I have been keeping a close eye on this situation with my radio brother in San Fran by the name of JV Vandergrift. I don’t know JV, but I do know his struggle.
If you’re not familiar with the situation, JV has struggled with mental illness and has now been missing for several days. For the sake of his family, I hope to God that he shows up and everything is fine. HERE is this story.
On the outside, this story may seem odd, but I can tell you as someone dealing with my own darkness, this makes all the sense in the world. A lot of you know what he is going through too. To say that I have never thought about just walking into traffic would be a lie. To say that I have never thought to just go into the woods and end it would be a lie too. This is a constant struggle that can be triggered at any moment. I can tell you this, thinking of my daughters growing up without their Dad has probably saved me from going deep with this shit storm in my head. I don’t want to make this about me, but I feel like I have to make sense of what mental illness is especially now that it has a big name attached to it. Someone in your life is not doing well. Trust me. This shit is scary and it can just take over. I know someone is reading this and is feeling what I am saying. I get it. It took me my whole life to find out exactly what the fuck is going on with me. Reach out for help. You got this.
Chris