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Tag: Suicide

  • Ashley Madison Hack Has Allegedly Resulted In Two Suicides, San Antonio Police Officer Takes His Own Life

    There have been unconfirmed reports that suggested two people have taken their lives over the Ashley Madison hack.

    According to Toronto police service staff superintendent Bryce Evans, the two Ashley Madison suicides were associated with the leak of the site’s customer profiles.

    One of the suicide victims was Captain Michael Gorhum of the San Antonio Police Department. Gorhum, who served in Texas’ police force for 25 years, reportedly took his life just days after information surfaced that his official email address was among those included in the Ashley Madison data dump.

    During a press conference, Evans acknowledged that the reports of the suicides were still unconfirmed and that Ashley Madison being a cheating website was “of no interest to us as the investigative teams.” The acting superintendent has asked for aid from the hacking community and addressed the Impact Team as well.

    “I want to make it very clear to you your actions are illegal and we will not be tolerating them,” Evans warned. “This is your wake-up call.”

    The rumored Ashley Madison suicide was something that security analyst Brian Krebs feared would happen. The analyst was the first one to report the hack, having received a message from the hackers.

    “There’s a very real chance that people are going to overreact,” Krebs stated last week. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw people taking their lives because of this, and obviously piling on with ridicule and trying to out people is not gonna help the situation.”

    The Ashley Madison hack is one of the largest hacking jobs ever pulled off, with the hackers getting their hands on about 33 million profiles. Calling themselves the Impact Team, the hackers demanded that the infidelity website and its sister site Established Men be shut down not because of the morals (or lack thereof) of the site but because it required clients to pay a fee in order for their accounts to be deleted permanently. According to the hackers, the company still retained the customer’s personal information.

    The Toronto police are said to be dealing with the corresponding “spin-offs of crimes and further victimization” that came from the fallout of the Ashley Madison hack. Extortion and phishing attempts have been noted as among these crimes.

    One scam comprised of “hack checking” websites gathering the emails of those who curiously checked if their names were included in the hack. The hackers would then send malignant software to those emails.

    Another new scam that Evans detailed were sites that claim to erase a person’s name from the Ashley Madison database.

  • Maria Shriver Joins Family in Celebration of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 68th Birthday

    Maria Shriver Joins Family in Celebration of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 68th Birthday

    Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger may be divorced, but that didn’t keep her from celebrating the former ‘governator’s’ 68th birthday along with him and two of their kids in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

    Schwarzenegger met up with daughters Katherine Schwarzenegger, who is 25, and Christina Schwarzenegger, who is 23, at the Montage hotel, where Maria Shriver joined them for dinner.

    Maria Shriver, as always, looked lovely. She wore a navy blue eyelet dress accessorized with a white bag with a gold chain. She wore a navy clip in her hair. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a bit more casual, wearing a black polo shirt and slacks. He arrived wearing tortoiseshell sunglasses.

    It was back in 2011 that Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted he fathered a child with his family’s housekeeper Mildred Baena. Shortly thereafter he and Maria Shriver split up. He has since developed a relationship with the boy–Joseph Baena. Joseph is the same age as Arnold and Maria’s youngest son Christopher.

    Despite their split, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have worked hard to co-parent their four children. That’s apparently been a bit easier than most might imagine, since she celebrated his birthday this week with the family, too.

    Could you imagine going out to dinner with your ex on his or her birthday? Of course it has been four years since Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger split. Maybe time has softened her heart and allowed for some forgiveness.

    Arnold Schwarzenegger recently enjoyed a return to the big screen in Terminator Genisys. Maria Shriver traveled to Berlin with her kids to attend the film’s premiere in that city.

  • Josh Duggar: Is He Under Suicide Watch in Light of ’19 Kids and Counting’ Cancellation?

    Josh Duggar is definitely the reason behind TLC’s cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting. The network can’t even create a spinoff given the way Josh’s scandal has tarnished the Duggar family name. Since shortly after his sexual molestation scandal broke in the media, Josh has kept a very low profile. He resigned from his job and moved his family–pregnant wife Anna Duggar and their three children–back to Arkansas. He hasn’t appeared in any photos in which the Duggar family has gathered.

    Less than a month ago, a report surfaced, claiming Josh Duggar was depressed and possibly even suicidal. Do you suppose he is now under suicide watch in light of the cancellation of his family’s reality show?

    “Josh has seen his world and his family’s world crumble,” a source said in June. “And he knows that it’s all his fault. He can never rebound himself from this. He is hiding away leaving his loved ones fearing the worst, [that] he will do something drastic.”

    Being devout, conservative Christians means the Duggar family shouldn’t even consider the notion of suicide. But as anyone with even remote knowledge of the taking of one’s life understands, religious beliefs seldom enter into the act when someone becomes distraught enough to consider it.

    People considering suicide require serious clinical, psychological–and often psychiatric–help. Hopefully if there is any indication that Josh Duggar is suicidal, someone will insist he get this kind of help–immediately.

    Also weighing on Josh Duggar is the notion that TLC will air a documentary special in August. That special will discuss child sexual abuse, and it will feature two of Josh Duggar’s victims–his sisters Jill Duggar Dillard and Jessa Duggar Seewald.

    While Josh Duggar certainly committed some unthinkable crimes, he also is a human being with a wife and family. If he is experiencing any kind of suicidal tendencies, one can only pray his family will recognize them and insist on intervening with resources. While the Duggar family strongly believes in the power of prayer, it’s unlikely they can pray suicidal thoughts away, however. Outside help is needed.

    Do you think it’s possible that Josh Duggar might be experiencing thoughts of suicide in light of the cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting?

  • Kurt Cobain Tried to Kill Himself in High School

    Kurt Cobain attempted suicide at least once before his death in April 1994. That is one of the many revelations of the HBO documentary “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.”

    The film was put together using some never-before-revealed home videos and personal audiotapes.

    In one scene of the film, Kurt Cobain describes a time in high school when he tried to lie in front of an oncoming train, weighted down by cinder blocks, in an attempt to end his life. The rain sped by on a parallel track. Were it not for that error, the world would have had no “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

    The documentary also reveals more about Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love.

    “For over 20 years, the public has come to know Courtney through the media’s (filter),” filmmaker Brett Morgen said. One of the interesting things about ‘Montage of Heck’ is we experience Courtney through Kurt’s eyes. And who we come to meet are two young 20-year-olds who are intoxicated with a toxic love. But I think the film really challenges viewers who come to the movie with predisposed ideas about Courtney.”

    Just last month, Frances Bean Cobain told Rolling Stone that she actually doesn’t like Nirvana all that much.

    “I don’t really like Nirvana that much [grins]. Sorry, promotional people, Universal. I’m more into Mercury Rev, Oasis, Brian Jonestown Massacre [laughs]. The grunge scene is not what I’m interested in. But ‘Territorial Pissings’ [on Nevermind] is a fucking great song. And ‘Dumb’ [on In Utero] – I cry every time I hear that song. It’s a stripped-down version of Kurt’s perception of himself – of himself on drugs, off drugs, feeling inadequate to be titled the voice of a generation.”

    “My dad was exceptionally ambitious. But he had a lot thrown on him, exceeding his ambition. He wanted his band to be successful. But he didn’t want to be the fucking voice of a generation.”

    One of the toughest things for Frances Bean Cobain, and an odd thing about a dead musician like Kurt, is that his death immortalizes him. This new documentary takes that even further.

    “Even though Kurt died in the most horrific way possible, there is this mythology and romanticism that surrounds him, because he’s 27 forever. The shelf life of an artist or musician isn’t particularly long. Kurt has gotten to icon status because he will never age. He will always be that relevant in that time and always be beautiful.”

  • Depression, Suicide at Core of Mariel Hemingway’s Young-Adult Book

    Mariel Hemingway is the granddaughter of famous novelist Ernest Hemingway. While Ernest Hemingway is known for his wonderful writing, he is also known for how he left this world: he put a double-barreled shotgun to his own head.

    In fact, Mariel Hemingway has seen troubled lives throughout her family. Her own sister, Margaux, also took her own life. Mental illness, depression and other factors have colored the Hemingway legacy for generations.

    Now Mariel Hemingway is talking about it. She has penned two books on the subjects of depression, mental illness, and suicide. One is a young-adult version called Invisible Girl.

    Her publisher says:

    Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, it was Mariel’s mission as a girl to escape the desperate cycles of severe mental health issues that had plagued generations of her family. Surrounded by a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother), it was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head… Young readers who are sharing a similar painful childhood will see their lives and questions reflected on the pages of her diary—and they may even be inspired to start their own diary to channel their pain. Her voice will speak directly to teens across the world and tell them there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    Mariel Hemingway says that she feels a unique opportunity to talk about these issues of depression and suicide.

    “I am a Hemingway, and to me, that means that I have a ticket to understanding a world of darkness, of courage, of sadness, of excitement, and — at times — of complete lunacy. And yet, other people with other names feel these things too. It may just be that they don’t have an American myth to which they can connect themselves.”

    When asked why she did a young-adult version of this book about depression and suicide, Mariel Hemingway said:

    “Because that’s (the age) when I was the most scared. Also when I was the most confused. A lot of kids don’t know that there’s somebody out there that gets it. You don’t know it’s not normal. I thought that when parents fought and there was broken glass and blood on the wall, that you cleaned it up because this was your job.”

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks Family Suicide Legacy

    Mariel Hemingway starred in Woody Allen’s Manhattan in 1979. But it is her famous surname that always precedes her.

    Mariel Hemingway was born into the family of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, author of such classics as:
    The Sun Also Rises (1926)
    A Farewell to Arms (1929)
    For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
    The Old Man and the Sea (1951)

    Mariel’s grandfather Ernest Hemingway is also famous for committing suicide with a shotgun in 1961. Mariel Hemingway also lost her supermodel sister Margaux to suicide in 1996. In all seven of her family members have taken their own lives.

    Now Mariel Hemingway is speaking out about this family curse in a book called Out Came the Sun.

    Her publisher describes the book:

    “She opens her eyes. The room is dark. She hears yelling, smashed plates, and wishes it was all a terrible dream. But it isn’t. This is what it was like growing up as a Hemingway. In this deeply moving, searingly honest new memoir, actress and mental health icon Mariel Hemingway shares in candid detail the story of her troubled childhood in a famous family haunted by depression, alcoholism, illness, and suicide.

    “Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, it was Mariel’s mission as a girl to escape the desperate cycles of severe mental health issues that had plagued generations of her family. Surrounded by a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother), it was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head.”

    Perhaps the “keep her head” comment was not thought out well. Ernest Hemingway blew his brains out.

    Nonetheless, Mariel Hemingway tackles the topics of depression and suicide, as well as other family demons head-on. She writes.

    “I am a Hemingway, and to me, that means that I have a ticket to understanding a world of darkness, of courage, of sadness, of excitement, and — at times — of complete lunacy. And yet, other people with other names feel these things too. It may just be that they don’t have an American myth to which they can connect themselves.”

  • Hugh Hefner’s Former Girlfriend Holly Madison Was Suicidal At Playboy Mansion, Releases Memoir

    Sexy fantasies of unending bikini parties arise when talking about the Playboy Mansion. But to former Playboy bunny and Girls Next Door star Holly Madison, life inside its walls could not have been more different than what people perceives.

    Madison writes a memoir which tells of her life as one of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends living inside the wonderland that is the Playboy Mansion. She reveals the veiled truth about sex, drugs, and backstabbing, ambitious bunnies surrounding her during her life as a bunny. The 35-year-old also shares her feelings of anxiety and the time she contemplated suicide while sitting alone in a bathtub.

    “Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny” digs into delicious details on Madison’s darker moments as told firsthand. In a press release, Harper Collins said that “In this shockingly candid and surprisingly moving memoir, this thoughtful and introspective woman opens up about life inside the Mansion, the drugs, the sex, the abuse, the infamous parties, and her real behind-the-scenes life with Bridget, Kendra, and, of course, Mr. Playboy himself.”

    “Life inside the notorious Mansion wasn’t a dream at all—and quickly became her nightmare. After losing her identity, her sense of self-worth, and her hope for the future, Holly found herself sitting alone in a bathtub contemplating suicide.”

    Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson were Madison’s co-stars in The Girls Next Door, which documented their lives living in luxury as Hefner’s girlfriends in 2005.

    “I’m excited to finally share my story and what I’ve learned from my personal experiences both inside and outside of the Playboy Mansion,” Madison said in an interview with Us Weekly.

    “I think my stories will surprise people and I’m looking forward to lifting the veil of mystique and clearing up the misconceptions so often associated with my life,” she added.

    Madison now lives with her husband Pasquale Rotella and 2-year-old daughter, Rainbow.

    “Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny” hits bookstores in June 23.

  • Kids Read Mean Tweets, Reminds Us Bullies Suck

    Kids Read Mean Tweets, Reminds Us Bullies Suck

    On Jimmy Kimmel Live! there’s an ongoing skit segment where “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets”, showcasing (as the name suggests) superstars reading hurtful tweets from average schmucks.

    Since celebrities are too privileged to bear the weight of feelings, it’s a good chuckle for us, reminding them that before they drove around in their golden Lamborghinis and swam in Luis Vuitton pools full of naked models, they too were once human:

    On March 11th, The Canadian Safe School Network and advertisement agency John St. published a video on YouTube titled “Kids Read Mean Tweets” which parodies the “Mean Tweets” series and takes the format to a whole new level.

    What starts off as presumed and familiar comedy turns into an inevitable backslap of reality proving once again that Canadians know better than us: Cyber-bullying is no joke.

    At first, a young girl reads a tweet slut shaming her with accompanying background laughter. The final kid on the screen lowers her head, reading a tweet that says, “No one likes you. Do everyone a favour. Just kill yourself.” before walking off the set.

    “It’s easy to laugh at rich celebrities reading some of the terrible things people have said about them online. We condone it. We even revel in it,” the advertiser, Canadian Safe School Network, said in a statement, as reported by AdWeek.

    “But this same behavior is turning almost 40 percent of Canadian kids into victims of cyberbullying. It’s a growing epidemic that invades their lives and leaves many feeling like there’s no way out.”

    Canadian Safe Schools even launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise money, which would go into spreading the video around and raise awareness about the troubling issue.

    It’s unclear of whether or not the tweets are legitimate, as a Twitter search didn’t turn up or match some of the tweets featured in the video. Even if the messages are fabricated, it doesn’t derail the fact that cyber bullying is ongoing issue that pushes children to an early grave.

    Here’s hoping that some of those millions of nightly viewers that watch talk shows take a gander at a more serious issue. Perhaps NBC or Mr. Kimmel can find it in their hearts to make the video more prominent.

  • Jillian Jacobson Counseled Students on Suicide Just Weeks Before Killing Herself

    Jillian Jacobson was well-liked by her students. The photography instructor was only 31 years old and lived in Anaheim with her 34-year-old husband. She taught at El Dorado High School in the Orange County town of Placentia.

    Students say that they saw no signs of Jillian Jacobson appearing to be depressed. But when they arrived for class last week, they found the classroom door locked. It was 8:40 a.m., and student thought Jacobson was just late, so they had another teacher open the door to let them in. But they found Jacobson hanging from the ceiling.

    Two staff members got Jillian Jacobson down and called 911.

    “She appears to have committed suicide prior to the start of school at some point in time,” Placentia police Lt. Eric Point said. “When police and fire arrived, the teacher was in cardiac arrest,” Point said. “After several minutes, she was declared deceased at the scene.”

    “Right away we knew something really horrible had happened,” freshman Tessa Hoover told the Orange County Register newspaper.

    Jillian Jacobson’s own father had committed suicide four years earlier. She had recently done a week-long unit on depression for freshmen at the high school. She told students that, if they ever felt down, they should ask for help. She talked about how much a person’s suicide affects those around them.

    Jillian Jacobson had been employed by El Dorado High School since 2008. She had a bachelor’s degree in ceramics and glass, and art education and a master’s degree in educational leadership.

    Jillian Jacobson also participated in a children’s art camp at Cal State Fullerton. In her bio on the website for the camp, she said:

    “My goal every summer is to give campers an experience they will always remember, and to send them home with art work they will be proud of for years to come.”

  • Facebook Steps Up Its Suicide Prevention Efforts

    Since 2011, Facebook has had a system in place for reporting suicidal content. Of course, Facebook’s advice if you encounter a direct threat on the site is to contact law enforcement – but you can also alert Facebook to the suicidal posts, which it’ll investigate.

    As it stands, that reporting process is a bit clunky.

    Facebook, in a new initiative with various organizations like Forefront, Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and Save.org, is improving both the tools it offers for both the reporting of suicidal content and the way it handles it after it’s been reported.

    Now, if you see a friend suggest that they may be considering harming themselves, you can click the “report post” button and be given the option to flag it as suicidal in nature. At that point, you’ll be given the options to private message your friend, contact another Facebook friend to help, or get in touch with a suicide helpline.

    Once you report the post, Facebook will begin to investigate. If it feels as though the person is indeed in distress, Facebook will initiate a new protocol for the next time the person logs in.

    “Hi _____, a friend thinks you might be going through something difficult and asked us to look at your recent post,” says the message.

    Facebook will then ask if the person wants to talk to someone (a hotline), get tips and support, and more.

    “Keeping you safe is our most important responsibility on Facebook,” says the company. “We worked with mental health organizations Forefront, Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org and others on these updates, in addition to consulting with people who had lived experience with self-injury or suicide. One of the first things these organizations discussed with us was how much connecting with people who care can help those in distress.”

    Facebook says that the new reporting features are now available for about half of US users and will continue to roll out to the rest in the next few months.

    Image via Facebook Safety

  • Leelah Alcorn: Her Reddit Posts Tell a Haunting Story of Christian Anti-Gay Therapy

    Leelah Alcorn: Her Reddit Posts Tell a Haunting Story of Christian Anti-Gay Therapy

    When Leelah Alcorn committed suicide, she had already set events in motion that would tell the world why she did it. Rather than a paper suicide note that might be found only by her parents, she set up a Tumblr message that would publish after her death.

    “If you are reading this, it means that I have committed suicide and obviously failed to delete this post from my queue.”

    Leelah’s note went on to describe a life that she decided “isn’t worth living in.” Her struggle as a transgender person in a religious household had brought her to a tragic conclusion.

    “I’m never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way out. I’m sad enough already, I don’t need my life to get any worse. People say “it gets better” but that isn’t true in my case. It gets worse. Each day I get worse.”

    Leelah’s parents deleted her Tumblr account, but nothing ever really goes away on the Internet.

    Leelah described her home life as miserable, saying that her parents opposed her self-identification as female based on their religious affiliation.

    “My mom started taking me to a therapist, but would only take me to christian therapists, (who were all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I needed to cure me of my depression. I only got more christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.”

    Leelah’s mother told CNN a different story. Carla Alcorn said that her son Josh — Leelah’s birth name — was depressed and was being treated with medication.

    “He just quit talking about (being transgender),” she said. She also said that she had never heard the name “Leelah” used by her son.

    But Tumblr is not the only place that Leelah spoke about her ordeal. Her archived Reddit posts tell a story of living in a home where her parents were were “both extremely angry with me.”

    “They never physically hurt me, but they always talked to me in a very derogatory tone. They would say things like ‘You’ll never be a real girl’ or ‘What’re you going to do, fuck boys?’ or ‘God’s going to send you straight to hell’. These all made me feel awful about myself, I was christian at the time so I thought that God hated me and that I didn’t deserve to be alive. I cut myself at least once every couple days, and I was constantly thinking about suicide.”

    Leelah spoke of being sent to what is known as conversion therapy, an attempt to try to “cure” gay and transgender people.

    “I wanted to see a gender therapist but they wouldn’t let me, they thought it would corrupt my mind. The would only let me see biased Christian therapists, who instead of listening to my feelings would try to change me into a straight male who loved God, and I would cry after every session because I felt like it was hopeless and there was no way I would ever become a girl.”

    Since Leelah’s suicide, a petition has been started seeking to ban conversion therapy. The statements accompany the petition read:

    “We the petitioners call upon the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the Leadership of the House and Senate to immediately seek a pathway for banning the practice known as ‘transgender conversion therapy’. We ask that you name the bill in memory of Leelah as the Leelah’s Alcorn Law and protect the lives of transgender youth.”

    So far, the petition has 286,000 supporters.

  • Amber Cornwell: Facebook Question Before Suicide

    Amber Cornwell, the 16-year-old North Carolina teen who took her own life on December 20th, posed a question to her Facebook friends shortly before her suicide.

    The Henderson County teen, who is believed to have committed suicide as a result of profound bullying, was laid to rest on the day after Christmas–a day when most teenagers are asking one another what they received for Christmas gifts.

    Amber Cornwell asked in her final Facebook post, if she were to die, “Would anyone cry?”

    Sierra Crochet knew Amber since the 1st grade. She spoke to reporters outside of the Jackson Funeral Services during the time of visitation.

    “I’ve been crying for days now,” she said, in answer to her friend’s Facebook question.

    “She had that sense of humor that could a smile on your face,” friend Stephanie Hernandez said.

    It certainly seemed like Amber Cornwell had lots to live for. She was an A/B student, a tennis player, a dancer, and member of the All County Chorus.

    Family members feel certain bullying drove her to take her life.

    “They were just calling her names,” Crochet said. “And called her names and said she had no future and had nothing going for her.”

    “They were really mean, they’d say stuff to her face, behind her back,” Hernandez added. “They’d message her on Facebook.”

    In the wake of Amber Cornwell’s untimely passing, both Sierra Crochet and Stephanie Hernandez want to see action taken to combat bullying.

    “And start a group in every Henderson County school,” Crochet suggested.

    Hernandez believes that bullies have short-term memories.

    “I mean, yeah, they’ve shed a few tears but I don’t think they’ve learned anything,” Hernandez says.

    They wish they would have known Amber was on the brink of suicide.

    “I’d be in my mom’s car going to her house,” Sierra says. “I wouldn’t even think twice about it.”

    A vigil celebrating Amber Cornwell’s life was held on Saturday.

  • Ronin Shimizu: Parents of 12-Year-Old Bullied Suicide Victim Speak Out

    Ronin Shimizu’s story is breaking hearts all over the country. We have been told for many years that bullying hurts people more than we realize. But stories like Ronin’s bring that lesson home in a devastating way.

    Ronin Shimizu killed himself last week. When the story broke, it was learned that Ronin had been the only male cheerleader at his school. Kids said that he had been bullied mercilessly about it. Everyone feared that Ronin had finally reached a point of no return because of the bullying.

    Up till now, Ronin’s parents have been silent. But now Brandon and Danielle Shimizu have issued a statement. They say that Ronin not only was bullied for his cheering activities, but for other things as well.

    “The tragic loss of our son has and will forever change our life.

    “The people close to our family know exactly who Ronin was, but since the story of this tragedy has spread worldwide, we want to take a minute to let the world know who he was. Ronin was one of the most loving, compassionate, empathetic, artistic and funny kids to grace this earth. Ronin was a child who was not afraid to follow his heart, and we as his parents did everything in our power to allow him to pursue his passions, while protecting him from the minority that could not understand the specialness he possessed.

    “As you already know, Ronin loved to do Cheer, but he also loved art, fashion, being a Scout and most recently crew/rowing. It is true that because of his specialness, Ronin was a target of bullying by individuals that could not understand or accept his uniqueness. Ronin was not just a target of bullying because of his participation in cheer, but for him just being Ronin.

    “We as his parents always knew that he would make an impact on the world, we just thought it would be in something like fashion design or art related. We had no idea that God and Buddha had a more important role for him, and we as his parents will make it our mission in life to turn this tragedy into something positive and hopefully prevent another senseless tragedy.

    “In closing, please remember that education in regards to bullying prevention does not only need to occur in our schools but also in the home.”

    The specter of bullying has been around forever. But in an age of social media, it has a particularly devastating effect. A bully’s reach does not stop at school and only during school hours. Now kids can be harassed and made fun of “in front of” hundreds or even thousands of people, and at all hours of the day. They can’t go home to escape it.

    While this is true even for adults, kids don’t have the experience in life that assures them that this will pass. To them, this could well be all they ever know.

    For a boy like Ronin, that was too much to live with.

  • Jessica Chastain Talks Robin Williams, Sister’s Suicide

    Jessica Chastain attended the prestigious Juilliard School thanks to a scholarship provided by the late Robin Williams. She feels not only gratitude for the late comic’s generosity, but like she holds a kinship with him and his family as well. Chastain lost her younger sister to suicide.

    It’s a topic she doesn’t speak openly about, but alludes to when being particularly insightful. During a recent interview with InStyle magazine, she remarked about how the suicide of her sister–who suffered from depression–changed everything about her.

    “It completely changed the person I am,” she says. “A movie, Oscars, a dress, if someone thinks I’m stupid…I realized nothing is that important.”

    Jessica Chastain never met Robin Williams, but has always vowed to somehow repay his generosity. She hopes to somehow carry on his legacy.

    “I always thought in some way I would have a chance to pay him back,” she says. “It was a very strange thing to have never met him. I didn’t want to be stalkerish, but then you always question yourself: Did I do enough? I’m hoping there’s a way to continue his legacy and keep the scholarship going.”

    Robin Williams likely saw his repayment in Jessica Chastain’s success as an actress. She starred in six films in 2011, and that signified her true emergence as an A-List actress. One of those films was The Help, for which she received her first Academy Award.

    Jessica Chastian most recently appeared on the big screen alongside Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar. She prefers seeing strong women in films. She has a great disdain for stereotypical roles.

    “There were two kinds of roles for women. You’re either the girlfriend, incredibly beautiful but not much going on, or the victim, like the weird neighbor,” she explains. “It’s like the two ideas of women that are talked about: the slut or the wife. And that’s not so interesting…As an audience member, I go to the movies a lot and I want to see women portrayed like the ones I know—women who are really intelligent and strong and vulnerable.”

    There’s clearly nothing stereotypical about Jessica Chastain. In fact, she just bought her mom a most unusual birthday gift–a food truck.

    Robin Williams was no doubt proud of Jessica Chastain’s accomplishments. Do you expect now that he is gone–along with her personal experience with suicide–she might make such an opportunity available for another prospective actor?

  • Kendra Wilkinson Says Her Baby Prevented Her Suicide

    Kendra Wilkinson leads a reality TV life. She is known for having been a fixture at the Playboy Mansion. But that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel.

    After her first baby Hank IV was born, Wilkinson said she had major postpartum depression.

    “After giving birth, I never brushed my hair, my teeth, or took a shower,” said Wilkinson. “I looked in the mirror one day and was really depressed.”

    But when she learned of husband Hank Baskett’s alleged infidelity with a transgender model after the birth of their daughter Alijah in May, she seriously thought about ending her life altogether.

    In a special two-part finale of her show on WE TV, Kendra on Top, Wilkinson lays it all out.

    “I was at a real low,” Kendra says. “I even questioned my life. If it wasn’t for breastfeeding Alijah, the bond I had with her, I feel like I would have probably ended my life. I felt like I’m not even supposed to be here.”

    In another point on the show, she tells Hank Baskett, ”You know I had plans throughout the show to surprise you with divorce papers. Like stuff like that was in the works. We were about to pull through with a mediator to get a divorce and you were agreeing on the other end.”

    Baskett denies that he would have agreed to a divorce.

    “I was not agreeing,” he says.

    Baskett has had a rough way of it ever since a recording surfaced of him talking to the transgender model, Ava London, asking if she had told anyone that he had “hooked up with a tranny.”

  • Ohio State Football Player Found Dead

    The body of an Ohio State University football player who had gone missing was found in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday, according to authorities.

    Kosta Karageorge, a 22-year-old OSU defensive lineman and wrestler, disappeared Wednesday, and his body was found five days later. Karageorge apparently commited suicide inside of a dumpster near his apartment, by way of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    Investigators were able to identify the body via various tattoos, according to Sgt. Rich Weiner, a Columbus police spokesman.

    A woman told reporters that her son had found the body, and police revealed that the handgun was likewise found in the dumpster, though they are not sure it belonged to Karageorge.

    Susan Karageorge, the deceased’s mother, had previously commented that her son suffered concussions, and that he had sent her a text shortly before he went missing. The text was an apology for being an “embarrassment,” as a result of his injuries.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that all football-related concussions are serious, most occur without loss of consciousness and recognition and proper response to concussions when they first occur can help prevent further injury or even death.

    The CDC adds that symptoms of a concussion can include one pupil larger than the other, weakness, numbness, decreased coordination, slurred speech, convulsions, unusual behavior, confusion, restlessness and agitation.

    OSU said in a statement, “The Ohio State University Department of Athletics was shocked and saddened to learn today of the death of student-athlete Kosta Karageorge, a senior from Columbus. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Karageorge family, and those who knew him, during this most difficult time.”

  • Brittany Maynard’s Mom Says Vatican Lumped Her in With Pedophiles

    Brittany Maynard chose to die on her own terms. The terminally ill woman moved to Oregon where she would have the option to end her own life without the interference of a local government. Maynard and her family got to work on her bucket list as the world watched. When her disease advanced far enough that she felt it would go downhill fast, Maynard took medicine that ended her life.

    Maynard’s decision became the subject of much scrutiny and judgment before she died. But once it was done, everyone thought it was over.

    Then Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula spoke out about her death. The monsignor is the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life

    “Brittany Maynard’s gesture is in itself to be condemned [other translations read: “reprehensible”], but what happened in her conscience is not for us to know,” he said.

    “This woman [took her own life] thinking she would die with dignity,” he said, “but this is the error. Suicide is not a good thing. It is a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and toward those around us.”

    Now Maynard’s mother is shooting back at the Vatican over these comments.

    She decried “individuals and institutions that have tried to impose their personal belief system on what Brittany and our family feel is a human rights issue.”

    “To censure a personal choice as reprehensible because it does not comply with someone else’s belief is immoral. My twenty-nine-year-old daughter’s choice to die gently rather than suffer physical and mental degradation and intense pain does not deserve to be labelled as ‘reprehensible’ by strangers a continent away who do not know her or the particulars of her situation.”

    “’Reprehensible’ is a harsh word. It means: ‘very bad; deserving very strong criticism.’ Reprehensible is a word I’ve used as a teacher to describe the actions of Hitler, other political tyrants and the exploitation of children by pedophiles.”

    “This word was used publicly at a time when my family was tender and freshly wounded. Grieving. Such strong public criticism from people we do not know, have never met – is more than a slap in the face. It is like kicking us as we struggle to draw a breath.”

    “People and institutions that feel they have the right to judge Brittany’s choices may wound me and cause me unspeakable pain but they do not deter me from supporting my daughter’s choice. There is currently a great deal of confusion and arrogance standing in the way of Americans going gently into the good night. I urge Americans to think for themselves.”

  • Jerry Seinfeld: First Autism, Now Suicide. Here We Go.

    Here’s the thing with Jerry Seinfeld: you know he’s joking. He turns on that higher-pitched thing and you know he’s joking. But you can’t convey that in print.

    Recently Seinfeld said, in all seriousness, that he felt he was on the autism spectrum. Some people did not respond well to that, saying that he was not making things easier for those who have serious issues with autism. They did not feel that Seinfeld should talk about the condition as lightly as he did.

    But now that Jerry Seinfeld has had a funny sit-down with rapper Wale and talked about how he sometimes contemplates suicide, get ready for the firestorm.

    Here’s what Seinfeld said. The video is below. You heard it here.

    “Yeah, well I have a terrace at my apartment and it’s fantastic. You have to come see it sometime. Every time I go out on that terrace I think, Maybe I’ll jump. Because if I jump, the list of things I don’t have to do is so long, the issues I don’t have to deal with. All I have to do is jump and everything is taken care of. Now, I don’t jump. But I don’t care to know why I want to jump. The mind is not that great.”

    “I am being serious… Every time… I look over it and I think, I could do it. I could do it. I’m on the 19th floor. [Laughs.] All I got to do is jump…. But there’s nothing there. There’s nothing there to explore, is my point. I’m not going to a shrink to find out why I want to jump off the terrace. That’s a waste of another hour!”

    Wale protested that Jerry was not serious. Jerry insisted that he was. Wale said that even he thinks about it from time to time.

    “They say life is too short. It’s way too long! And we’re filling it in with a lot of fake stuff…. There’s a lot of stuff. Maybe I’ll jump, maybe I won’t. We have to come up with things to fill in the time. There are old people sitting on cruise ships, doing crossword puzzles, just trying to finish it up. They didn’t want all that time! But it’s there. That’s why there are a lot of no-talent celebrities, just to fill in the air. We’ve got too much time, too much space. Too many gigabytes.”

  • Katy Perry Reveals the Depths of Her Depression, Her Song to Help Others

    Katy Perry’s life could’ve taken a very different arc. The pop sensation was aimed differently by her parents. She jokes about it now.

    “I released a gospel record when I was 15 because I grew up in a household where all I ever did was listen to gospel music,” Perry once said on Australian TV. “I swear I wanted to be like the Amy Grant of music but it didn’t work out, and so I sold my soul to the devil.”

    That statement is a bit of hyperbole. Perry has also said that she prays all the time, just not the same way some people do. It’s more about a spirituality than a religious practice.

    “I don’t believe in a heaven or a hell or an old man sitting on a throne, she told Marie Claire last year. “I believe in a higher power bigger than me because that keeps me accountable. Accountability is rare to find, especially with people like myself, because nobody wants to tell you something you don’t want to hear. I actually don’t trust people who start to turn on me because they get scared of telling me the truth. I’m not Buddhist, I’m not Hindu, I’m not Christian, but I still feel like I have a deep connection with God. I pray all the time—for self-control, for humility. There’s a lot of gratitude in it. Just saying ‘thank you’ sometimes is better than asking for things.”

    Recently, Perry was asked about the songs on her 2013 hit record Prism, and she specifically highlighted one that swings into this territory for her. It is called “By the Grace of God.”

    “[It] is the first song that I wrote coming to make this record, when I was in a different place, I was in a darker place,” she told Rove McManus, host of The Project in Australia.

    McManus pried deeper about the song. It was written after her divorce from Russell Brand. Perry was quite down at the time.

    “Sometimes you can be blinded by your extreme emotions,” she said. “I definitely was looking for answers during that time I wrote that song. And, yeah, I was depressed, and it was sad, and there were thoughts, but there were never actions, thankfully.”

    Perry reasoned that she was not the only person to go through this kind of pain. And she knows that it can be tough to talk to someone else when you find yourself is such a dark place.

    “I wanted to share that side of my story,” she said of revealing that much of herself in the song, “because I know there are so many other people out there that have gone through things like that, and you always feel like you’re the only one going through that. You walk out the door, and you see someone you know, and they ask you how you are, and you just have to say you’re fine when you’re not really fine, but you just can’t get into it, because they would never understand. Well, then comes along a song that speaks to you, that makes you feel like ‘Gosh, I can get through this if she can get through this, I can get through this.’”

  • Robin Williams: Lewy Body Dementia Contributed to Suicide

    Robin Williams was reportedly suffering from Lewy body dementia at the time of his death and it likely played a role in him taking his life.

    The Mayo Clinic says “Lewy body dementia is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with Lewy body dementia may have hallucinations—which may appear in the form of animals, objects or deceased people from their past. Conversations with the aforementioned may occur.”

    According to a report from TMZ, patients suffering from Parkinson’s often have Lewy body dementia, too. And those suffering from both diseases often suffer adverse reactions to some Parkinson’s medication.

    Robin Williams’ wife, Susan Schneider, told authorities following her husband’s death that he complained about how the Parkinson’s meds made him feel in the days leading up to his suicide. Now she and her family agree–as do Robin Williams’ doctors–that Lewy body dementia played a strong role in the actor’s passing.

    Last Friday, autopsy reports divulged there were neither illegal drugs nor alcohol in Williams’ system at the time of his death. The only drugs found were those prescribed by his doctors.

    Robin Williams died by hanging in his home in northern California on August 11th. He was 63 years old.

    Do you suppose the knowledge that a medical reason likely contributed to Williams’ death will in any way lighten his family’s load? While it was known the actor and comedian was depressed in the weeks leading up to his death, the presence of Lewy body dementia might indicate he had little to no control over his actions. While this finding won’t make their loss any easier, it might lessen some of the feelings of abandonment and anger that some survivors of suicide experience.

  • Robin Williams Toxicology Report: No Drugs or Alcohol

    Robin Williams hanged himself with a belt in his own bedroom on August 11 of this year. The actor had been battling depression after learning that he was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.

    According to investigators, closed bottle of Seroquel, a drug to treat bipolar disorders and depression, was found in his room. Williams had been prescribed the medication a week before he died.

    Williams cause of death was determined to be asphyxia. There were superficial cuts on his wrists, and a pocket knife was found nearby. His personal assistant had grown concerned when he hadn’t awakened that morning and went to check on him. Williams had been dead for hours.

    Now a toxicology report has been released that affirms that there were indeed no illegal drugs nor alcohol found in Williams’ system at the time of his death. The only substances were pharmaceuticals in “therapeutic concentrations,” which indicates only the dosage he was prescribed.

    Williams had struggled with alcoholism and drug dependency in the past. Some had expressed concern that he may have succumbed to these in the end. But the report indicates a man who took his medicine properly, but looked into a bleak future and saw no further.

    Williams’ wife Susan Schneider said he had seemed excited when she saw him the night before. The web history of his iPad showed that he had made an online search for discussions of medications including Lyrica and propranolol.

    President Barack Obama said of Williams that he “made us laugh. He made us cry.”

    “He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets.”

    Robin Williams was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the San Francisco Bay.