Chester Bennington had dealt with depression all his life, but fans were still very shocked to hear that he had taken his own life. Suicide is a very serious issue, and Chester’s death has brought that issue to the forefront.
Bennington recently opened up about his battle with depression during one of his final interviews that he conducted with Music Choice, and he said that he often struggled to stay out of his own head.
“My whole life, I’ve just felt a little off and I find myself getting into these patterns of behavior or thought. Especially when I’m stuck up here [points to head]. I heard somebody say this once and it stuck with me, but this [pointing to his head] is a bad neighborhood and I should not go walking alone. Most of my problems are problems that I cause myself.”
In another one of his final interviews, Chester admitted that he was struggling to carry on at one point.
“I came to a point in my life where I was like, ‘I can either just give up and f**king die or I can f**king fight for what I want,” Chester said via The Mirror. “And I chose to fight for what I wanted. I wanted to have good relationships. I wanted to love the people in my life. I wanted to enjoy my job. I wanted to enjoy being a dad and having friends and just getting up in the morning. Because that was a struggle for me.”
The late singer also talked about how he was coming out of a very dark time in his life when he started writing “One More Light” with the rest of Linkin Park.
“For me personally when we first started working on this record I was coming out of the darkest time of my life and it was all shit that I was doing to myself. It was all stuff that I had control over but even though I felt differently at the time. I felt like the world was full of shit and everybody I knew was full of shit and life sucks and I was like ‘F**k it.’ All that stuff it was just internal.”
“It was all really things I could work on if I chose to, and make myself happy. You know? Make myself capable of dealing with life on life’s terms, like it’s not always going to be peaches and cream but it doesn’t always have to suck when it’s not. For me it took a lot of work. It actually took me opening up and talking to my friends about it and writing about it, and like going to therapy and battling my demons.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, please don’t be afraid to get the help you need. You’re never alone, and life is always worth fighting for.
https://www.crisistextline.org/
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://afsp.org/
