I know she didn’t want to leave my sister or me, but every day, every minute, felt like an unbearable ordeal to her.” “After retiring, mom just sat in the apartment day after day being miserable and thinking that was the only way to be. *Samantha’s parent had been depressed for years-going for therapy one time in the late ‘90s and never trying psych meds. Two years ago a now 28-year-old patient of mine visited her mother’s home and found the 67-year-old had asphyxiated herself. Take our 2-minute Bipolar quiz to see if you may benefit from further diagnosis and treatment. (Kate Spade’s sister said the designer was self-medicating with alcohol.) It’s over for me.” This trifecta can lead to bad choices including isolation and substance abuse. Unfortunately, when one is in a dark place, one is typically trapped in a miasma of hopelessness, lethargy, and distorted thoughts like, “I will never feel better. In her email assigning this piece my editor, who has four children ages 16 to 22 wrote, “I just cannot imagine where your head has to be to leave a child… Is it just that you’ve convinced yourself they’d be better off without you? Please help me make sense of this.”Įach year approximately 42.5 million Americans suffer from mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Displaying signs of severe emotional issues often leads to grumblings like, “Stop being so self-pitying and just get over yourself already!” When someone is physically ill, others rally around offering concrete help, such as a drive to and from chemo treatments and/or a home-cooked meal. The stigma surrounding mental illness remains all too real. The Stigma of Mental Illness: Why It’s so Hard to Overcome Regardless, the only person with the answers to why she committed this act is no longer here to offer testimony. On June 7, 2018, the day following the suicide, the New York Times published a statement from Andy Spade. Kate’s older sister Reta Brosnahan Saffo emailed a reporter from her hometown newspaper The Kansas City Star that the designer suffered from bipolar disorder but was reluctant to seek help for fear of how “hospitalization might harm the image of the happy-go-lucky Kate Spade brand.” Other family members have disputed this account, saying the sisters were long estranged and that Kate was in treatment for anxiety and depression. On average there are 123 suicides a day, with a 2016 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding that the suicide rate increased by 60% for white women in the period from 1998 to 2014.Īlready, much ‘insider’ gossip has surfaced including rumors of marital discord and presuming intimate knowledge about the state of Kate Spade’s psyche in those last hours. Suicide is the 10 th leading cause of death in the United States. I’m always envious of lives like these, thinking what I would do if I had that combination of time (Kate sold the company in 2007 in 2016 launching a new accessories line called Frances Valentine) and money to spare.”Īlthough the tragedy seems shocking, it is more a reminder of how emotionally fragile human beings are, and that spectacular achievement and strong family ties are not guarantees of a charmed, happy life. In her suicide note, the creator of the eponymous Kate Spade bag allegedly beseeched Frances not to feel responsible.Ī few minutes after the death went public, a good friend of mine wrote on her Facebook page: “Another lesson in being envious. Yet she hanged herself in the bedroom of their Manhattan apartment. Here was a 55-year-old woman who seemed to have it all-wealth, public acclaim, a husband and business partner, Andy Spade and their 13-year-old daughter, Frances Beatrix Spade. Jump to: The Stigma of Mental Illness Suicide: A Desperate Act to Stop the Painįamed fashion designer Kate Spade’s suicide sparked an outpouring of shocked, despairing posts on social media.
0 kommentar(er)
