Blue Mountains-bred rapper Tuka is the latest Australian musician to go public about his struggles with depression. Taking to Facebook over the weekend, the emcee, whose real name is Brendan Tuckerman, shared an extensive missive detailing his battle against the mental illness.
“I don’t share it that often, but depression has played a huge part of my adult life,” he wrote. “I’ve been living with it for years and years. It’s one of those things that linger around and thankfully I’ve become very aware of it and over time I’ve learnt to catch myself from falling too hard when it starts to take control.”
Tuckerman goes on to write that he was partly inspired to share his story after seeing the highly idealised excerpts shared by Instagram and social media celebrities, saying he doesn’t want to “lean on social media to show how good my life is all the time”.
“So sometimes I feel it’s important to share the painful stuff as well as the achievements,” the Thundamentals member continued. “To put things in balance. It’s all about perspective and about accepting yourself for who you really are.”
The emcee reminded fans that those we think have perfect lives because of their carefully curated social media accounts “are just as insecure as everyone else if not more so”, admitting that he too “felt pressure to only share the wins I’ve had online”.
“I’m still untangling the years of conditioning society has put inside my brain,” he wrote. “Everyday I’m still learning that failing is fine as long as you learn from it. Life doesn’t get easier in that regard, you just get better at it.”
“That being said I think it’s unhealthy to use social media as a straight up therapist. If you are going through heavy shit and you need to talk to someone you should look to the real world not the internet.”
“If you find yourself lashing out online about your life it could be a sign that you need to connect with your loved ones or seek a professional’s help. There is nothing to be ashamed of when asking for help.”
Tuckerman goes on to detail the pressures and anxieties he’s faced as a contemporary artist, in particular in the lead up to his latest tour, during which he played some of the biggest venues of his career to date.
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The post has since amassed almost two thousand likes and yielded hundreds of sympathetic comments from fans, prompting Tuckerman to issue a response writing that he’s been “blown away by the amount of people that connected with yesterday’s rant”.
“It’s actually so beautiful how open people become once you allow the topic to be spoken about. For anyone concerned about me, please don’t be. I was more sharing my experiences with you so I could relate to you, not to vent.”
“The subject had been on my mind lately and I thought some of you may find it interesting I guess… I’ve been getting a ton of messages that I’m gonna try get back when I get a minute. But basically I just want to say I think you guys a fkn rad.”
