Before jumping into discussing the suicide case of this legendary singer who once walked on our earth, I’m solely curious and was wondering somehow whether or not if you ever came across listening to several massive hits of Linkin Park, such as “Numb, Breaking The Habit, Somewhere I Belong, Crawling, etc.” in the early days of the release “Hybrid Theory and Meteora” albums. If you did, well, those popular songs that were crafted by the band actually conveyed a “hidden message” in their lyrics with respect to the psychological state of their ex front-man named “Chester Bennington”, who once struggled with a prolonged battle of chronic depression for decades. Regardless of his untimely death in July 2017 by hanging due to mental health struggles which he could no longer have the strength to deal with, this has taught us or reminded us again that such mental health disorders should not be or cannot be taken too lightly. In other words, a person may look normal or behave perfectly just fine from outside, yet, we never know the amount of hell that he or she has been grappling with behind a scene for ages.
CASE ANALYSIS: Pre-introduction to what depression is about
They say “Life is full of struggles, pain, and agony. In order to overcome any types of life ordeals while we are still breathing, we must preserve certain degree of patience, endurance, and optimism to help us keep moving forward”. Well, this may be the case or could possibly be true to some people, yet, the saying I’m afraid is not always applicable for many others as well.
Being a human, as a start, we need to acknowledge that we all have different capacity of how we strive to cope with a series of life tribulations, which tend to bother us relentlessly on a daily basis. This is because some people are considered to be fortunate enough to have survived the abyss that they once fell from, while for others it may not be the case or they could be better off to succumb rather than agonizing or experiencing their everyday pain constantly whenever they wake up and open their eyes in the morning.
In accordance with multiple studies conducted, it is reported that people who suffer from any state of depression are capable enough of concealing their feelings as a result of endless problems that they have been wrestling with throughout the course of their life span. This is because people with depression often hide their feelings to avoid feeling misunderstood, stigmatized or perceived as a burden, as they tend to adopt a “social mask” to appear functioning. This behavior, in turn, is driven by fear of judgment, perfectionism, guilt, and the intense effort required to manage daily tasks; leading to the suppression of negative emotions.
In regards to addressing why people with depression are inclined to adopt the so-called a social mask, well, there is this concept of “smiling depression” which is a hidden form of depression where individuals appear happy on the outside but struggle internally. What’s more, the term smiling depression is basically applied to those who are dealing with depression and smiling at the same time. Individuals with smiling depression at this point might seem fine on the outside and maintain their regular energy levels around their social circles. However, as soon as they are home or feeling solitude, they can unmask their true feelings and they usually collapse emotionally. After all, people who are depressed by smiling often encounter such unique challenges like societal expectations as well as the fear of being misunderstood, which encourage their fake facade.
CASE FINDINGS: CHESTER BENNINGTON’S PROLONGED STRUGGLE WITH CLINICAL DEPRESSION
Music fans around the world were shocked and devastated when the singer of rock band Linkin Park “Chester Bennington” committed suicide on July 20th 2017 (he passed away at the age of 41 and left behind six children and his widow – Talinda Bennington). The singer’s suicide took place horribly on what would have been Chris Cornell’s birthday, who also committed a suicide and was a good friend of him. In hindsight, this legendary front-man of Linkin Park prior to his untimely death was known to suffer from mental health issues and personal demons, which often fueled his music and what he wrote for the majority of Linkin Park songs. His lyrics frequently revealed the darker side of his personality and the painful feelings he experienced in his personal life. Although he tried very hard to take care of himself by seeing a therapist on a regular basis, his problems with depression ultimately became overwhelming (i.e. clinical depression) and caused him to take his own life.
1. Traumatic Childhood
Chester Bennington’s mental health issues resulted began in the aftermath of some traumatic childhood experiences that shaped his life as an adult. The singer revealed in a series of interviews that a school fellow who was a few years older than him began to persecute him (i.e. more like bullying him so to speak) when he was only 7 years old. He was sexually and physically abused by this school peer who would beat him up and force him to do things he did not want to do.
As a child, he was afraid to tell anyone what was happening to him and suffered in silence for six years. In the midst of this experience, his parents got divorced when he was 11 and he moved in with his father who usually worked long hours as a police detective. At this stage, he felt isolated and abandoned by his family as he was often left alone at home and still suffered abuse from his older friend.
Next, although the sexual abuse finally ended by the time when he turned 13 years old, the psychological damage that he suffered from the experience however left him vulnerable with low self-confidence. Thus, in order to gain his confidence back, he began drinking and using drugs which became a problem that lasted well into his adulthood. For instance, he tried pot at the age of only 11 and later took harder street drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines.
As an adult, Chester Bennington had very vague memories of his abuse until he went to his mother’s house, saw an old picture of himself, and remembered the time when the picture was taken. Suddenly, the memories of what happened to him at that age unfortunately came flooding back and he realized how young he was to go through something so horrific. Fast forward, he later realized that the years of sexual abuse were the root causes of him to become a drug addict and deal with such intense depression (i.e. clinical depression).
2. Drug Abuse and Addiction
Chester Bennington’s drug use continued to escalate even throughout his music career with Linkin Park. At one point, he once admitted that he was taking 11 hits of acid in a day along with other drugs like crack and meth. He would smoke opium to come down from his other drug use and was so addicted that he weighed only 110 pounds. This became so out of hand to the point where his band mates decided to stage an intervention for him in 2006 (e.g. they opened up to Chester and told him how they felt about his drug use). Long story short, he also acknowledged at the time that he had no idea how much his drug use was affecting the people around him.
3. The Death of His Beloved Friend – Chris Cornell (Audioslave)
The legendary front-man of Linkin Park never completely recovered from his issues of depression which plagued him for his entire life. He was also devastated to lose his friend “Chris Cornell (Audioslave)” who shockingly committed suicide around one or two months prior to his untimely death. For your information, Chester Bennington grew up as a huge fan of Cornell’s music and later got to sing on stage with him and develop a close bond as friends and artists. Because of this, the singer was deeply saddened by his beloved friend’s death and even sang at his funeral. Above all, Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington had similar methods of suicide as both were found hanging from a doorway regardless of the fact that his sudden departure which took place on what would be Cornell’s birthday in July 2017 had led so many fans to speculate whether the death of his dearest friend triggered the choice to take his own life.
Meanwhile, according to the toxicology report, the musician had low levels of alcohol in his system and what they believed to be MDMA (ecstasy). However, the publication later corrected itself saying there had been an error and Chester had not consumed any sort of drugs indicating that he was not under the influence of any substances when he died. The report also reveals that there was a bottle of the medication Zolpidem, which is commonly used by those who have difficulty sleeping along with the bottles of beer in his room.
Subsequently, the police also discovered fingernail clippings under his cell phone and on a table near him, which confirmed what his widow “Talinda Bennington” told the police officers about her deceased husband biting his nails whenever he was anxious. Overall, there was no suicide note found at the scene of his death and it was further confirmed that the lead vocalist of Linkin Park passed away on July 20th 2017 at the age of 41, which occurred just two months following the suicide of his close friend “Chris Cornell”.
~ We all miss you, Legend… Thank you for those beautiful memories you left in the past… ~
The Dark Knight 
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