Why the Actor’s Life Story Should Act as a Reminder About the Life Long Struggles With Mental Health
Like everybody else I woke up to the news on the 28th October 2023 that Friends actor Matthew Perry had died. This is where I do have to make a small confession that I caught the story due to surfing the internet just after midnight that night. I was actually looking at a completely different news item altogether, however when I first came across it I genuinely believed it to be a hoax simply because of the news source it was on. It was a newsfeed that was linked to a Right Wing group, hence why I never took it at face value.
However, after I when online the following morning I checked the British newsfeeds and there it was, the story staring me right back in the face. I was actually quite shocked as my first thought was how did he die and what were the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise. No offence but I still count 54 as a young age.
The more I read and heard by those who both knew him from his acting career as well as those who knew him from his personal life I began to realise there was more to his life than I expected. As a comic actor you begin to have this belief that their life is probably as interesting and warm as what we see on-screen. It behind the scenes is where it masks a completely different story.
Like with legendary actor Robbin Williams, Perry had a long history of struggles with mental health problems. As it turned out they stemmed from quite early on in his life, and it’s at this point we remind ourselves that struggles with mental health issues can in fact be a lifelong sentence
I will give you another example. British-American comic and actress, Ruby Wax. Now for those of you who can remember watching her in the 90’s on various TV shows, myself included, we all had this idea that because she came across as a really sweet, intelligent woman with a hilarious sense of humour we all thought that she was just the same behind closed doors. Oh how wrong we all were
For me, I was actually quite surprised when I learnt about her struggles with Biopolar Disorder and Depression. I was genuinely somewhat bamboozled because in my eyes people like her, including Robbin Williams and Stephen Fry just appeared to be living these incredible lives where nothing ever seemed boring or problematic so I was confused and curious about this.
So like with Matthew Perry it was only when I started to learn about the man’s past I began to realise what led to his troubles. Trauma, abuse, neglect and socially ostracised, these are just a few things which can lead to some serious issues because they’re always going to be there in one way or another. As life goes on people turn to a number of different things in a bid to blank it out or to try and numb the pain, hence where addiction can often come into it.
In some cases people will practically throw themselves into their work to cope and forget about it. In some cases, and it wasn’t until after Williams suicide that I began to wonder if that when actors and comedians who live with these problems create a sort of alter-ego of someone who they’d rather be. Kind of like a form of mental escape, becoming an individual who doesn’t have those issues.
Now I don’t actually know if that is the case, but rather just a theory is case you’re wondering
However, one of the positives that actually came out of this was that Matthew was able to turn a horrible negative into a fillfulling positive. This was because he had a very good understanding of how mental and addiction can go hand-in-hand and in many cases can spiral out of control. Quite often people don’t fully realise the power of relapses and just how hard they can be to overcome
He was very well known for his work with addiction groups and helping addicts. In 2011 he converted one of his homes into a rehabilitation centre for addicts. In that same year he lobbied the US Congress to provide financial support for help centres for people trying to overcome drug addiction. Now that really is something
Whilst Matthew Perry’s life ended in such an upsetting way, hopefully his life story, both the ups and downs and all the things in-between can help others
