Country Singer Mindy McCready, 37, Commits Suicide

[Gmash]

Mindy McCready suicide - chicagotribune.com

I don't know much about country music, but I did watch the season of Celebrity Rehab she appeared on. So sad what addiction can do. She left behind two young sons. One of the sons' father also committed suicide. Terrible.

 

[DonB]

So sad, I remember her being on the Drug rehab show with Drew, I thought she finally turned her life around.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Sadly, not terribly surprising. I think this was her 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

[argedion]

I find it hard to have empathy for someone who was as selfish as she was to kill themselves and leave behind thier children. What a waste of good air she was. I just hope the children will be ok that is my only concern.

 

[saptech]

Sorry to hear it. RIP Mandy.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I find it hard to have empathy for someone who was as selfish as she was to kill themselves and leave behind thier children. What a waste of good air she was. I just hope the children will be ok that is my only concern.

Having lost a dear friend to suicide in 2007, all I can say is that when someone is despondent and depressed enough to kill themselves, they're not rational, they're not thinking about consequences, they're not thinking about the pain their actions will cause people who love them, etc. For me, 5+ years following his suicide, I still think about him all the time, and wish things could've been different so he wouldn't have chosen death as his solution.

I feel horrible for Mindy's children, not only because of her suicide but also her boyfriend's just last month. That's an unbearably awful reality for kids to grow up with.

 

[Gmash]

Having lost a dear friend to suicide in 2007, all I can say is that when someone is despondent and depressed enough to kill themselves, they're not rational, they're not thinking about consequences, they're not thinking about the pain their actions will cause people who love them, etc. For me, 5+ years following his suicide, I still think about him all the time, and wish things could've been different so he wouldn't have chosen death as his solution.

I feel horrible for Mindy's children, not only because of her suicide but also her boyfriend's just last month. That's an unbearably awful reality for kids to grow up with.

I know, that poor baby. Can you imagine if your Mom and Dad both committed suicide when you were less than a year old? I heard on CNN that the baby was in foster care, so that tells me either no family members want to take care of him, or they are not fit to take him. I'm not sure what's happening when the older kid, I think he has a different father, though.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I find it hard to have empathy for someone who was as selfish as she was to kill themselves and leave behind thier children. What a waste of good air she was. I just hope the children will be ok that is my only concern.

I am glad you said it first.

Part of me says it is just too sad and part of me says so what; it was her choice and she unfortunately made a bad one. And part of me wonders where her family and friends were?

Lots of ways to look at it and the bottom line is it is sad whenever anyone takes their own life.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I am glad you said it first.

Part of me says it is just too sad and part of me says so what; it was her choice and she unfortunately made a bad one. And part of me wonders where her family and friends were?

Sorry, but this REALLY hits a raw nerve for me. We, as outsiders, have *NO* idea what was going on in her life that made killing herself the option she chose. And we, not being gods or anything, have zero right to judge her.

As I said, I lost a dear, close friend to suicide in 2007. Where was I? I had done EVERYTHING I could to help him. I had taken him in when he--like I already had--became disabled. He lost his job, he lost his apartment, and I said "look, I've got this four bedroom house with just me [and my pets!] in it, so why not move in?" There were no expectations of being paid rent, or having help with expenses, or anything, because I knew what his financial situation was. I held his hand, and fed him candy bars and juice, through not one but two detox attempts [he was an alcoholic]. I, along with our mutual best friend, had him committed for a 72-hour psychiatric hold when he began talking about suicide; I'll never forget the 8 or 9 police officers traipsing through my house to take him to the hospital. The idea that friends and family didn't do anything for someone who kills themselves PISSES ME OFF when someone who has no inside knowledge says it. No one on the outside knows what Mindy's friends/family did or didn't do for her.

Ultimately, I moved back home to California. I let Erik stay in my house; he and our mutual best friend were going to pay rent [just enough to cover my mortgage]; by this time he was receiving SSDI so he had enough to split rent but not enough to rent some place on his own. Unfortunately, my two best friends ended up nearly killing each other. It turned out that living under the same roof was impossible. One thing led to another and I had no choice but to sell my house. I let Erik stay in it up until the day the new owner took possession.

BTW, Erik wasn't some wimp. He was a Marine, a veteran of the first Gulf War, a big, hulking, 6'4" 325 pound Marine vet who became disabled through no fault of his own. He had a degenerative bone disease that ate away at both hips; he was playing the waiting and red tape game with the VA; they'd finally done one of the hip replacements, but kept stringing him along on the other. They were doing NOTHING for pain control. After I sold my house he couch-surfed, but didn't have a stable place to stay until after the next hip replacement and its recovery. Finally, one night, it just all became too much and he ate his gun. He was 43 years old.

Even though I KNOW intellectually that there was nothing else I could have done, I still ruminate over it... What if I had done this? What if I had done that? What if I had thought about...X Y Z? I feel guilty even though no reasonable person would think I should. Unless you've personally experienced the suicide of someone really close to you, you just have no idea how complex and how devastating it is.

Lots of ways to look at it and the bottom line is it is sad whenever anyone takes their own life.

Yes, indeed. And it keeps hurting for a long, long time afterward. Erik's death inspired two of my designs: Suicide sucks...for those left behind and When someone you treasure becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I find it hard to have empathy for someone who was as selfish as she was to kill themselves and leave behind thier children. What a waste of good air she was. I just hope the children will be ok that is my only concern.

A cousin of mine had similar feelings for his fellow soldiers who were committing suicide. It got me thinking, and I had to conclude that he was right--it was a very selfish act.

I never heard of this person before, and had no opinion about her death until I learned that she had left behind two small children. Sorry but no excuse for leaving them orphans like that.

 

[Speed Daemon]

Sorry, but this REALLY hits a raw nerve for me. We, as outsiders, have *NO* idea what was going on in her life that made killing herself the option she chose. And we, not being gods or anything, have zero right to judge her.

Speaking for myself, it's not about judging. She's not listening, so I wouldn't waste my breath.

But the living are entitled to have opinions. That's the privilege we have for not checking out when times get tough. I know that I'm strictly talking ethics here; I don't know any of these people. What I do know is that this woman had a lot more help at her disposal than many people get, and she had enough presence of mind to convince mental health professionals that she wouldn't do what she did, plan the act and do it. She wasn't in a "raving and drooling" state! She knew what she was going to do. I can't defend that.

 

[Bob Maxey]

Sorry, but this REALLY hits a raw nerve for me. We, as outsiders, have *NO* idea what was going on in her life that made killing herself the option she chose. And we, not being gods or anything, have zero right to judge her.

It is the same old story and some of us have lived through similar stories. Nothing new. People make the decision to off themselves and they do not seem to consider how it will hurt other people in their life.

Sorry, but suicide is a selfish act that damages many others. And I still ask where the people were in this sad person's life.

 

[MoodyBlues]

It is the same old story and some of us have lived through similar stories. Nothing new.

Then you should understand the complex, irrational thinking that leads to suicide.

People make the decision to off themselves and they do not seem to consider how it will hurt other people in their life.

You're right, they don't. Because they CAN'T. Oh, they can, and probably do, THINK about the effect their death will have on the close people in their lives, but they're unable to let that influence them not to kill themselves.

Sorry, but suicide is a selfish act that damages many others.

It's only selfish because that's how the people left behind see it. It becomes "how could s/he do this to ME?!" "didn't they know how much this would hurt ME?!" But they didn't do it to hurt anyone, they did it to end their OWN suffering. In my friend's case, after struggling and struggling (physically, financially, emotionally) for three years, his problems ended the moment he fired the gun. His suffering was over. That's what he wanted. I'm sure he thought about me and the other people in his life who loved and cared about him, but he WANTED to end his suffering. And he did.

And I still ask where the people were in this sad person's life.

I don't know where all of them were, but this article sheds some light on Mindy's situation:

Dr. Drew defends 'Celebrity Rehab' after Mindy McCready's death

latimes.com

By Christie D'Zurilla

1:57 PM PST, February 19, 2013

In the wake of Mindy McCready's apparent suicide on Sunday in Arkansas, Dr. Drew Pinsky of "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" was defending the show Tuesday and explaining how things can go wrong with addiction treatment.

In a call-in appearance on "The View," the famous addiction doc mentioned his last phone call with McCready and shed light on why she might have left court-ordered rehab after only a couple of days. He said she was doing well until the death of her boyfriend, David Wilson, in January. Losing the father of her younger son left her "severely shattered," Pinsky said, and her friends were contacting him, urging him to call her.

"So I called her, and she was in trouble," he said. "She was really struggling. She knew it. We discussed the fact that she needed to be hospitalized and head to a psychiatric hospital, but she was so mortified about the stigma and judgment of the public and the press that it really took some convincing."

McCready's previous exploits and misfortunes have been subject matter on this blog and many other media outlets, with her personal life overshadowing the release of her comeback album, "I'm Still Here," in 2010.

"She eventually did go to the hospital, which is where she should have stayed. But unfortunately, and I really do believe it is because of this same fear of stigmatization, she left prematurely, and that's when things really unraveled. She then lost custody of her children, and that was the last straw."

And what about that McCready was the third person, out of nine cast members, to die since being on the third season of "Celebrity Rehab," which premiered in early 2010? ("Real World" alum Joey Kovar died of an overdose in 2012, as did former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr in 2011.)

"In a weird way I wish I could claim more responsibility for this. The reality is, though, I haven't seen Mindy, say, in years. I've talked to her occasionally, and we've been friendly, but I've not been her doctor in years," Pinsky said. "I wish some of them would stay with us.

"Some of them do, and some of them are sober, but some go on their own way and cut their own path. And I wish I could be more responsible for them."

He emphasized that without ongoing participation in treatment, a person struggling with advanced addiction has a poor prognosis. Two other "Celebrity Rehab" cast members, Jeff Conaway and Rodney King, also have passed since appearing on the show.

Still, Pinsky said, he's received about 10 supportive e-mails and text messages since Sunday, including one from Heidi Fleiss in which she said the show was the best thing she'd ever done for herself.

"I thought, wow, we're doing something right."

McCready died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Sunday afternoon, on the porch of her home in Heber Springs, Ark., where Wilson died last month. She killed her late boyfriend's dog before pulling the trigger again on herself, police said. Her sons, ages 6 and 9 months, were not at the house.

Copyright

 

[saptech]

I guess she was TIRED...