When We Talk About Suicide, We Need to Talk About Addiction by Jamie Brickhouse

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The Conversation Continues, Just Like Life –

June 16, 2018 – Trigger warning: This story addresses suicide. If you or a loved one is struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) … No one can say definitively why Kate Spade or Anthony Bourdain died by suicide. But I can tell you why I tried to kill myself. Twice … My friend—and full disclosure, literary agency client—the writer Mary Karr, has been sober for nearly 30 years. She classifies her suicidal depression this way: “I speak as a drunk drug addict myself, and suspect I am more like Bourdain than not, for I had twenty-plus years of suicidal ideation and impulsive/self-destructive acts till I got help from other junkies and drunks. Therapy and anti-depressants helped some, but 90 percent of my improved happiness quotient came when I quit ingesting depressants like booze and benzos.” Just as we call someone cross-addicted when s/he has more than one addiction, i.e., both drinking and gambling destructively, I think we can call Karr cross-depressed when she has clinical depression from multiple sources such as a history of trauma plus anxiety plus alcoholism.