Dear Tim Bergling aka Avicii,

Truthfully, I still do not want to believe it. When I got the iHeartRadio notification that you were dead at 28, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I just had to ask myself, ”How?”

The following week, your family released a statement saying that you struggled with finding peace during your time on Earth. You had stopped touring and just focused on making music. It was quite hard for me to read that statement, because nothing is more disheartening than parents who have lost a child.

With that being said...I understand why. Your parents were right when they talked about your struggle with fame and Hollywood. Fame is not for everybody, and when you’re passionate about your craft and want to do that and nothing else, it can be a challenge dealing with being in the spotlight and everyone monitoring your every move. If I were famous, I likely would never have been able to deal with that.

I guess it just goes to show that you never know what somebody is going through. I, like millions of others, have always thought you seemed happy. You made music that is easy on the ears and uplifts people with every note. You lived your life to the fullest and, in a way, shared those very experiences with the world.

I admit I'm really not the biggest EDM fan. But your music always rivaled all; it incorporated many different genres and created a unique and pleasant sound that everyone can enjoy. Every time you dropped a new song, it was put on repeat forever. This is how strong of an impact you made on us, Tim.

I hope your passing can be a wake-up call for men that are secretly and silently suffering from a mental illness. For the longest time, a stigma of mental illness among men has existed. This stigma ties in with the hypermasculinity that society enforces upon men: They need to be strong, disregard emotions, and act “manly”. But hypermasculinity does more damage than it does good in the long run.

Why is it even wrong if a guy is seen crying? What is so wrong with men seeking help for their mental illness? Quickly, that man is shunned by many parts of society for doing normal human things and just being human.

I hope that me penning this open letter will teach young men that not only is it OK to cry, but it is also OK to ask for help. They have to remember to keep in touch with their friends on a regular basis. Even just asking them "You good?" is sufficient, because more often than not, we are not as OK as we want people to believe. Maybe a "You good?" is all a person needs to stay alive for another day.

Listening to "Wake Me Up" and "Without You" will carry a lot of personal significance now. We really do have to learn to live without you and wish we could wake you up, but one thing is for sure: The joy and happiness you brought your fans and loved ones are irreplaceable and will never fade away. I hope you rest easy up there, Tim.

Sincerely,

Abeni, on behalf of your loving fans.