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Passion Pit Frontman Opens Up About Mental Health & Online Bullying

Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos Comes Out
Photography: Hassan Rahim

"We are not snowflakes. I am a really strong person. It took me awhile to realize this, but I am."

In a new Facebook post, Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos opened up about his bipolar disorder, dissasociative psychosis and the pain he's felt reading hate comments online that brought him back to the days of being bullied as a child.

Related | Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos Comes Out

In his essay, he recalls performing at the Brooklyn Vegan/Paste showcase in 2009 and having a psychotic break onstage:

"It was beyond a cry for help--that cry had been ignored, had been dismissed, had been mistaken for the antics of a 'snowflake,'" he writes. "And in this immensely defiant, beautiful way, I made it work," he continues. "I ended up going to a hospital. My suicidality had reached such oversaturating, overwhleming shriek, and no one could understand it, so it was time to go away for a minute. That was later diagnosed as disassociative psychosis."

Angelakos ultimately offers some sage wisdom condemning the hateful culture online anonymity has granted the fan and celebrity world. "That is what trauma renders, and that is, in effect, in many ways, what trauma is," he writes. "And most artists go through this every day. And most artists think this is the price. And most audiences believe the same thing. But we are not snowflakes. I am a really strong person. It took me awhile to realize this, but I am."

Read Angelakos' full post, below:

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