ARE YOU THE NEXT CHESTER? DON’T BE!

All my life, I heard my dad saying “life is not always a bed of roses nor a bed of thorns, it’s a bed of roses filled with thorns” but as a kid I never knew what did it mean. As I grew up I saw people around me going through tough times and life face-palming them. I saw people battling depression due to various issues they have faced in their lives. Depression, though doesn’t seem or taken as critical as Cancer or HIV, is not any less harmful either when it comes to the negative result. A person can easily fall into depression sometimes due to apparently petty looking problems. It does not only ambush people with financial crisis or weak health, it can also pounce on people with fame, and money like Chester Bennington whose early life was troubled. The other day I heard Chester, a pioneer of nu-metal genre ended his life after battling depression for years. The Linkin Park vocalist had tough times and at some point, he lost hope and give up on life. No! I was not very much fan of him but yes I grew up listening to him, and at time liked the beat, music or lyrics of his songs………………….. But his sudden & despair act of giving up on life prompted me to write something about my thoughts on depression.

Sometimes in life, some situations effect people in a disruptive way allowing depression to slither in. Depression is not a choice or a state of mind or a stigma, rather it’s a serious illness and no one chooses to have illness. Instead of taking it like a stigma or a taboo, we should help people battling depression as it’s not a person fighting depression, it’s a life vs depression. It should not be taken as a figment of the sufferer’s imagination, rather it’s an illness caused by a combination of chemical imbalances in the brain, which is hardly under the victim’s control. Stigmatizing a person for his\her illness can make them guilty and drag their illness to the point where they end up giving their lives. Since it is an illness, there are treatments which exist involving counseling and medications by Psychologists and psychiatrists, which do help patients with a quick recovery. While medication helps you coming out of it, depression and substance abuse becomes a lethal combination. Drugs like marijuana, alcohol, opium, cocaine, benzodiazepine-based tranquilizers can trigger depression. All drugs are depressants, they can harm brain and elevate depression. One tends to make bad decisions and act impulsive while taking such drugs.

As we need hope for life and a strong will to fight the critical illnesses along with prevention and medication, these become an absolute essential in case of depression. We must help our dear ones suffering from depression and ensure them that we are always standing by their side and listening. As a human being, it is our responsibility to raise awareness about depression and suicide prevention to help saving another family from devastation. Don’t let anyone become another Chester, get them help. When we reach out to help people suffering from cancer because of their physical weakness, a person with depression needs the similar care and assurance from us to recover. Why do we need to wait for a life to end to do something about it? Let’s just help the ones around us and make them realize how beautiful life is. We all have to battle those thorns to get to the roses of our life. Hey you! don’t be the next Chester, I am here and I am listening.
To, the person who is the reason I wrote this blog, Chester Bennington. Thank you Chester for making me realize numb is a feeling.