By Wilson
Losing a loved one to suicide is emotionally devastating. A celebrity committing suicide, then it is not just their loved ones but the world they touched that feels the pain. We like to think celebrities have perfect lives, with fame, wealth, and reverent fans but they are human beings like us all. Famous people feel pain and disappointments away from the public eye that can lead to mental illness. Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, Ernest Hemingway, George Reeves, Robin Williams, Chris Cornell, Chris Benoit, Chester Bennington, even Cleopatra are among the famous that committed suicide.
I still morn Robin Williams. He was so smart and talented with a creative mind that went from 0 to 129 in a nanosecond. Williams had problems with alcoholism and drug abuse. John Belushi’s death shook him. He also suffered from depression. I understand the life he was facing with Lewy body dementia, or LBD, a little-known brain disease that affects more than a million Americans. It damages brain cells over time, leading to memory loss, delusions, hallucinations, Parkinson’s symptoms and other health problems. The fear of losing himself had to be so horrible pulling him further into depression than ever before. His personal assistant discovered him unconscious on 11 August 2014 and the doctors declared him dead afterward. His death is believed to be a suicide.
When a celebrity commits suicide it is heard about it throughout the media; two celebrities, the cry doubles that goes out to inform people about the dangers of mental health disorders. Too late as always, people look at mental health and tell the public of what to look for to help people with poor mental health for a month or slowing down to with a fresh reminder about mental health for a day or two on the celebrities birth and death days. The names are added to a list of celebrity suicides. The problem is still there, mental health disorder and it doesn’t affect just celebrities, but people don’t understand just how injurious a mental health disorder is.
Not everybody that is depressed or anxiety has a disorder. Platitudes such as you need to look at the bright side or tomorrow things will be better are for them. Someone with a mental health disorder may have a better day, but the disorder is never far away. Chester Bennington’s wife Talinda, shares this video taken 36 hours before he committed suicide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wTU975RPoI with him laughing and playing a game with his friends and family. There are different ways to treat the disorders from therapy to medicines that help to control the disorder but there is no magic remedy. We must be vigilant with our knowledge that mental health is a real health disorder that needed to be treated with the same vigilance you would with a people that has a heart disorder.
“The NIMH estimates that in the United States, 16 million adults had at least one major depressive episode in 2012. That’s 6.9 percent of the population,” according to Google. The World Health Organization states depression is the leading cause of disability. But we are prejudice against the idea that the state of our mental health can be is disabling.
If the school said the student seems to have a medical problem, the parents would see the child got help. If a parent is told by a school that they think counseling would be helpful for their student the need to say no can outweigh the idea that their child needs a little more help than their parents can give them growing up. Schools are also afraid of getting hit with the bill if they say that a student had more problems than they can handle with the resources in the school.
I feel the geeks in the world are among the creative people of the world. That is one of the reasons I ‘m writing this. No, if you are creative it doesn’t mean you have mental health issues and mental health issues affect non-creative people too. Writers maybe especially disposed to mental disorders. This is an interesting read for everyone. http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/is-there-a-link-between-creativity-and-mental-illness
Please be aware of the people you love. If that blue day is more, see that they get help. Support bills and public opinions that get more help to mental health issues. If you need help, please get the help you need. Don’t add to the number of suicides; be a survivor.
Thank you, Mrs. Bennington, for your bravery and sharing.
If you need to talk to someone it is not hard to do, reach out. Text someone, call someone, there are people who will listen.
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.crisistextline.org/
Text HOME to 741741 in the US
GEEK CULTURE ONLINE 