Joe Trohman Says He Will Temporarily Step Away from Fall Out Boy to Focus on His Mental Health

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Joe Trohman is prioritizing his mental health.

On Wednesday, the Fall Out Boy co-founder and guitarist told fans he would be taking a break from the group.

"Neil Young once howled that it's better to burn out than to fade away," Trohman began in a statement shared on the group's official Twitter page. "But I can tell you unequivocally that burning out is dreadful."

He added, "Without divulging all the details, I must disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years. So, to avoid fading away and never returning, I will be taking a break from work which regrettably includes stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell."

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Hours before his message, Fall Out Boy announced that they would be releasing a new album, So Much (For) Stardust, under Fueled by Ramen, a subsidiary of Elektra Music Group. The March 24 release marks the band's first studio album since 2018.

Referencing the highly-anticipated project, Trohman said in Wednesday's statement, "It pains me to make this decision, especially when we are releasing a new album that fills me with great pride (the sin I'm most proud of)."

He then reassured fans that his departure is temporary and that he will be back.

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"So, the question remains: Will I return to the fold? Absolutely, one-hundred percent. In the meantime, I must recover which means putting myself and my mental health first. Thank you to everyone including my bandmates and family, for understanding and respecting this difficult, but necessary, decision."

He concluded, "Smell you sooner than later, Joe Trohman"

In September, Trohman opened up to PEOPLE about his mental health journey while discussing his memoir None of This Rocks, which was released on Sept. 13.

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When asked how often he gets to reflect on the band's successes — the four No. 1 albums, stadium tours, Grammy nods, and being very much responsible for a pop-punk explosion in the '00s — Trohman admitted the book gave him the chance to sit down with all that's happened since the four-piece formed in 2001. As he said, the book allowed him to "organize those thoughts and go deeper into that reflection."

"I have all of these regrets about the way that I behaved [in the band], because I was a child. A child with like a lack of patience. A child who was still finding himself in the midst of the band, having kind of found itself," Trohman told PEOPLE.

"It was a big mistake to conflate my identity with the band, but ended up putting a lot of my dark emotions that were connected to that, to the other guys. So they were probably often subjected to a firestorm of like anxiety and depression. Depression isn't just somebody sad moping on a couch, you get irritable, we get f—ing grumpy, make snide comments... I wish I had my s— together. And so I think a lot of that I reflected upon that in the book, especially. And now I like, 'No,' and I'm comfortable with my place in the band. It's also like, I don't identify myself as the guy in Fall Out Boy. I'm in Fall Out Boy, but I identify myself as me."

Trohman said his elder daughter is already asking when she can open the book. However, he added, he's not ready for that just yet.

"I'm a mentally ill person. And I grew up with a mentally ill parent, and I want things to be so much better for them," Trohman explained of his children. "So I hope one day if they decide to read this book, they don't feel embarrassed by it. And that maybe it's possible it allowed them to get to know me in a way that maybe they could have never gotten to know me just by being around me with me and talking."

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.