Ryan Dusick

Ryan Dusick is an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, the founding drummer of the world’s most popular band, Maroon 5, a mental health advocate, and the author of "Harder to Breathe: A Memoir of Making Maroon 5, Losing It All, and Finding Recovery."

Founding the band Kara’s Flowers in 1994 with fellow Brentwood High School students Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Adam Levine, Ryan worked tirelessly through his college years at UCLA before the band changed its name to Maroon 5 and finally had its first hit record, Songs About Jane. Multiple hit songs, two Grammy Awards, and 20 million albums sold later, Ryan found himself suffering and without direction as his career as a performer came to an end, just as it was taking off.

Struggling with physical and mental health challenges, Ryan finally overcame in 2016, when he began his journey of recovery, culminating in a new life path full of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Now working as a mental health professional, Ryan is spreading the message that recovery is possible, and some astounding things can come with it.

"Harder to Breathe: A Memoir of Making Maroon 5, Losing It All, and Finding Recovery": Two decades after Songs About Jane, Maroon 5’s original drummer presents an unflinching examination of fame, anxiety, mental health, and recovery.

This inside story recounts Maroon 5’s founding and their road to becoming Grammy-winning megastars. Dusick takes readers behind the scenes of the band’s meteoric rise to success—and the grueling demands that came with it—as well as his personal struggles with anxiety and alcoholism after his departure from the band.

With a candor that will speak to anyone who has struggled with mental health, Harder to Breathe moves beyond celebrity to examine the nature of human heartbreak and resilience, and to buoy anyone currently facing similar challenges.