PINT of Stella. mate!
Many, many Scotches
Dunno about you lot but I've had an eye on this whole Germanwings air crash tragedy and it now seems like the co-pilot was suffering from serious depression, following the discovery of torn-up sick notes and other evidence (they've not elaborated but I'm thinking an iTunes library stock full of Nine Inch Nails, Leonard Cohen and Elliot Smith maybe?)
Joking aside, I dunno if we've ever had a proper discussion on mental health- particularly depression- here on RB and y'know what? It's about fucking time we did because it's such an insidious pervasive prick of a thing that can affect almost anyone.
Obviously ending your despair by taking 150 people with you is a total arsehole move and its one that will no doubt raise plenty of angry opinions over the next few days across all forms of media but I still think there needs to be at least a proper widespread discussion on the matter that doesn't end with total castigation of the responsible party and instead maybe helps people to wake up to just how serious a problem it is.
First off, I'm going to declare a conflict of interest in this argument as I suffer from depression myself. I'm not the only one here either. There have been many Farkers and RBers over the years who have alluded to their issues on here and that's not surprising. Everybody gets a bit sad sometimes and it's not a binary "you're depressed/ you're not" argument. For some people it cuts closer to the bone regardless of how well they appear to be doing in life. Others maybe not but the seeds are still there and it doesn't take much for them to sprout. Anyway, it's a lot more common than you'd think.
I know we get Beyond Blue adverts telling us this every day and I can't fault them for that but it still hasn't seemed to have shifted the widespread perception that there is somehow a difference between often feeling down and feeling suicidal. External factors like unemployment, relationship breakdowns, drug and alcohol abuse etc are often looked upon as being causes rather than symptoms and I think that needs to be addressed.
Then we've got the frankly offensive stance that depressed people are often just seeking pity and suicide victims are taking the easy way out (or are attention seeking if they fail first time around)
I remember when I was a teen just after Kurt Cobain shot himself, Gene Simmons of Kiss had a rant about grunge music and how he just couldn't understand how Cobain who was a multi-platinum selling blonde-haired blue-eyed Rock God at the time still felt the need to take his 'tortured artist' persona to the absolute limit and blow his head off? As boorish and ignorant as Simmons views came across (and there's no doubt that that quasi-fascist knob was genuine in his disregard), I think he'd inadvertently hit the nail on the head
as Cobain literally had the world at his feet. The dude was a bonafide superstar at that stage, managing to be young, good looking and immensely successful without ever 'selling out' his artistic integrity.
Yet he still stuck a gun in his mouth despite the fact he could still have achieved immortality in the same way the likes of Bob Dylan, Bb King, Lou Reed, Paul McCartney and a whole host of other living legends who were as kicking around around at the same time managed.
If that doesn't tell you there was something fundamentally wrong, I don't know what will.
Anyway, "tortured artist syndrome" is something that effects only arty types, eh? Bollocks.
That shit can sneak up on you to the point where it seems normal and almost logical and no matter how supportive your friends and family will be, it can still be incredibly daunting to reveal your problems to them. Likewise you can make the big step and address your problems with them and they will be supportive and it will help but further down the track when everyone thinks you've gotten over it, that big black dog will rear its ugly head again and you may find it harder to express your concerns as you don't want to be 'that needy/depressing prick'
P<oh! quick rant> I reckon blanketing everything with the phrase 'depression' is a bit daft. It's like calling somebody 'Asian.' Everyone in the 2-3 billion people from Japan to Israel (via India, Indonesia and most of Russia) are technically Asian. Same goes for depression. There's feeling down, there's feeling chronically down and there's crossing the thin line where it can go to the loss of all rational thought. Thankfully most people will experience only the occasional bouts of it but the unlucky few who get into the chronic and suicidal stage need more help.
Fuck knows how we can do that as a society mind you. There's noone with a working crystal ball or Professor X powers but I suppose all them adverts for beyond blue, men's sheds and the like who stress the importance of talking out your problems can't be doing a bad thing. They are always there at the end of a phone line and I suppose fuck it, if there's one good thing we can do here as a community on Rotorburn we can give anyone who wants a public forum for expressing their doubts and insecurities under a guise of relative anonymity.
So yeah, I guess this thread should be an opportunity for anyone out there to discuss their own relationships with depression or any other mental health issues. Feel free to post whatever's troubling you. We're generally a good, supportive bunch on here. Alternatively feel free to lurk and just see how everyone else who posts here are dealing with things. You'll probably find there are people who are more than happy to chat on a PM basis if you're still nervous about declaring to the wider RB community that you might have issues of your own.
Anyway. Fucking peace out, yo!
Joking aside, I dunno if we've ever had a proper discussion on mental health- particularly depression- here on RB and y'know what? It's about fucking time we did because it's such an insidious pervasive prick of a thing that can affect almost anyone.
Obviously ending your despair by taking 150 people with you is a total arsehole move and its one that will no doubt raise plenty of angry opinions over the next few days across all forms of media but I still think there needs to be at least a proper widespread discussion on the matter that doesn't end with total castigation of the responsible party and instead maybe helps people to wake up to just how serious a problem it is.
First off, I'm going to declare a conflict of interest in this argument as I suffer from depression myself. I'm not the only one here either. There have been many Farkers and RBers over the years who have alluded to their issues on here and that's not surprising. Everybody gets a bit sad sometimes and it's not a binary "you're depressed/ you're not" argument. For some people it cuts closer to the bone regardless of how well they appear to be doing in life. Others maybe not but the seeds are still there and it doesn't take much for them to sprout. Anyway, it's a lot more common than you'd think.
I know we get Beyond Blue adverts telling us this every day and I can't fault them for that but it still hasn't seemed to have shifted the widespread perception that there is somehow a difference between often feeling down and feeling suicidal. External factors like unemployment, relationship breakdowns, drug and alcohol abuse etc are often looked upon as being causes rather than symptoms and I think that needs to be addressed.
Then we've got the frankly offensive stance that depressed people are often just seeking pity and suicide victims are taking the easy way out (or are attention seeking if they fail first time around)
I remember when I was a teen just after Kurt Cobain shot himself, Gene Simmons of Kiss had a rant about grunge music and how he just couldn't understand how Cobain who was a multi-platinum selling blonde-haired blue-eyed Rock God at the time still felt the need to take his 'tortured artist' persona to the absolute limit and blow his head off? As boorish and ignorant as Simmons views came across (and there's no doubt that that quasi-fascist knob was genuine in his disregard), I think he'd inadvertently hit the nail on the head
as Cobain literally had the world at his feet. The dude was a bonafide superstar at that stage, managing to be young, good looking and immensely successful without ever 'selling out' his artistic integrity.
Yet he still stuck a gun in his mouth despite the fact he could still have achieved immortality in the same way the likes of Bob Dylan, Bb King, Lou Reed, Paul McCartney and a whole host of other living legends who were as kicking around around at the same time managed.
If that doesn't tell you there was something fundamentally wrong, I don't know what will.
Anyway, "tortured artist syndrome" is something that effects only arty types, eh? Bollocks.
That shit can sneak up on you to the point where it seems normal and almost logical and no matter how supportive your friends and family will be, it can still be incredibly daunting to reveal your problems to them. Likewise you can make the big step and address your problems with them and they will be supportive and it will help but further down the track when everyone thinks you've gotten over it, that big black dog will rear its ugly head again and you may find it harder to express your concerns as you don't want to be 'that needy/depressing prick'
P<oh! quick rant> I reckon blanketing everything with the phrase 'depression' is a bit daft. It's like calling somebody 'Asian.' Everyone in the 2-3 billion people from Japan to Israel (via India, Indonesia and most of Russia) are technically Asian. Same goes for depression. There's feeling down, there's feeling chronically down and there's crossing the thin line where it can go to the loss of all rational thought. Thankfully most people will experience only the occasional bouts of it but the unlucky few who get into the chronic and suicidal stage need more help.
Fuck knows how we can do that as a society mind you. There's noone with a working crystal ball or Professor X powers but I suppose all them adverts for beyond blue, men's sheds and the like who stress the importance of talking out your problems can't be doing a bad thing. They are always there at the end of a phone line and I suppose fuck it, if there's one good thing we can do here as a community on Rotorburn we can give anyone who wants a public forum for expressing their doubts and insecurities under a guise of relative anonymity.
So yeah, I guess this thread should be an opportunity for anyone out there to discuss their own relationships with depression or any other mental health issues. Feel free to post whatever's troubling you. We're generally a good, supportive bunch on here. Alternatively feel free to lurk and just see how everyone else who posts here are dealing with things. You'll probably find there are people who are more than happy to chat on a PM basis if you're still nervous about declaring to the wider RB community that you might have issues of your own.
Anyway. Fucking peace out, yo!