On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin reached the pinnacle of success. He became the second human to set foot on the moon.
Soon after this stellar Apollo 11 mission, his 21-year-old marriage disintegrated and he reached a state of depression that led to alcoholism. A short time later, he remarried and that marriage soon ended in divorce. Eventually, he escaped his alcoholism and rebuilt his life, leaving us with the question, “Why would someone who had achieved the ultimate success suffer depression?”
The deep human emotion that enabled Aldrin to strive to graduate third in his class at West Point, to win two Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals for his air combat in Korea and to obtain a Ph.D. at MIT also enabled him to experience the depths of despair. The only people who never experience depression are those who rarely experience joy. The human brain is not constructed to experience unending joy. An intense release of endorphins through orgasm or high achievement is often followed by a period of melancholy as the brain attempts to return to an equilibrium–a state of homeostasis. We might think of it as the hangover that follows a night of reckless abandon.
In his autobiographies Return to Earth,(1973) and Magnificent Desolation (2009), Dr. Aldrin recounted his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism. Fortunately, he was able to summon the strength to overcome his alcoholism and took his last drink in October 1978.
In the years that followed, Buzz Aldrin received numerous honours and rewards, and his name will always be associated with the courage and intelligence that propelled him to the moon.
