Famed musician, Machine Gun Kelly (MGK), had a ground-breaking year in 2020. In fact, sources claim it was “the year that saved his life.” The star released his best-yet album, Tickets to My Downfall, won an MTV VMA, topped numerous album charts, and began a relationship with renowned actor Megan Fox. At the end of the year, MGK also revealed more details about his past struggles with drug abuse, and shared that he recently started therapy in efforts to better himself.

This isn’t a new sentiment for MGK. In 2019, while concluding a tour in Moscow, he wrote to Twitter: “I want to become happy without the help of pills, drink, or drugs one day. I want to wake up and know what mood I’m going to be in.” Now, the star is taking the right steps to achieve that goal.

Machine Gun Kelly had his first therapy session in November 2020. He explained in a recent interview with Dave Franco, “I’m early in the process. The tools that I’ve been given to start with seem helpful, I think.” MGK went onto explain that the recovery process isn’t easy. Although he wants to change his ways, he wants it to happen fast. “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?”

Recovery is marathon, not a sprint. Of course, that is easier said than it is done. Recovery from substance addiction takes time and commitment, largely because of the physiological changes that drugs create in the brain – chemical changes that need to be re-wired, re-worked, and healed. It also takes dedication from the person to stay accountable, stay open to the process, and find (sober) ways to stay healthy and happy along the way.

Already, though, Machine Gun Kelly recognizes that the journey is worth it. While it is hard, he has already seen the effects of his therapy – and his commitment – carry through to other aspects of his life. He explains, “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.”

While Machine Gun Kelly (real name Colson Baker) sees the light at the end of the tunnel, his journey has not been easy in getting here. At a young age, Machine Gun Kelly struggled with heroin addiction and obsessive suicidal thoughts. His mental health has been a constant battle that he’s tried to, in a way, medicate on his own.

In the previously cited interview with Franco, for Interview Magazine, Machine Gun Kelly explained how he spiraled into a drug-using cycle. Simply put: He felt it was how a star achieved stardom. He thought it was part of the job.

“I watched myself believe that drugs were how you attained a level, or unlocked something in your brain… Adderall was a huge thing for me for a long time. 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. You’re telling yourself you can’t do this without that, when really it’s in you the whole time. If that pill did that for you, then everyone who’s taken that would just be making albums and writing songs. And so that limited me.”

As Machine Gun Kelly has embraced the benefits of attending therapy and living substance-free, he has also been able to embrace his prospect as an artist. “Currently, my drug of choice is happiness and commitment to the art, rather than commitment to a vice that I believed made the art.”

Sober living is a commitment. It is not just about getting sober. It is about finding the strength to live without the crutch of drugs and alcohol. It is about finding a purpose, something to live for each day. To reach a state of sober living, you must dig deep within yourself and find your truth. What got you to this point, and what do you need to change? Where do you want to go? Therapy can help with this. It can help you get to the root of your struggles, find peace, or at the least, find a desire to establish it.

Only then can you start making real changes. You can take steps to better your self-confidence and self-care. You can take steps to find people that support you, to rid toxic relationships and to establish healthy ones, with people who believe in you. Recovery is not something you should ever tackle alone.

For Machine Gun Kelly, it is his therapy, his desire for change, his hope for his daughter, and his love for Megan Fox that is pulling him through. He explains, “When you have a partner, mine being Megan, 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.”

Turnbridge is a preeminent young adult drug rehab and dual diagnosis treatment center in Connecticut. If you or a loved one is struggling with substance addiction, know that we are just one call away. Contact us at 877-581-1793 to learn about our treatment programs.