Tuesday 25 February 2014

to stop the hurting..

I don't really know why, I can't really explain it, but ever since I heard the tragic news over the weekend of Charlotte Dawson's passing I felt the urge to write about it.

I, obviously, didn't know Charlotte personally, I barely even knew much about her at all. I knew she was the tall skinny ex-model with beautiful hair and a lovely smile who would pop up on Kochie's Angels and other such panels from time to time to discuss all manner of things. I knew she'd been on Australia's Next Top Model or whatever show it was but I never watched it. But, unless you have been living under a rock these past few years, I think everyone knew of her battle with Depression and the so-called Twitter Trolls who harassed her online, I watched the interview with her on 60 minutes. I am not going to dwell on what they said as I don't want to give them any 'air time' so to speak, but I cannot believe the horrible nasty things people would say about this woman that they did not even know.

I think I was sad for 2 main reasons when I heard the news. The first obviously being the tragedy that is suicide. No one will ever really know what was happening in those moments leading up to her death, if it could have been prevented, whether she was struggling or had made her peace, but the fact that it obviously got to the point where she saw no other way out brings a lump to my throat that I can't even explain. The other thing that upset and disturbed me was when I read an article about her passing and a close friend had said 'alarm bells started ringing when she had not posted anything on Twitter for 19 hours'..... Really...??? This saddens me... I'm really not sure what this says about our society in general... Are we really that disconnected from 'real life' that the only way people will worry about us is when we haven't 'tweeted' or updated our status in a while....

She has been dubbed an Ambassador for Anit-Bullying after the work she has done recently on trying to stop all this online bullying that seems to be pretty rampant at the moment and I hope that if anything good can come out of this tragedy, it's that people think twice before hitting that 'send', 'update' or 'tweet' button. I see all too much of the effects all this has on students at my school every day. Unfortunately whilst there are cowards in this world hiding behind a computer screen and a keyboard who never seem to be held accountable for their actions, we will never completely stamp it out.

I feel sad that she was brave enough to stand up and talk about Mental Illness, and in particularly depression, and try and smash the stigma, but at the same time be shot down and ridiculed for it. I can't even pretend to know what her thoughts might have been that night but I am guessing it all just got a little too much to handle. As I kept hearing people reporting on the story over the weekend say, hopefully she has found the peace she so desperately craved. RIP Charlotte..

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Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT..



10 comments:

  1. Good on you Zita, I think her death has opened up a whole lot of cans of worms for so many different reason. She was such a big twitter gal that it's sad she was also abused on it so much. The whole thing is terribly troubling :(

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  2. I don't normally get involved in thinking about celebrities dying but I do think that it is a interesting story of bullying a depression, beauty and fame. Such a sad story and I do hope that twitter will do something o stop relentless bullying and protecting those who do it.

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    1. Yeah I don't either Eleise but this one really got me thinking, not really sure why but think it's because of the very public battle she was faced with. I wish Twitter would take more action to stop what happens on there...

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  3. Like you, I didn't know much about her but I did know about the bullying and the depression. I think people need to look at it as two separate but equally difficult issues. It's really sad that even now, people cannot get the help they need. I'm sure several people assumed that she should just stay off social media if she didn't want to be bullied or depressed but can you even begin to imagine the pain and the hopelessness? Sigh.

    I didn't know about that comment by a friend...and I think that is currently shocking me more than anything else! I'd hope that friends were more likely to rely on phone calls or face to face catch ups as against twitter and facebook!

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  4. Beautiful post Zita, it is wonderful that so many discussions about bullying, mental health and suicide have started.

    Leaving some fairy wishes and butterfly kisses from #teamIBOT

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    1. Yep, if there had to be a positive I am glad that's it!

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  5. I find it interesting that a lot of people over the weekend spoke about their 'friend' Charlotte..in the time of social media I do wonder how many of them knew her in real life and how many interacted with her on social media only. It's sad that there are people in the world who go out of their way to be nasty to others. As you know I write candidly about my mental illness and every time something like this comes out (not that I think I'm in the league of Charlotte but I do put my thoughts in the public sphere) I think how lucky I am that I haven't received personal attacks because of it.

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  6. Lovely post. If Charlotte's death brings depression and suicide to the forefront of peoples minds then that is one small positive. xxx

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