Chester Bennington Commits Suicide

[The Comish]

It's an interesting perspective. When I was in grade 11, a good friend of mine killed himself. He slashed his wrists, over a bad break up with his long term girlfriend. For the longest time, I struggled with it. For the longest time, I was angry with him. Deep down, I knew that being angry with him was selfish. We weren't going to graduate together. We weren't going to see each other get married and have kids. We weren't going to be able to hang out anymore. I was also keenly aware, that my anger existed partly to mask my guilt. Not only was I not able to stop it from happening, I actually teased him about he and her breaking up. I ignored how serious it was and always reminded him that there were others out there interested in him. He was a good looking guy, and fun to be around. He'd find somebody else, even if it was just a rebound chick to get his mind off of "her", right?

His suicide note was devastating. He mentioned not having the strength to go on anymore. He mentioned that he wanted to talk about it, but nobody in his life seemed to care what he was going through. He mentioned thinking about suicide for weeks. Nobody had any idea. In the end, his perspective was, that killing himself was easier than trying to get through it.

So, The Comish, I guess my perspective now, is that nobody truly knows what other people are going through which may lead them to something so drastic. It's easy to say "I truly don't understand someone wanting to kill themselves" if you have never had suicidal thoughts. For me, I came to the realization long ago, that I can try to see life from the perspective of others, but nobody truly understands what you are going through, except you.

Rylant

I think many of them get to the point where they feel utter hopelessness of whatever situation they are in and focus on that too much but there are a lot of variables with each persons situation as well IE drug abuse/mental health problems. One of my buddies committed suicide about 6 months ago and he was having relationship problems and financial problems and was about to get evicted from his place and this was around Christmas time. I worked with him about 10 years ago for about 6 months and he was a genuinely nice guy and never got into any arguments or anything with him. I have battled with demons before and can understand why someone would do this but still do not respect the decision. I remember someone saying before "Suicide doesn't relieve ones pain, it just passes it along to your family". So every time I have a rough day or things aren't going well i also think "be thankful for what you have, there are other people in the world that would love to be in the situation you are in" and put everything into perspective.

Thank you both for sharing your stories guys. Truly heart-wrenching to read.

[Gallaher]

Why it had to be a sudden? May his soul rest in peace.