Credit: Chloe Cushman/The Guardian
When he was 22, Chris Gethard thought every day about killing himself. He thought about it so often that eventually it didn’t even feel weird any more. Then, one day, he pulled his car over to the side of a bridge. He was ready to jump.
Instead, Gethard called his ex-girlfriend, who told him he had to get help immediately, and that if he didn’t by morning, she would call his mother. Gethard had told his parents he was getting help at Rutgers, but once he got home, he told his mom that this was a lie, and that he was extremely depressed all the time.
That was 11 years ago. Gethard is now 34, a professional comedian at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and on television shows like Broad City. He’s one of the relatively lucky ones. That night on the bridge – and later, when he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder – his parents had health insurance that covered him. Now, he is able to pay out of pocket for a therapist of his choosing, though he’s healthy enough that he barely feels the need for their bi-weekly meetings. And in the process of his own recovery, because of the many obstacles to obtaining the most basic level of psychiatric care in the US, he’s become a remote caregiver for other people struggling with their own mental illness.
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