About the Madness

A message from founder Michael Villani

 August 23, 2023. A very dark day in my life and at a point where I absolutely could never fathom happening.

Some hard times in my personal life lead me losing my mind, my place in this world and I attempted to end my life. Through a matter of fortunate circumstances, a stranger saw me standing on the handrail of a bridge in an area I thought was secluded. She alerted the police and my family had put out a missing persons report on me. 12 cops, 2 fire trucks and 2 ambulances had me cornered as I tried to get away. I am forever grateful to that stranger that cared enough to realize I needed help. 

I have since rebuilt myself to be a better person, more forgiving, more grateful to myself and to the amazing people I have in my life. Mostly, my two boys. What I didn't realize before my day of madness was that I needed help to understand who I was and what the things I was going through were doing to my mind. I didn't have the confidence to reach out to anyone I knew to help me because I felt like I would be a burden on them, so I kept it to myself. It was a stranger that saved me. My therapist who was a stranger, helped rebuild me. I know I was loved by my friends and family but it sometimes feels hard to turn to those you know for help out of fear of judgment or being told you're attention seeking. 

Born Madness started with an idea while I was locked in a psych ward for a week. I had a lot of time to sit and think about what the next steps were because no one plans for the aftermath and fallout of attempting suicide. I had to find a way to give back to the stranger who helped me that day. This brand is dedicated to helping the stranger who struggling with their mental health through raising money through sales of apparel.

Born Madness is about finding your purpose, your creative outlet, doing the crazy shit no one understands. We all have a madness inside of us and if we ignore it, we ignore who we know we can be. At times we don't appreciate ourselves enough because life gets overwhelming. What we all need, is to explore our true self and to remember that life can be cut off in an instant. So why not do some shit that makes you happy?

No one wants to die. Everyone just needs someone to see them, to feel them, and let them cry.