Elon Musk's chaotic Twitter acquisition had a serious impact on his mental health as he once locked himself in his office amid growing concerns that his reputation was becoming tarnished while running the micro-blogging site, the 'Breaking Twitter' author Ban Mezrich said. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box, Mr Mezrich claimed that the billionaire is a much different person that who he was prior to purchasing the impactful social media platform in 2022. "Twitter broke Elon Musk," the writer claimed.
"He got to a point where he locked himself in his office, was so upset that the Twitter employees were considering calling in a wellness check by the San Francisco police because they thought he was going to self-harm," Mr Mezrich told the outlet. "I think he truly cares about his reputation, and he was shocked," he added.
Further, Mr Mezrich cited several incidents that led to a "spiral" for Mr Musk, including getting booed at a Dave Chappelle comedy show and his son's car being attacked. According to PageSix, the billionaire was booed at Mr Chappelle's show last year. The comedian told Mr Musk at the time, "You weren't expecting this, were ya?" before joking, "It sounds like some of them people you fired are in the audience".
Mr Musk later took to X (formerly Twitter) to say, "Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods), but, still, that's a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life. It's almost as if I've offended SF's unhinged leftists ... but nahhh."
Mr Mezrich claimed on CNBC that Mr Musk was "shocked" by the audience's reaction. "This never happened to Elon before, and the spiral started," he said.
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The 'Breaking Twitter' author also claimed that the tech mogul was also affected by his son's car being attacked by a "crazy stalker" the same month as the comedy show.
"The Elon before Twitter and the Elon after Twitter are two different Elons," Mr Mezrich said, adding, "Elon didn't just break Twitter, Twitter broke Elon Musk".
Meanwhile, last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Musk allegedly microdoses ketamine to treat depression. According to the Post, in 2017, Mr Musk also opened up about his mental health and said that he may also suffer from bipolar disorder. "The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don't think people want to hear about the last two," he tweeted at the time.
