Rapper Gucci Mane Opens Up About Schizophrenia, Bipolar Diagnosis

Gucci Mane is detailing his mental health journey.

After the rapper revealed in his Oct. 14 book Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man that he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, he reflected on a 2020 mental health episode that prompted him to seek help.

“After that, I was like, ‘Man, I got to really just hold myself accountable and take care of my health,’” Gucci Mane, 45, said on the Oct. 20 episode of The Breakfast Club. “I don’t never want to have an episode again. I’m gonna see a therapist, [even] if I have to take medicine.”

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He added, “I kinda threw the towel in. [Whatever] I need to do to get better. I just didn’t ever want to have that happen again.”

Indeed, the “Wake Up in the Sky” artist (real name Radric Davis) was hospitalized after his wife Keyshia Ka’Oir—with whom he shares son Ice Davis, 4, and daughter Iceland Ka’oir Davis, 2—stepped in amid her husband’s mental health struggles.
“I called his attorney, I called some bodyguards and I planned a whole kidnap and we kidnapped him and took him to the hospital,” she shared on the radio show. “He was trying to fight them and everything, but it was six of them and he couldn’t handle it. We threw him in the car and he would try to jump out of the car so we put him in the center of the car.”

Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that impacts people’s interpretations of reality and can include hallucinations involving hearing voices and seeing illusions, according to the Mayo Clinic, which Gucci Mane described as part of his experience.

After Keyshia’s intervention, the 40-year-old—who tied the knot with Gucci Mane in 2017—began implementing a “system” where she can “catch” when the rapper is about to have an episode and help prevent it from developing. As she noted, the 2020 episode was “his last.”

Plus, Gucci Mane explained that his son was part of his inspiration to get the help he needed.

“My wife was pregnant with my little boy,” he shared. “I don’t want to raise a family and then my mental health [is] gone. What if I have an episode I can’t come back from? So, I just started doing the work and started seeking help.”