Ryan Dusick is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, the founding
drummer of the world’s most popular band Maroon 5, a mental health
advocate, and an author. His life has been a long and winding road from
aspiring pop star with anxiety, to heartbroken alcoholic, to thriving mental
health survivor, and messenger of hope in recovery.
Ryan grew up right in the middle of Los Angeles, California, at the
intersection of Hollywood and real life, and his journey of inspiration,
devastation, and redemption has been a series of crossroads. As a boy, he
dreamt of pitching for the Dodgers and writing novels, but arm injuries
sidelined his burgeoning baseball career just as rock music became his new
passion and purpose. Founding the group Kara’s Flowers in 1994 with fel-
low Brentwood High School students Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, and
Mickey Madden, Ryan and his bandmates worked tirelessly for a decade
before the group changed its name to Maroon 5 and finally had its first hit
album Songs About Jane. Multiple hit songs, two Grammy Awards, and 20
million albums sold later, Ryan found himself suffering and without direc-
tion when his career as a performer came to an end just as it was taking off.
After years of struggling with physical and mental health challenges,
Ryan finally overcame in 2016, when he began his journey of recovery, cul-
minating in a new life path full of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. While
earning his master’s degree in clinical psychology at Pepperdine Universi-
ty’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology, he decided it was time
to write his story, in hopes of helping others who might see themselves in
his personal struggles. Now working as a mental health professional at the
Missing Peace Center for Anxiety in Agoura Hills, California, and beginning
his new journey as an author and advocate, Ryan is spreading the message
that recovery is possible, and some astounding things can come with it.