Depression and Mental Health: Why It’s Important to Celebrate Chester Bennington’s Figure (Linkin Park)

AdminJuly 21, 2023

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On July 20, 2017, we learned the sad news: Chester Bennington committed suicide. They found him dead at his home in Palos Verdes, California. Loss of a vocalist Linkin Park, At the age of only 41, it was a heavy blow that still weighs heavily on the hearts of millions of people.

Bennington was always clear about his fight depression, anxiety and substance abuse. However, this type of sad news is never fully digested. Six years later, people around him and millions of followers around the world continue to remember him, talking about the importance of raising awareness about mental health.

Sometimes illnesses like depression Work very quietly That is why it is important to provide all possible assistance to people who need it. An example of how difficult it is to solve these problems can be found in Mike Shinoda. In 2017, the vocalist admitted that neither he nor the other Linkin Park members were aware of the depth of the case.

One of the people closest to Bennington was Sean Dowdell, battery Gray Days, a group in which both were identical before the arrival of the vocalist in Linkin Park. Their feedback over the past few years is very revealing in understanding the complexity of mental health. “I spoke to him two nights before his death. I was on top of the world”, Dowdell explained in an interview with Ink Radio in 2021.

The drummer emphasized how difficult it is to understand what is going on in a person’s head. In the months before Bennington’s death, he suspected nothing. “If Chester had been thinking rationally, I don’t think he would have done what he did. That’s what causes depression, destroys the rational process until you get to the point where you make that decision. Sometimes there is someone who will help you, dissuade you or guide you, But when it happened, there was no one else with him.”, Dowdell said.

Bennington took antidepressants, which may have helped him at many points in his life. However, this has not always been permanent, as Dowdell himself revealed on the Fan First podcast in May 2022: When he stopped taking medication there was a huge and pronounced decline at the psychological level, which was also physiological because of the pills I was taking.”.

The Gray Daze drummer saw up close the devastating effects of depression and emphasized something that has always amazed him: “One of the hard things to understand is that a lot of people loved Chester, but he didn’t think he deserved that love. And this is a foreign concept for me. It doesn’t make sense because I know what he meant not only to me, but to his family and friends, and to people who never knew him.”.

respect for what happened

There are those who tried to divert attention from the true cause of Bennington’s death, which was none other than his mental health. There is a conspiracy theory that the Linkin Park frontman did not commit suicide. but he was killed. However, the artist’s entourage always asked for respect and tried to draw attention to depression. Own Tyler Lee Bennington, Chester’s son was forced to refute these theories on his social media and stated that he would not tolerate such behavior: “It pains me to realize that there are still people in the world who listen to these slanders, seeking to attract attention”.

Chester he had to face many challenges throughout his life. He suffered from abuse as a child, used many substances from a very early age, and faced many bouts of anxiety and depression. Despite this, he always acted joyfully in his circle and tried to get ahead. Many times I have succeeded, but not everything is so simple.

He always left very deep letters about his feelings and self-esteem, but for many, the last point of no return was death of his great friend Chris Cornell, that he committed suicide on May 18, 2017. A few months later, on July 20, the day Cornell would have turned 53, Bennington committed suicide in the same way.

Although he did not leave a farewell note, it is enough to look into the life and letters of Chester Bennington to understand what he had to fight for many years. If this sad event has anything to teach us, it is the necessity give due importance to mental health issues and inform people about it there is always a way even in the darkest moments.