Voyager wrote:I was reading on another forum where some of the members were calling Brad a coward for ending his life, and saying that it was the ultimate act of selfishness. That is completely absurd. Anyone who thinks that way has never been affected by depression. Depression is not the disease of cowards. It does not use any type of logic to choose whom it will attack anymore than cancer does. It happens to some of the best people you will ever know, and it is powerful enough to turn even the strongest soul into a limp bowl of jello.
I went through a depression after I had lost several loved ones in a traumatic event. Like ClassicRockLady said she experienced, I didn't even want to get out of bed on most days. I started drinking heavily and taking pain pills that were prescribed for a shoulder injury trying to numb the pain. I never contemplated suicide, but I cannot judge someone else for doing so. Brad Delp was probably hurting much worse than I ever was. Fortunately I stopped drinking over a year ago and got off the pain pills. Shortly thereafter, the depression went away and has not returned. I am one of the lucky ones.
RIP Brad. You rocked man. I will still listen to your songs and have just as much respect and admiration for you as I ever did.
I couldn't agree more. I know when the suicide happened in my family, we all were a state of disbelief for quite a while. And the confusion turns anger and then rage and then back to confusion. You really feel so helpless as the surviving family and you want to blame someone or something. So you start throwing around words like "coward" because you don't know what else to do.
It's easy to blame the dead one.
I cannot even wrap my brain around what kind of lonliness and pain someone would be feeling to not only want to die, but to get the paraphanalia together, write a bunch of notes and then do the deed. Obviously, that kind of sadness and depression is something I would not wish on my worst enemy. I have nothing but compassion for someone who is going through it, and I *get* how sweet death seems like the better of the alternatives in some ways.
It just sucks being the ones left behind, that's all.