Kurt Cobain was not a 'tortured genius', he had an illness

Creativity
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21 years after the death of Kurt Cobain, novelist Matt Haig says the way we glamorise the suicides of famous artists inhibits our understanding of mental illness

By Matt Haig7:00AM BST 05 Apr 2015

On April 5 1994, 21 very short years ago, Kurt Cobain took his own life. I was a teenager at the time and can remember news of the Nirvana frontman’s death had a devastating impact, but I was also culturally aware enough to know it fit a kind of template.

Rock stars were troubled. They died young, often at their own hands. In my immaturity, I thought there was something cool about it. Tragic, yes, sure, but I didn’t really feel that tragedy. Rock and roll was youth. It resisted the world of safe compromises that getting old entails. Getting old meant mortgages and proper jobs and marriage and responsibilities. When I was 18, I had no real understanding of the pain Cobain must have been going through to get to that end-point. I just bought into the myth. The troubled-artist-too-pure-for-this-world idea.

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But, he did have a gun…

And I swear that I don’t have a gun
No I don’t have a gun
No I don’t have a gun
Memoria, memoria
Memoria, memoria
(No I don’t have a gun)

This one says something …

I’m so happy because today
I’ve found my friends
They’re in my head…
I like it, I’m not gonna crack
I miss you, I’m not gonna crack
I love you, I’m not gonna crack
I killed you, I’m not gonna crack

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maybe Kurt wasn’t a tortured genius…but he was a genius.

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Kurt Cobain suffered from Bipolar Disorder - I can relate completely to the song Lithium - the Lyrics ring so true!
I cried when he died, I will never forget that day.
May he rest in peace - He was a genius for sure

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The dose required for lithium to be effective is close to the dose at which it becomes toxic. With all the drugs Kurt Cobain did he probably made the lithium toxic. That was a contributing factor to his suicide.

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I don’t know if Kurt was on Lithium, especially during his suicide - a gun shot killed him, not Lithium.
No I now see what you are saying

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I don’t think that he did commit suicide I think his wife had him whacked.

Of course I’m a nut case but when the details were released that was what I first felt.

It’s like he made a effort to have people believe it was suicide.

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If he had Bi-Polar then he was under the heading of “dual diagnosis”, because both him and Courtney Love were die-hard heroin addicts.

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Some guy was offered thousands to kill kurt. After he was shown on tape telling everyone this he ended up having a train accident that took his life.

Kurt was also 27. Strange things happen in the business sometimes. Im just sayin, sometimes things happen in our world having to do with certain numbers.

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Kurt was from my home city… and we also lost Andrew Wood and Lane Stanley.;… and Mia Zapata…

Pearl Jam… Alice in Chains… Temple of the Dog… Soundgarden… Screaming Trees… Mudhoney… Candlebox…

I do like grunge… but this city has a huge share of tortured geniuses.

When ever I think of Cobain… I always seem to think… poor Francis Bean. The fact that she grew up is pretty amazing.

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