There is this David Foster Wallace interview with Charlie Rose. The interviewer asked DFW about his horrible mental torture (also caused by his drug usage). I still have not got the way DFW thinks about it. Whether he is really serious about it. DFW says his mental problems are not caused by his severe drug abuse he says (and I paraphrase it): The core of his problem was he has got way too much (unearned) attention for his work in a very young age. Then his incentive structure to create new literature was ruined.
I think I once read DFW struggled with being famous. I believe that. It can be pretty hard. I will elaborate on that later. But for me it is obviously his severe drug abuse destroyed his brain. He took all sorts of hardcore drugs. There are several studies which prove that for example cocaine can cause depression. He also took mushrooms and smoked a lot of weed when he was a teenager. Weed is especially dangerous for teenagers. I have met a lot of people who became schizophrenic due to that fact. I ask myself if this is kind of a denial in order to protect himself from this fact. In his literature he very often blamed his mom for his mental problems. Maybe I should not judge about it. But she did not really sound like a horrible mom. My mom abused and kicked me through our apartment when I was a little child. But there are even (way?) worse parents than mine. His mom did not really sound very abusive. He described her behaivor a lot in his stories. Though maybe I should not judge about this.
Now back to the question of this thread. I have read this more than once in this forum. People wrote they cannot grasp how successful people can be that desperate so that they feel the need to ctb. Chester Bennington responded to that in an interview before his suicide. I paraphrase it. He is a normal person with his own mental problem. The fact he is part of Linkin Park does not change that. I think there is a lot of truth in it.
We as average citizens probably cannot comprehend how it feels to be famous. For me personally I think it would solve some of my biggest problems. I need to ctb due to future poverty. And damn I would be extremely relieved not worrying this much about my financials. If I had enough money as a celeb I would probably quit the business. This would probably disappoint all my fans. But I would hire the best therapists in order to deal with it. This all sounds so easy to say. In real life this is probably way more difficult. Many really enjoy their work or they need the support of their fans. I personally could probably cope without that. But each individual is different.
If I was famous there could be several negative effects on my mental health. My paranoia (of my psychosis) would increase a lot. Solely being part of this forum makes me quite paranoid (also because it is so often in the news). I don't want to imagine what would happen if tens of millions liked to know my private life. And all the uncomfortable scrutiny. I would really hate that.
Moreover it could increase my mania a lot. If I have little success in my life I can get quite manic due to that. The megalomania of famous bipolar people can be enormous. Look at Kanye West he clearly suffers from that.
Furthermore maybe I could not even talk in online internet forums about my suffering. This is a huge coping skill for me. I think if I was famous I could probably not speak about personal problems without the big danger of leaking myself. I feel sorry for them. Still I envy their money. But if your mind is fucked and traumatized money won't fix it.
I think I once read DFW struggled with being famous. I believe that. It can be pretty hard. I will elaborate on that later. But for me it is obviously his severe drug abuse destroyed his brain. He took all sorts of hardcore drugs. There are several studies which prove that for example cocaine can cause depression. He also took mushrooms and smoked a lot of weed when he was a teenager. Weed is especially dangerous for teenagers. I have met a lot of people who became schizophrenic due to that fact. I ask myself if this is kind of a denial in order to protect himself from this fact. In his literature he very often blamed his mom for his mental problems. Maybe I should not judge about it. But she did not really sound like a horrible mom. My mom abused and kicked me through our apartment when I was a little child. But there are even (way?) worse parents than mine. His mom did not really sound very abusive. He described her behaivor a lot in his stories. Though maybe I should not judge about this.
Now back to the question of this thread. I have read this more than once in this forum. People wrote they cannot grasp how successful people can be that desperate so that they feel the need to ctb. Chester Bennington responded to that in an interview before his suicide. I paraphrase it. He is a normal person with his own mental problem. The fact he is part of Linkin Park does not change that. I think there is a lot of truth in it.
We as average citizens probably cannot comprehend how it feels to be famous. For me personally I think it would solve some of my biggest problems. I need to ctb due to future poverty. And damn I would be extremely relieved not worrying this much about my financials. If I had enough money as a celeb I would probably quit the business. This would probably disappoint all my fans. But I would hire the best therapists in order to deal with it. This all sounds so easy to say. In real life this is probably way more difficult. Many really enjoy their work or they need the support of their fans. I personally could probably cope without that. But each individual is different.
If I was famous there could be several negative effects on my mental health. My paranoia (of my psychosis) would increase a lot. Solely being part of this forum makes me quite paranoid (also because it is so often in the news). I don't want to imagine what would happen if tens of millions liked to know my private life. And all the uncomfortable scrutiny. I would really hate that.
Moreover it could increase my mania a lot. If I have little success in my life I can get quite manic due to that. The megalomania of famous bipolar people can be enormous. Look at Kanye West he clearly suffers from that.
Furthermore maybe I could not even talk in online internet forums about my suffering. This is a huge coping skill for me. I think if I was famous I could probably not speak about personal problems without the big danger of leaking myself. I feel sorry for them. Still I envy their money. But if your mind is fucked and traumatized money won't fix it.
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