I think it just shows how much people trivialize mental health issues, and how the internet and media has made it so much easier for people to do that. Anyone can sit behind a keyboard and say anything they like about someone's appearance or personal issues or post a photo of an ill person in a bad state and they never have to see the consequences of what they've just done, they just get to feel smug about taking a shot at a famous person. If you had to walk up to a person and make fun of their appearance, you'd see that person crumple in front of you and it makes you realize that what you've said is really shitty and hurtful. That's how children tend to realize the rights and wrongs in social interaction, that's how they know that they shouldn't hurt their friends' feelings. In the world of the internet, no one ever has to experience the emotional reaction of the person they've made fun of, so it makes it much easier to depersonalize the whole situation and dehumanize strangers. And worst of all, people seem to think they have a right to do so simply because a person is famous or wealthy. The whole "This person is rich and famous, fuck them, why should they be depressed?" thing.
We have a long way to go in tackling mental health issues and society's attitudes towards it, and the media isn't helping by turning mentally ill celebrities into spectacles for people to poke fun at. They did it to Amy, they did it to Britney Spears (who is probably lucky to still be alive), and they'll probably continue to do it. No lessons are being learned, I don't think, which is probably the saddest part of all.
Well said and it gets worse. Yesterday I saw a news story about a guy that humiliated his daughter for something she had done and then published it on the net. She committed suicide the next day.