When the world lost Robert Martin from Binghamton Lacrosse, w/in a month of Katie Meyer from Stanford Soccer – to suicide, both D1 goalies…I was so upset that the media wasn’t pointing out the thread. So many similarities…a cause of death we must be sounding the alarm bells abt, & yet there was mostly silence.
Sadly, since then, we’ve lost 3 more college athletes: all women, & Naomi Judd, all to suicide. (I want to of course also recognize all the other losses that’ve happened since…that we haven’t heard abt.)
I’d shared the news of Naomi just a few days ago when it was confirmed a suicide. Then, in Stories, I posted abt the loss of this young beautiful girl (freshman, only 19) on the right in this pic, Arlana Miller from Southern University, also to suicide.
You couldn’t ask for two more diverse women. One white, one black. One 76, one 19. One an artist, one an athlete. One world famous, one virtually anonymous. That just scratches the surface, but both lost in the same way.
My mind sees things in patterns, & in this case w Naomi & Arlana – there’s a pattern: Two women who we learned BOTH struggled w thoughts for yrs, before succumbing to this awful disease.
They both gave us a glimpse – Naomi in her 2018 interview, Arlene in her note, as to what goes on in the mind of souls we lose this way…& what they gave us is important info:
Naomi, 4 yrs before her death: “These circuits go haywire in the brains of suicide victims.”
Arlana: “I fought this urge since my early teenage years…I gave all the fight I had.”
Circuits, urges, notes abt FIGHTING them. One wrote just before her death. One 4 yrs in advance. In both cases, does this sound like ppl who WANTED to die? Does this sound like ppl who made a CHOICE? The facts just do not support that in the least.
I’m gonna beat this drum till things change. Suicide is most often NOT a choice. It happens TO us, like a heart attack of our neural circuits – instead of our arteries. It can happen in a split second, or slowly over yrs. We have to educate to rid this awful shame so more will seek help.
Post dedicated to all the moms who’ve lost children to suicide 🥲🙏.
