Presley Gerber’s modeling career began when he was signed to IMG Models at age 15, walking for Moschino at 16 and quickly securing campaigns for Calvin Klein, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana plus a 2018 Super Bowl Pepsi advertisement alongside his mother, yet he later described the experience as being thrown into the machine where within the first week people were pH๏τographing him shirtless in New York and his entire life changed inside a month, bringing rapid loss of innocence, constant travel and the pressure of living in the shadow of an iconic supermodel mother and rising-star sister Kaia.

Red flags appeared early with a 2019 DUI arrest in Beverly Hills that led to probation, followed by the large “MISUNDERSTOOD” tattoo he placed beneath his right eye in 2020, a literal public cry that drew global mockery before he eventually had it removed, and by 2023 he launched Mental Health Mondays on Instagram, posting raw videos that detailed his opioid addiction, panic attacks, depression and the cocktail of pills prescribed by more than 15 psychiatrists, including benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, Xanax and Valium, often with little structured therapy or clear direction—an experience he called scary and one in which he repeatedly said he needed some direction.

In interviews and posts he admitted surviving a near-fatal fentanyl overdose that left him in a coma for days, cycling through rehabs, and by late 2025 he had spoken of reaching months of sobriety from alcohol while still navigating fluctuating medications amid personal losses; a November 2025 Instagram message reflected on stepping back to care for his mental health before returning stronger, clearer and more intentional, emphasizing that the goal of Mental Health Mondays was to spark real conversations about the things most people hide and noting pride that the message had helped others, timed especially around Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month.

The New York Times later reported that beginning in early 2023 he shared more than two dozen short first-person testimonials functioning as an intimate diary of his drug history, from early Prozac and Xanax through ketamine, kratom and the search for answers, while a December 2025 video discussed his current medications for panic attacks and the honesty-is-the-best-policy approach that defined his later years. Sources told outlets he had seemed off in the weeks before death and was struggling with the full gamut of issues, yet he continued posting and trying, once stating that whether he helped one person or a hundred get out of that place was all he needed to do, turning his very public accountability into both a personal record and a broader commentary on a system quick to prescribe and slow to provide lasting structure.