This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.

We’ve taken a look at famous people who have attempted suicide, as well as celebrities who committed suicide, so let’s now look at suicide itself: some of the causes of suicide, warning signs of suicide, and resources for people considering suicide.

Please keep in mind that this post is just an overview – and a brief one at that – and by no means meant to act as a substitute for medical professional advice.

Read on.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, three years ago, in 2004, suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s estimated that per every completed suicide there are at least 8 to 25 attempted suicides.

Back in May 2008 I posted Suicide Warning Signs: In Light Of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Within that post are:

• Suicide warning signs, as well as questions you can ask yourself and observations you can make regarding your loved ones who may be contemplating suicide.
• Suggestions on what to do if you think or know for sure a loved one is planning suicide, i.e. get help.
• Web sites and organizations to check out for help with suicidal situations.

I also highly recommend checking out the following:

• Suicide: You Are Not Exempt – Marijke Durning shares the experience of her brother’s suicide with Mental Health Notes.
• The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance’s very thorough section on suicide prevention which aims to help you better understand suicidal thinking, offers suggestions on how to cope with and get help for suicidal thoughts, helps you better recognize suicide warning signs, and describes how you can respond to a suicidal situation. The DBSA also provides a round up of suicide hot lines and Web sites.
• The National Institute of Mental Health’s section Suicide in the U.S.: Statistics and Prevention, which also covers risk factors and what roles age, gender, and ethnicity play in suicide statistics.
• Two sections from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Web site: The Emergency Department Resource Toolkit, which provides downloadable versions of informative brochures for consumers, families, and providers, and their intensive section covering resources, organizations, and discussion and support groups.

If you are contemplating suicide, please get help. If you so much as suspect someone you know is contemplating suicide, please get help. There are resources available to you, and there are people out there trained and willing to give you the help you need.

Image: morgueFile

Post from: Blisstree

Tell Me More About Suicide: Risks, Warning Signs, and Resources

This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.

In this Celebrity Health Week post, we’ll take a look at some celebrities who have either reportedly attempted suicide, or who have completed suicide.

Please note that I am not an authority on celebrities and mental illness, nor am I an authority on celebrities who have committed suicide. For a celebrity to be on this list, he or she or a spouse or reliable family member must have publicly discussed – verbally or otherwise – his or her suicide attempt or completion, or, in the case of the deceased, professionals must have addressed it later on.

Read on.

Halle Berry, actress, discussed her attempt at suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning with Parade.

Drew Carey, comedian, actor, and game show host, discussed his depression and two suicide attempts – one at the age of 18 and another in his 20s – with Nancy O’Dell of Access Hollywood.

Robert Van Winkle, aka Vanilla Ice (Ice Ice Baby!), reportedly attempted suicide twice in 1994 after struggles with drug abuse, depression, and being dropped from his record label.

Drew Barrymore, former seriously troubled child star turned seriously successful actress and producer, attempted suicide during her early teenage years.

Gary Coleman, actor, disclosed two suicide attempts by sleeping pills in a 1993 Geraldo interview.

Brigitte Bardot, actress, reportedly attempted suicide twice.

Johnny Cash, country music singer, attempted suicide in 1967.

Walt Disney, Academy Award-winning film producer, screenwriter, director, animator, voice actor, and entrepreneur, reportedly attempted suicide in the early 1930s.

Eminem, aka Marshall Mathers, rapper, reportedly attempted suicide in the mid 1990s.

Kim Mathers, Eminem’s two-time ex, reportedly attempted suicide in 2000.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, author, reportedly attempted suicide.

Judy Garland, actress, reportedly attempted suicide in the early 1950s. Some speculate her accidental death by overdose was actually suicide.

Billy Joel, musician, reportedly attempted suicide in the early 1970s.

John McCain, the potential next President of the United States, reportedly attempted suicide during Vietnam.

Mindy McCready, country music singer, reportedly attempted suicide twice.

Sinead O’Connor, musician, reportedly attempted suicide in the late 1990s.

Yoko Ono, artist, musician, and John Lennon’s widow, reportedly attempted suicide in the 1960s.

Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of F@&*#%g Darkness!, reportedly attempted suicide several times as a teenager.

Jack Osbourne, the Prince’s son, frankly discusses his depression, alcohol and substance abuse, and suicide attempt in his book 21 Years Gone: The Autobiography.

Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy’s assassin, reportedly attempted suicide when he failed to gain Soviet citizenship.

Edgar Allan Poe, writer and poet, reportedly attempted suicide in the late 1840s.

Lou Reed, musician whose parents confined to a mental hospital to “ward off” homosexual behavior, reportedly attempted suicide.

Donna Summer, singer, reportedly attempted suicide.

Elizabeth Taylor, actress, reportedly attempted suicide.

Tina Turner, singer, reportedly attempted suicide in the late 1960s.

Sid Vicious, former Sex Pistols bassist, reportedly attempted suicide in 1978. Vicious died of a drug overdose in 1979.

Hank Williams, Jr., singer and son of Hank Williams, Sr., reportedly attempted suicide in the 1970s.

Owen Wilson, actor, reportedly attempted suicide in 2007.

Sadly, the following celebrities completed their suicides:

• Kurt Cobain, musician and lead singer of Nirvana.
• Ernest Hemingway, writer.
• Margaux Hemingway, actress and Ernest’s granddaughter.
• Terry L. Long, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman.
• Marilyn Monroe, actress. (Though this is speculated.)
• Sylvia Plath, poet.
• Freddie Prinze, actor and father of Freddie Prinze, Jr.
• Anne Sexton, poet.
• Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author.
• Vincent van Gogh, artist.
• Virginia Woolf, writer.

For more detailed lists, check out the NNDB’s lists of suicide attempts and suicide as causes of deaths.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more information about suicide, as well as my letters to a few of the people discussed during Celebrity Health Week.

Image: Newscom

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrities And Suicide