The quiet killer
ITS been more than a week since I woke up to a text from a close friend letting me know the lead singer of a band we had both liked in our early teenage years had passed away.
That he had lost his battle against a silent killer that seems to be taking more and more people every year.
I went through the day with a funny sort of feeling, not really sure if I was more sad about the fact that someone whose music had shaped my younger years had gone or that someone who I had perceived as having achieved such success had lost a battle against mental illness.
More than 600 Victorians took their own lives in 2015 — 600 men, women and children from all backgrounds and walks of life who will never get to live, experience and achieve the full potential of their lives.
Hundreds of families left devastated, confused, hurt and perhaps angry.
I’m sure most of us have been touched in some way by mental illness, whether it be someone you know or yourself.
The lead singer of the American rock band Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, died on July 20, leaving behind a musical legacy and a family.
A band like Linkin Park may regularly express the challenge of mental illness and the feeling of battling their own minds through the songs they created and the lyrics heard by hundreds of thousands of adoring fans.
But there is that unconscious part of me that second-guesses how someone who seemed to have achieved so much and built such a legacy could internally be suffering so much.
But that’s the thing with depression, anxiety and other mental illness, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done or whether you have the support of friends or a loving family.
I think one of the scariest things about mental illness is that it can affect anyone. It doesn’t matter how good your life or social situation may seem to the outside.
So while the world may think that everything is totally fine, internally everything is falling apart.
I also think that’s what makes it so hard sometimes for people to look to others for help, because there is this societal expectation that something has to be physically wrong for someone to experience the symptoms of depression.
I feel like there has been such a big effort to raise awareness for mental illness and its effects, especially in the Geelong region thanks to the efforts of organisations such as headspace and beyondblue, but there seems to be this lingering stigma against illnesses that you cannot see.
These illnesses are not taken as serious as physical sicknesses, especially in the workplace.
Taking sick leave for mental health issues seems to be almost unheard of.
There was a great story a couple weeks ago about a woman who had taken a mental health day and her boss actually praised her decision.
From my experiences, there still seems to be a bit of a gap in mental illness education.
I remember learning about various forms in health class at high school, what different ones were by definition, but never really how detrimental they could be to someone’s every day life. I wish that I had learnt more strategies and techniques to help those around me who are struggling. I would love to see more of a focus and a regular conversation in school health programs, rather then these issues being raised only at events such as R U OK day. I can completely see how hard it is for people to empathise or truly understand the effects of something that they cannot see, but it can become completely exhausting trying to explain how much you are struggling to commit day to day tasks to someone who may think you are having a bad day. I think if anything these last few weeks have reminded me that life is short. There is no easy fix for mental illness. Make sure that you look after yourself and look out for those around you. No matter how bad things may seem there is always the potential for things to get better.