Chester Bennington

Daniel Siggins
Jul 30, 2017 · 4 min read

“The next suitable person you’re in light conversation with, you stop suddenly in the middle of the conversation and look at the person closely and say, “What’s wrong?” You say it in a concerned way. He’ll say, “What do you mean?” You say, “Something’s wrong. I can tell. What is it?” And he’ll look stunned and say, “How did you know?” He doesn’t realize something’s always wrong, with everybody. Often more than one thing. He doesn’t know everybody’s always going around all the time with something wrong and believing they’re exerting great willpower and control to keep other people, for whom they think nothing’s ever wrong, from seeing it.” — David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

The shocking news about Chester Bennington last week once again brought up many familiar questions and concerns. For there was a 41-year-old man, with six children, a wife and a career that was monumental in both its impact and now sadly its legacy, who clearly was not content with life.

But the people who fail to understand how this could be are the people who fail to understand depression. And this is not a criticism of those people. It is an acceptance of the reality of a society that still, understandably, fails to deal perfectly with mental health problems.

“There is a lot of cynicism about depressed celebrities, as if after a certain amount of money a human being becomes immune to mental illnesses. It is only mental illnesses that people seem to say this about. They don’t say this about the flu, for instance. Unlike a book or a film they don’t have to be about something. — Matt Haig, Reasons To Stay Alive

The mental wellbeing of any individual is incredibly complicated, and of course, unique to them. In this uniqueness lies one of the biggest challenges of dealing with it, and it is a challenge both for the sufferer and those trying to help them — isolation.

This isolation, at its core, is from a feeling of being alone. Perhaps people who suffer simply don’t believe others would understand. Or the opposite could be true, the feeling of not being alone, once discovered and realised, isn’t a sign of hope, but only of further despair that so many others do feel the same pain.

This is why depression can have such a strong hold over people — it shuts down every viable light of hope with a partial rational reason to do so. It doesn’t have to be entirely rational, as long as some logic is applied then any given solution can be disregarded, and at its most extreme the solution that can be chosen is the most severe and damaging of all.

For Chester Bennington, the details surrounding his death are still unclear. There have been reports suggesting issues stemming from his childhood may have played a role in his death. It is startling, given hindsight, to see him talk about his demons so vividly in an interview — he was continually open about his problems.

When you see someone so obviously suffering like this you wonder what more can be done. Many people, through no weakness of their own, do not even reach this point. They withhold their feelings entirely. Yet both groups of people need to be helped; those who are open with their struggles and those who are not.

There is no simple solution, but there is a number of starting points and habits that can be adopted.


Educating people on these issues is a necessity. Are mental health problems discussed and taught in our curriculum in schools? If not, why not, and how can this be changed? Without doubt battling against depression with no prior education and understanding makes the condition even more catastrophic — people need to know what they are dealing with.

A formal education process would without doubt have at least some benefit, but more immediate and simple options exist that every person can carry out at this very moment too.

When your hear depression discussed, either by someone who has battled it or by someone who is merely observing, there is at least one constant theme — the feeling of being alone. And yes, even not feeling alone can be imperfect, but loneliness and depression are, heartbreakingly, often a deadly combination.

The most simple solution can be the most powerful

So what can be done? Well, it starts with you, as an individual. It is not up to one person more than any other to hold the weight of this pain, it is a collective responsibility, but this collective responsibility does require everyone to play a part.

Because depression, by its nature, is so complicated, we naturally assume our response to it must too contain some of this complexity. Only it doesn’t have to.

It can be as simple as being someone to talk to. A set of ears. It can be as simple as not sharing what you may regard as a casual insult. It can be as simple as choosing love and compassion over hatred and despair. It can be simple to help, because it is.

More thoughts:

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