Country singer Drake White is using music as therapy as he continues to fight his way back to full health from a debilitating brain condition.
Earlier this year (19), the musician was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an abnormal tangle of arteries and veins in the brain that disrupts normal blood flow, and it led to him collapsing onstage in Virginia in August.
White has since undergone multiple rounds of treatment, including surgery, to try and cut off blood flow to the affected vessels, but progress has been slow, and at his lowest point, White feared he was going to die as he battled severe headaches and numbness.
"(It was) the worst pain I'd ever been in," White told U.S. medical show The Doctors, revealing he ended up being hospitalised once more, and was discovered to have bleeding on the brain.
Further treatment caused White to suffer temporary paralysis on the left side of his body, and although he is now having to rely on a walking aid to get around, thrice-weekly physical therapy sessions in Nashville, Tennessee have helped him regain some of his movement.
"I'm about a six out of 10," the Livin' the Dream star said of his current health status. "I'm walking on a cane, I've got movement in my left side... I'm starting to play guitar again."
The ordeal has taken its toll on White mentally, too, but he credits music with pulling him through the tough time.
"I think about me back on stage, those thoughts are what is healing me," the 36 year old shared.
"It kind of is a healing agent of its own. I just continued to push through and made sure I was writing as I was going through this process. It made me feel good and made me feel like my purpose was still there."
