Like Amy, Like Liam, Reality Can Rush at 90+ MPH Then Tragedy Strikes 

If you have been watching the news as of late you will no doubt have learnt of the sad passing of former Singer/Songwriter Liam Payne. He was only 31, that’s nine years younger than me. Not long after his death was announced it brought back the memories of the tragic passing of British Soul Singer Amy Winehouse who died way back in 2011. She was only 27. Now if you’re still reading this you might well be asking why I’ve mentioned these two as there was drink and supposedly other elements linked to their lifestyles.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do forget that people like them were plunged into the spotlight at a young age, hence where the problem lies.

You’re 16/17 years old, still trying to figure out who you are as an individual and life at 40 hasn’t quite crossed your mind yet. Your talent puts you directly in the spotlight where suddenly everyone wants to know you, people want a piece of you (or more). The jet-set lifestyle comes into it and all seems like a blissful dream, the type you see on TV and films. 

Physically you’re moving at what feels like 30 going on to 40 miles per hour but mentally everything feels like it’s going far faster than that.

In 1971 to 1972 American Photographer, Annie Leibovitz, who was working for Rolling Stone magazine at the time joined British rock band, The Rolling Stones, as their Official Tour Photographer for two years. 

She was only 22 at the time when she thrust herself into the world of rock ‘n’ roll and the lifestyle that went with it. In an interview she gave several years later she stated that reflecting back on her experiences she realised that she had no actual idea of what was letting herself in for, mentally.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into. It was unbelievable stupid”

“I was trying to show that life on the road is not glamorous. The idea of propelling one’s body through space a lot faster than it’s meant to go took its toll”

In an interview the late Liam Payne mentioned how easy it can get when your body moves quicker than your mind, and the impact it has on you. What struck for me is that feeling of disassociation with reality and not being able to connect with the world around you.

Whenever I look at interviews, both with the individual and those who knew them, one of the common denominators is that everything was thrust upon them, too soon. They clearly weren’t in the right place to be able to deal with it. One of the troubles is that when you’re young there seems to be this belief in that you are indestructible or that ‘going loopy loo’ only happens to other people.

For me, I can’t speak about this from perspective but when you listen to all the stories about their life away from everyone’s glaring eyes we get this message of struggling to cope with things emotionally and mentally. The only downside of this is would many of us have listened 

For me, based on my experiences, and this is people who I have known that are of the working 9-5 type, rarely want to talk about their mental state. This has even been the case with me at various times. I believe that a good deal of it comes from the outdated typical stereotype that boys, and men, needed to be tough and keep it bottled up.

In other words the ever infamous ‘man up and shut up’ whereas for many females out there it was the ever ‘just ignore her she’s just being an attention seeking brat’. And I wonder how many of those same people suffered far bigger mental health problems as a result. There was the odd one that I heard about where a couple of the worse case scenario happened, sadly and for all those familiar with it, we all know what that is.

Physical health is one thing as it’s right there, whereas with mentally, that’s harder to spot. It’s much easier to disguise. You can freign a sunny happy outlook and everyone can be none the wiser.

Sometimes it’s not hard to understand when people go off the deep end 

Whether you’re 14, 19, 27, 31 or older what’s happening in our heads is just as crucial 

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