“We hope we can be a voice through Tim. Because Tim has so many millions of fans.”
And what would he say to fans who might be dealing with some of the things that Tim Bergling dealt with? “You have to talk about it,” Klas Bergling replied. “And you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help.”
“CBS This Morning” will be dedicating most of its broadcast Wednesday to a live special focusing on mental health. It’s called “Stop the Stigma: A Conversation About Mental Health.” We want to remove the shame and blame from the discussion around mental illness diagnoses.
Man, reading the news article brought tears to my eyes. I still remember the day I found out he committed suicide. I was shocked.
Yes, these things need to be discussed and brought to light. What hurts me the most is that people feel that they can’t talk about depression, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. I have people around me that went through their own hells: one had suicidal thoughts, another had depression for sixteen years and still deals with anxiety whenever she thinks of those early days. I’ve even had my own dark thoughts when I was at my lowest.
What I can’t understand is why people should be blamed for being open about mental illness. Just as we get physically ill, we can get mentally and spiritually ill. And mental health is so important. To illustrate this, I will use the example of someone recovering from a physical illness. If he/ she doesn’t want to get better, physically, they will take longer, if at all, to get better. Mental illness affects spiritual illness affects physical illness affects life and people around the person, so why should it not be discussed? Sweeping it under the rug like topics of racism, rape, homicide, child abuse doesn’t solve the issue. Only when we can acknowledge that there is a problem, can we take steps to resolve it.
Society is still the same, more or less. Usually if you get in touch with people or meet new people most will only talk about it when both have a personal experience but it can also happen that someone with e.g. depression or anxiety thinks the own problems are more severe than those of the mate.
Another aspect is that for certain impairments people do not believe it - including specialists, medics, psychologists…
So telling someone about having mental illness the one makes her/himself much more vulnerable than saying having cancer because having cancer is considered bad luck while mental illness is like a personality’s stain.
Some months ago I read several articles about people who aren’t celebs but do work in common jobs who have to hide that they have or had mental illness because otherwise their collegues and bosses would consider them as incompetent (job-wise). One person in one article was the medic leader of a hospital’s mental illness station and she said if people would know she had depression and went to another clinic incognito for getting treatment she’ll probably lose her job because she would be considered as unable to take responsibility in her work field.
In one survey people that work in mental illness related fields were asked if they want to be friends with people who have mental illness. Most answered NO they don’t wanna be friends with mental ill people and if they know someone is mental ill they’d avoid that person.
Mental illness - depression/anxiety - are on top of people’s disease here - several millions do suffer by that but stigma is not gone yet.
"And you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help," said his bereaved father. That’s definitely going on my social media. I genuinely believe it’s important not just to recognise your ailment, but also to seek help. Also, if you’re unwell, please, I beg you, don’t just smile. It’s OK not to be OK. If you don’t tell others how you’re truly feeling, they won’t know what to do. They’ll also be heartbroken when they finally understand you were in pain and they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t know anything.
Apart from the stigma about mental illness I think the stigma of suicide is more in the western countries. In Asia from cultural influences - people who take their life are not blamed like in countries with a deeper Christian influence since it is a sin as a Christian to take one’s life. Even, if a Christ f.e. in South Korea took his/her life people will not condemn their choice. They wish them well and to rest in peace.
I don’t follow to closely on the magazines’ articles of the dead artists but looking at society it appears as if the acceptance of suicide is “kind of easier” compared to where I live. I don’t know if this is good factor or a troubling one.
Since I started with K-Drama about roughly 10 years ago, I think about 20 actors/actresses took their lives. Still, I am puzzled every time, I just can’t ignore it and will think of those who chose to leave this world behind. It’s not like there isn’t such a thing in my country. Last year there was a really tragic death of a young man called Daniel Kaiser-Kübelböck, or well officially I think he is still counted as missing.
You can’t look behind one’s forehead. At least I get to see that there is improvement, but if you look at the time a person who needs professional help until she/he finds a doctor, there is still a long way to go.