Bouncing back from attempted suicide.

Posted by Miss Cellania in Mentalfloss on September 5, 2007 at 8:16 am


150_owen_wilsonIn the wake of Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide last week, mental_floss has a surprisingly long list of celebrities who have suicide attempts in their past, but then turned their lives around.

Halle Berry – admitted to Parade magazine that, distraught over her failed marriage to baseball star David Justice, she tried to end her life by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Nadia Comaneci – while she denied it for years, the gymnastics legend was so stressed out (due to several factors, including her parents’ divorce) that she tried to end her life by drinking bleach just two years after her 1976 Olympics success.

Richard Pryor – later admitted that the fire that injured him while free-basing cocaine in June 1980 was really a suicide attempt.

Some of these cases you may have heard of; others will surprise you. Link


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COMMENT

10 comments to "Bouncing back from attempted suicide."

  1. John J.
    September 5th, 2007 at 9:53 am

    There is also a long list of celebrity deaths related to psychiatric treatment and drugs - Marilyn Monroe, Kieth Cobain, Ernest hemingway, and many others.

  2. biltmore
    September 5th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Whoa ... I heard nothing about Owen Wilson's attempted suicide until this.

  3. VonSkippy
    September 5th, 2007 at 1:43 pm

    How pathetic is that, when you can't even commit suicide correctly? Since there isn't much rocket science involved, I'd say failure to plan wasn't the main cause, but that these attention whores didn't really mean it - they just wanted....you guessed it... the attention. Personally, to all those failures, I say "try try again" - we have 6 billion plus people on the planet and most of those are actually busting their hump trying to survive.

  4. L
    September 5th, 2007 at 2:01 pm

    I haven't heard anything else about most of these cases, but including James Stockdale in there seems a little odd. Attempting suicide in 1969 to escape possible torture in a POW camp hardly seems to fall under the definition of "attention whore".

    And I don't agree with that assessment of the rest, either.

  5. Chris
    September 5th, 2007 at 3:15 pm

    hear hear VonSkippy!
    besides torture escaping of course.

    LIFE IS GOOD! STAY IN IT!

  6. Justin
    September 5th, 2007 at 6:16 pm

    We need to stop idolizing and obsessing about these stars. It's a little ridiculous how much attention stories like these get.

    I believe that for the most part, these dumb things stars do are from being drowned in cash, and being so idolized by thousands of fans.

    Why can't we just like them in their movies without trying to pick apart and exam their entire lives?

    I find it strange how people who liked Tom Cruise and saw all his movies now refuse because they think he's nuts.

    If you think like I do, then do your part and don't click on the news articles about these stories.

    Sorry for the rant, I just get really annoyed when I see Brittany Spears in the headlines over other crucial world changing events.

    -Justin

  7. Slappy
    September 5th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    On behalf of the world population, Von Skippy, we hope you get it right one day.

  8. aj
    September 5th, 2007 at 10:24 pm

    I think its a bit harsh to jump to the conclusion that its attention whoring, celebs already get plenty of attention.

    I'm pretty sure there is a significant history of depression in comedians, but hey they're celebrities so they clearly don't require any sympathy or have problems like ordinary people.

  9. ted
    September 6th, 2007 at 7:38 am

    Don't knock Von Skippy's opinion. Many suicide attempts are deperate pleas for attention.

    As far as happy, successful people wanting to kill themselves, Edwin Arlington Robinson said it best:

    WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
    We people on the pavement looked at him:
    He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
    Clean favored, and imperially slim.

    And he was always quietly arrayed,
    And he was always human when he talked;
    But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
    "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

    And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
    And admirably schooled in every grace:
    In fine, we thought that he was everything
    To make us wish that we were in his place.

    So on we worked, and waited for the light,
    And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
    And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
    Went home and put a bullet through his head.

  10. onur
    September 10th, 2007 at 6:32 am

    suprising


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