So sad seeing such a bright person pass. I hate people feel this level of pressure - it's fine to coast for a bit and that first year of college is so challenging for most people.
She didn't "pass away." She committed suicide. Why hide this fact?
Honestly, there is still too much stigma around it. We should be able to talk candidly about it, including method of choice, if we're going to advance into a modern psychological understanding.
In psychology we generally prefer to use the term "died by suicide" or "suicided" due to the negative connotations that "commit suicide" has. It's not a crime and as such saying someone committed it doesn't match the event. And separately there's a lot of literature out there that suicide is socially contagious, with suicide risk increasing for people that knew the deceased. (
Suicide has been identified as a major public health issue. Exposure to suicide (i.e., knowing someone who died by suicide) is far more pervasive than previously considered and might be associated with significant adverse out...
). For someone who was likely popular among high school girls in GA, who are already a population that are at an increased risk for suicide attempts and self-harm not disclosing cause of death may help prevent the Wether effect from being stronger than it likely already may be.
Unfortunately it is often the top kids that get snared by depression and similar stuff. Do we really need 375 national championship cross country meets for high school kids? Often the best 7th grader can barely make the varsity squad in most sports!
Her instagram says she lost her battle with depression and anxiety. Just awful that a young person had to go out this like this.
It is awful anyone has to go out like this. Depression is common among the aged who live just for their family in depressing assisted living conditions that are not satisfactory.
She didn't "pass away." She committed suicide. Why hide this fact?
Honestly, there is still too much stigma around it. We should be able to talk candidly about it, including method of choice, if we're going to advance into a modern psychological understanding.
All kinds of reports confirmed she took her own life.
In psychology we generally prefer to use the term "died by suicide" or "suicided" due to the negative connotations that "commit suicide" has. It's not a crime and as such saying someone committed it doesn't match the event. And separately there's a lot of literature out there that suicide is socially contagious, with suicide risk increasing for people that knew the deceased. (). For someone who was likely popular among high school girls in GA, who are already a population that are at an increased risk for suicide attempts and self-harm not disclosing cause of death may help prevent the Wether effect from being stronger than it likely already may be.
I have found this stigma on "committed" to be really odd. It means to carry out or perpetrate. The latter certainly has a criminal element tinge to it the former certainly does not. She carried out a suicide is accurate (albeit awkward wording). Sometimes I think people want to police language for some sort of power trip like my coworker who did not like using "female" in place of "women" (or in their case "womxn"---at least the "womyn" that was tried for a stretch was actually pronounceable).
"What Made Maddy Run" excellent book although not a fun read. It made me re-evaluate how I talked to my kids about my college experience. For too long it was only the "good" stories (friends, parties, sports) that made it sound like it was Eden. When in fact there were periods of loneliness, feelings of isolation, tons of self-doubt, and failures. Maddy's dad had come to this realization after she killed herself. I decided to do it in the hopes my kids don't get depressed when they have (and they have had) bad stretches in college.