“I’m reluctant at best to share my experiences so openly,” he wrote in the caption accompanying the three videos. “Partly because I worry about perception. But I also want to be careful not to share too much for the sake of sharing.
This was his last attempt to raise mental health awareness, efforts that began in 2016, when he first shared his experiences in public.
“I don’t want to be the poster for the breaking, that’s not what I’m trying to do,†Richards said in an interview. “I want to be an advocate for mental well-being. If I can speak from my own experiences in order to broaden the conversation across culture and society, then I am ready to carry this flag in my own way. “
But for his climbing teammates, resentments persist. “I think he thought he could go away and become a ‘mental health advocate’ again,†the filmmaker Joyce wrote in an email. “Cory had to create a new narrative that shielded his ego from its pervasive fear that it didn’t matter.”
Richards understands the anger directed at him, but sees it as symptomatic of the deep misunderstanding of mental illness that is pervasive in our culture. “If I had broken my leg, the conversation would be, ‘Well that’s a bummer, sometimes you go into the mountains and things happen,’†he said.
“But because mental well-being is a matter of the mind and is only visible through behavior, it is almost incomprehensible for people to apply the same logic and objectivity to it. I cannot demand that the world understand my experience, but I can ask them to believe it is true.
There are no easy answers when it comes to assessing the responsibility of a mentally ill person to their teammates in the sport of life or death of mountaineering, but Richards believes that this should not exclude participation in high stakes projects, or life in general. “What people facing these challenges need is more participation, more commitment to understand that mental health issues do not prevent them from living a full life.”
