Jeff Tweedy: a generalized history in panic disorder, vomiting and black tongue as well as a novel way to get repeated ad nauseum

How bad have things been? "I've had about the worst time in my life," Jeff Tweedy says, with a laugh that's halfway between relief at being better and a shudder. "I've struggled with migraines and severe depression and panic disorder for a long time.

"I had time in February to get myself healthier, because I was taking painkillers and I didn't want to go into this year, with the record coming out and touring, dependent on chemicals. I was taking gentian violet; it's a drug they give you to calm a nervous bowel but it turns your excrement purple."

-- The Independent

Like all productively tortured artists, Jeff Tweedy knows how to make a virtue of his misery. Since forming the band Wilco a decade ago, Tweedy has battled depression, panic disorder, painkiller addiction, and migraines so intense that he has interrupted live performances to go backstage and throw up. Last February, while the band was finishing its seventh album, A Ghost Is Born, Tweedy quit taking his migraine medication and went into an emotional free fall. "It was terrifying," he says. "I was having such severe panic I couldn't think. It was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. The doctors then put me on gentian violet to calm me down but it turns your excrement purple."

-- TIME

Shortly after finishing the album, Tweedy entered rehab to deal with an addiction to painkillers, prescribed to treat migraine headaches aggravated by panic disorder. His is the sort of physical and mental discomfort that makes a person want to hack things to bits or jump out a window or head for the hills, or possibly all three all at once.
A press agent who asked for anonymity said Tweedy was put on bismuth sulfate to quiet the nerves but is now off it because of unusual side effects, like the turning of the tongue a black color.

Boston Globe, Joan Anderman

... Jeff Tweedy and I spoke for the second time at the end of April ... "I have depression, generalized anxiety and severe panic disorder."

The unusually confabulated Tweedy said doctors had prescribed Miltown for him the week before this interview but that he had discontinued taking it when he read that it was a drug prescribed to overly anxious and agitated women in the Seventies.

-- Chicago Sun Times

Results 41 - 50 of about 66 for Jeff-Tweedy AND panic-disorder. (0.17 seconds)

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Macon Telegraph, GA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... over-reliance on Miltown.

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Centre Daily Times, PA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... episode of incontinence while in the recording studio.

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... unexpected trip to the emergency room to remove a toothbrush lodged precariously in his oropharynx.

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
philly.com (subscription), PA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... unfortunate case of hiccups which lasted for ten days.

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Aberdeen American News, SD - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... embarrassment of repetitive riches in terms of press exposure.

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Duluth News Tribune, MN - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ... irritation of [fill in the blank].

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, PA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ...

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
WJXX, FL - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ...

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
North County Times, CA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ...

Wilco Gets Weird Again With New Album
Monterey County Herald, CA - Jun 21, 2004
... of collaboration and investment from everybody involved," said Jeff Tweedy, the chief ... Tweedy had frequent migraines from a panic disorder, which led to an ...

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