Gucci Mane Opens Up About Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia Diagnoses

Gucci Mane is getting real about mental health issues. The Atlanta trap icon has spoken openly about his struggles, and in an interview with ABC’s Nightline, Guwop opens up about being diagnosed with bipolar and battling with schizophrenia. In October 2025, the “Lemonade” rapper published a book called Episodes, which dove into his history and let fans into what it’s like living with his diagnoses. 

“I wanted to help people,” Gucci explained during the interview. “I [needed] to write a book to kind of be like a handbook or a manual for artists that are going through something — to let them know, ‘Hey, I’ve been through this. If I can do it, you can do it. And this is what I did to get past it.’”

Gucci, born Radric Davis, was beset with legal issues early in his career and became known for erratic behavior and controversial incidents. He now says that most of his most notorious moments were the result of his struggles with what he now refers to as “episodes.”

“The episode is brief, days – or up to a week to a month – of you not really thinking rational,” Gucci shared. “Hearing voices, not being myself and at the same time doing things that are super irresponsible. It’s a total loss of control. It starts just building like a snowball.”

In 2011, Gucci was arrested on battery charges for allegedly pushing a woman out of his moving vehicle. He was arrested multiple times for aggravated assault and possession of a concealed weapon and marijuana. In 2014, he was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm. He served less than two years and was released in 2016. One of his more infamous moments happened in September 2013, an incident at Atlanta’s Lenox Square Mall where the rapper got into a public, heated confrontation with a mall patron that went viral. 

“I never had got treatment or help,” he now says. “So I was just doing a whole bunch of irresponsible things. The Lenox Mall episode, when I was about to get to fighting in the mall, that was part of three-week, maybe four-week spiral of things getting from bad to worse.”

Gucci credits treatment, as well as his wife, Keyshia Ka’oir, for helping him pull out of the spiral – a downturn that also included him abusing pills and lean.

“I struggled with mental health challenges and I struggled with addiction problems, too. And both sides can derail you,” he admits. “Usually, I’d have an episode and by the end of it, I’d be in jail. I’ve been to jail maybe twenty times.”

You can watch the first part of Gucci’s interview below. 

Subscribe to Okayplayer newsletters and get more music and culture news delivered directly to your inbox. Join here.