advise a correct treatment plan.