Noah Kahan Challenges Men's Mental Health Stigmas, Revealing His Battle With Body Dysmorphia in New Netflix Doc
As evidenced in his new Netflix documentary, Noah Kahan: Out of Body, Noah Kahan is one of the most emotionally resonant voices in the modern indie-folk scene, known for turning deeply personal struggles into music that feels both intimate and universally relatable. Through valiant vulnerability, he has become both an accredited artist and an advocate, challenging long-standing stigmas around men's mental health, even when it's challenging for himself.
Rising from a quiet corner of Vermont with a sound rooted in deep-seated storytelling and emotionally layered lyricism, Kahan has built a following through songs that explore hometown nostalgia, evolving identity, and the nuances of navigating mental health.
His lyrics don't just describe his own life experiences; they contextualize them, offering listeners language for feelings they may not yet understand themselves. And that emotional clarity has made many fans feel seen for the first time.
In his debut documentary, Kahan speaks candidly about his battle with body dysmorphia, disordered eating, and depression-leveraging his platform to normalize what too many men have been socialized to silence. He reveals the raw reality of looking in the mirror and seeing someone no one else sees.
"I've always just really hated the way I looked," he admits in the documentary. "It hasn't been something I've really spoken about much [but] it's something I've struggled with my whole life... When I look in the mirror, I feel like I don't see what my body actually looks like."
He gets candid about his 15-year journey with the cycle of stress-induced binge-eating, self-hate, and self-inflicted starvation, adding that it's been difficult to talk about. Instead, he has long joked about it all because other people in both his private life and the public sphere have made comments, often in jest, about his hygiene and appearance, even calling him "ugly." But playing along is a common masking mechanism for people who are secretly struggling.
"Sometimes I don't want to be the joke," he tearily says. "And I have done myself a disservice by not opening up about it."
Now, Kahan is changing the narrative.
Noah Kahan's story strikes a chord with all too many men
Kahan doesn't just sing about his struggles. He has raised millions in support of those who are, too, dealing with depression.
In 2023, Kahan founded the Busyhead Project, a non-profit mental health organization named after his 2019 debut album that seeks to "end the stigma around mental health and improve access to resources." Since its onset, the Busyhead Project has raised over $6.6 million to support 170 community-based organizations worldwide.
"I've been given so many wonderful opportunities in my career, and it really is all for nothing if I don't try and give back to the community that has supported me," he has said of his initiative. "If I can help anyone get through their struggles, it will be the proudest achievement of my career."
There are certainly plenty of people to help-particularly men who, like Kahan, have too long suffered in silence. Nearly one in 10 men experiences depression or anxiety, but less than half of them receive the help they need to navigate it, according to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA). That leaves men almost four times more likely than women to die by suicide, which claims more than 727,000 lives each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the U.S., in particular, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death overall and the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), which reports that 49,300 Americans succumbed to suicidal thoughts in 2023. That's one death every 11 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC). White males alone accounted for 68.13 percent of them, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
A significant source of the depression that too often leads to death? Eating disorders.
The ADAA reports that about 10 percent of patients with anorexia or bulimia are men, but they are less likely to seek professional help for eating disorders due to a complex combination of cultural pressures, social stigmas, and societal expectations.
Related: Noah Kahan Announces Brand New Album, 'The Great Divide'
The singer-songwriter's Netflix launch is a leap in the right direction
Kahan's new Netflix documentary sheds a brighter light on his work as both an artist and an advocate. It also humanizes him.
Viewers finally see Kahan-not only an indie-folk phenomenon who plays sold-out shows at stadiums full of fans who know (and sob to) every word. The singer-songwriter who has built a career on helping others feel seen finally gets to feel seen himself.
He is seen as a son of split-up parents with whom he has deeply loving yet relatably multifaceted relationships. A brother to three siblings-successful in their own paths. A lifelong friend to the people he grew up alongside. A fiancé to the woman he had known for a decade before dating. And a human being who shares the same struggles with self-image as all too many of us.
"A lot of days, I wondered if I'd ever like the way I looked," he admits in the documentary. "I think people think that, because I'm able to describe something painful, that I'm able to get through something painful. They hear something real, and they think that, because you know how to say what's real, you know how to solve that pain. And I don't. I never have. I can't solve it myself. I can't imagine trying to solve it for the hundreds of thousands of people who listen to my music or go to my shows."
While Kahan may not be single-handedly solving the world's problems (because, who can?), he is indeed making an immense impact by giving people the safe space and confidence to communicate about their own mental health issues.
"I think with body dysmorphia… or whatever I have, I'm not curing it, but I'm definitely walking near it and poking it with a stick and saying, 'What are you?' and telling it to come out of the dark and show itself," he says while looking in the mirror. "Feels nice. It feels like progress, which is cool."
That progress-made public-is paving a path for men everywhere to walk alongside him.
"There is no happy ending ... or one event in your life that fixes everything," he says he has learned throughout his rise to stardom. "It's waking up every day and trying."
It's clear that Kahan's life-changing lyrics, powerful advocacy, and profound honesty have his fans feeling inspired to wake up each day and try, too.
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This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 11:53 AM.