Why Buzz Aldrin Got Depressed Within a Year of Moon Landing

He spiraled into alcoholism as well.

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

On July 20, 1969 — only 19 minutes after the Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong — Buzz Aldrin put his feet on the Moon’s surface to become the second human to walk on the Moon.

Being overwhelmed by the experience, he described it as ‘magnificent desolation.’ (Later, in May 2009, he published his autobiography of the same name.)

After returning to Earth on July 24, 1969, Aldrin became a bona fide American hero. He had a rockstar-style world tour with two other astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. He traveled the world and had dinners with the world’s most influential leaders.

He became a Nasa PR spokesman. Lots of appreciation, invitations, interviews, and talks made Aldrin overwhelmed. However, it was not what he wanted.

In his own words, — “When we got back from the Moon, none of us was prepared for the adulation that followed. We were engineers, scientists, fighter pilots being feted like movie stars, and it was all too much for most of us — certainly for me.”