Celebrity suicides remind us issue hits close to home too

Suicide.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

The recent deaths of famous chef Anthony Bourdain and famed fashion designer Kate Spade certainly has people talking about issue.

Netflix recently came out with season two of its hit series “13 Reasons Why,” which revolves around the death of a teenage girl, her reasons for killing her self, and the aftermath on those around her.

It doesn’t just happen in Hollywood, on television or in the movies. Suicide is a very real problem whether it is teenagers, celebrities, veterans or every day people.

Many of us have been affected by the suicide of someone we know.

Several years ago, I bumped into a friend of mine, who I hadn’t talked with in quite some time. We were at the same place waiting to talk with the same person.

We sat there and talked for probably 20 – 30 minutes. Most of the time, my friend talked about their spouse and child, but mostly about their child, who my friend loved dearly.

The next day I was in my Corbin office when a co-worker came in and announced that my friend – who I had spoken with less than 24 hours earlier – had killed themself.

I was in shock and disbelief. I had no clue there was anything wrong with my friend when I talked to them.

I exclaimed in disbelief to my coworkers that I had just seen my friend not 24 hours earlier.

Around this same general time frame, another friend, who I hadn’t seen in some time, also killed themself.

Sometimes there are no obvious warning signs if someone decides to kill themselves. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent it.

Other times there are warning signs.

After these suicides, another friend of mine posted on Facebook that they were quitting a few organizations, which they were really involved with and enjoyed. It worried me, so I just sent the friend a simple message asking if they were OK.

It turned out they were planning to go back to school and they were just trying to simplify some things in their life to accommodate that. My friend thanked me for asking though, and noted that I was the only person, who had.

Not all that long ago, I was speaking with another friend, whose spouse had died months earlier. The friend confided in me that not long after that happened, they got really low emotionally speaking and thought about killing themself.

I asked my friend to promise me one thing. If they got that low again, then they would call me before doing anything stupid. My friend assured me that they were OK now, but promised they would call if they got to feeling like that again.

If you know someone, who is feeling down, depressed, or extremely stressed sometimes you can make a difference simply by showing them that someone cares.

If you are reading this and thinking about harming yourself, I would just say to please, please seek help. Please call someone.

Your local community mental health center, Cumberland River Behavioral Health (Comp Care), will see anybody. They can be reached at (606) 549-1440 or (606) 528-7010.

Below are some links to resources you can seek if you or someone you care about needs help.

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline –1-800-273-TALK (8255) or http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
• Zero Suicide in Healthcare and Behavioral Healthcare – www.zerosuicide.org.
• Suicide Prevention Resource Center – www.sprc.org.
• National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention – http://actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org.
• American Association of Suicidology – www.suicidology.org.
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention – www.afsp.org.
• National Council for Behavioral Health – http://www.thenationalcouncil.org.