When I first heard the news of Chester Bennington's suicide, my first thought was "That's horrible." I was heartbroken. As a fan of Linkin Park since I was in elementary school, I didn't want to believe it. I still listen to "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora" regularly. As a music fan, I was devastated that we lost such an incredible songwriter and performer. As a young adult, I was horrified that anther family is going to have to endure a tragedy like this.
However, as I scrolled through my Facebook feed, my sadness turned into frustration and anger. That frustration and anger comes from people that post articles of this news with puns. "Man, he must have been feeling pretty heavy." "I guess he crossed that new divide." Let me be very clear in this message: Suicide is not a joke.
Maybe that's how you cope with it. That's fine. People cope with things in different ways. But, everyone else is grieving too. They might not appreciate it.
Another reason why my frustration is growing is for people who not only don't understand mental illness (and/or addiction), but who don't care to learn. I saw someone on Facebook share the article about his death followed by the caption, "It must be hard being rich AND famous." The response that a family member of mine is something I think a lot of people need to hear. "That doesn't mean he was happy."
I understand people are angry that Chester left behind his children and his family. I understand that you don't think there is any excuse in the world to give up your own life. I understand you think it's a "cowardly" response. But I tend to disagree.
I've lost a few people in my life to suicide. One having taken her own life just a few months ago and I had a really hard time dealing with it. I couldn't understand what in her life was so bad that she thought that was her only way out. Then, I remembered she was sick. She was dealing with something and no matter how hard I would try, I would never understand what it was like for her in her head.
There is STILL a stigma surrounding mental illness and that needs to end. We need to make mental illness something we can discuss. We need to spread awareness about what depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD and many others actually are. We need to tell people what can happen when you suffer from one of those things. We need to learn how to not only be advocates for those suffering from mental illnesses but we need to learn how to be support for those we know suffering from these illnesses.
We need people to know that they are not alone. Help encourage people to reach out.
"When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
And don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest."
