Comparison of elderly with young-adult suicides Part II: Similarities and differences
by Ernest Shulman, Ph.D.
Young adults follow a partly different route from older suicides. They also feel entitled to disregard consequences for non-conforming behavior, just as elderly suicides do. But they differ in experiencing severe childhood trauma that results in instability and suicide attempts. Kurt Cobain exemplifies this pattern. A literature review by Hawton (1982) relates to the family disruption that plagued Cobain.
Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)
At twenty-seven, this star of grunge rock shot himself in his Seattle mansion, leaving behind Courtney Love, his wife, and the baby daughter on whom he doted, not to mention relatives and millions of fans worldwide.
Cobain abused substances from early teens onward– first alcohol, later cocaine and heroin, a red flag for suicide (Hawton, 1994). In addition, he often talked about, threatened, and even tried suicide. A published excerpt from his diaries reveals an example: at age fifteen he had been living with his mother for several months (his parents were divorced), and was upset by what he termed her “mental abuse.” Accordingly, he moved from talk and to planning a serious attempt. He lay down on railway tracks as a train approached. Then at the last minute the train switched tracks. Cobain’s diary: “The train scared me enough to try to rehabilitate & my guitar playing seemed to be improving so I became less manically depressed but still never had any friends because I hated everyone for they were so phony” (Cobain, 2002, p. 27). Around this time he was quoted by friends as saying, “I want to be rich and famous and kill myself like Jimi Hendrix” (Cross, 2001, p. 33). He accomplished all those goals.
Volunteers needed for parent survivors of suicide study
Despite the burden of suicide in the United States, very little is known
about the experience of losing a loved one to suicide.
The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors may contribute to
personal growth in the aftermath of this kind of loss.
Participants should be a parent who has lost a child of any age to suicide
within the last two years. The survey is available on-line and should take
less than 30 minutes to complete.
Principal investigator: Melinda Moore
The Catholic University of America
Participation is completely confidential.
If you are interested in participating, please visit:
Living with the Unimaginable: Surviving Murder-Suicide Loss
by Tawna Righter
The stories are plastered across the news: “Family Dies in Murder-Suicide” or they are simply mentioned in a few short sentences on Page 5 that another man has killed a woman and then himself. The scenarios differ slightly but the general outcome is the same: someone, usually a male, kills one or more persons and then himself. Families are horrifically devastated and communities are shocked and confused by the drastic actions taken by someone they knew to be a nice person. Unfortunately, it is a repeating scenario nearly everyday in America. 
Statistics collected from news clippings by the Community Awareness and Support Center, an organization founded specifically for murder-suicide survivors, show that 2008 experienced 533 murder-suicide events with the loss or wounding of more than 1,200 Americans. These tragedies leave countless numbers of survivors from the immediate families and friends, to work or classmates and first responders. I became one of these statistics in November of 1990 and then again in November 1998. Continue reading››
Men’s Experience with Grief
by Adrian Hill, LLB
In 1994, I attended my first suicide prevention conference with my wife, a noted psychologist with considerable expertise in suicide prevention and bereavement programs. Traveling to Canada’s artic, we visited Iqaluit in Nunavut, a community of 3,000 people, the only city in a vast region.
Organized by the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, there were keynote addresses, workshops, seminars, and meetings with speakers from around the world. I volunteered to help out and immersed myself in the conference. I experienced firsthand the anguish and grief of the local community which has been ravaged by suicide deaths for the past 20 years. Knowing next to nothing about suicide, prevention, and bereavement, there was much to learn, absorb and take to heart.
This first conference experience for me started an educational process that quickly accelerated in 1996 when I became Executive Director of a National Lawyers’ Assistance Program in Canada. While I had helped found the program in 1990, I was now responsible for developing Health, Wellness, and Recovery materials for 70,000 lawyers and judges across Canada. To me, it had become natural to include suicide prevention in the new materials I was creating. Continue reading››