LPGA Player Erica Blasberg Found Dead at 25

[DavidFehertysBike]

Where'd you get this 100% infallible training? A lot of lives coulda been saved over the years with your gift.

The United States Army.

[BigAl5150]

I'm going to ask that the tone and rhetoric be turned down considerably in this thread. If you having something constructive to add to the conversation, please do so. Name calling and other boorish behavior will not be tolerated.

Thank you.

[Shanks A Million]

If you watch Dwyer's thing, you could see the fear in his eyes when people showed that they may try to stop him. He stopped what appeared to be a bunch of prepared comments and just blew his head off. That's messed up, and defies all logic, thinking, rationalization, whatever.

Absolutely. Who knows what was going through his mind. The look on his face was chilling.

And with Chubbuck, she read multiple news stories, she probably wasn't going to go through with it. The station was going to play a clip, and they had technical problems, so she looks at the camera, and says, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide." She pulls out a gun, and shoots herself right in the skull. Who saw that coming?

I agree with the premise that many suicides can be prevented by learning to see the warning signs and initiating appropriate intervention, but your claim that ALL suicides can be prevented is simply not correct.

Less than you may even think. Many people show few or no signs, and even those who receive counseling, intervention, and treatment often go through with it. Most suicide attempts are parasuicide, people looking for attention, not to actually kill themselves. When a person really,

truly wants to end their life, that's much harder to stop. What some people think they may have done, 'talking a person down from the ledge', so to speak, may merely have been an act in which both persons were players. True suicides are rarely clear, staged, choreographed events. They are very chaotic, the person is mostly concerned with ending their life, not with leaving notes, or tying up loose ends.

[zeg]

The United States Army.

Is that why they haven't had any suicides among troops in the last few years?

It's one thing to claim that some people can be helped with support, I won't disagree, as I've certainly helped a number of my friends who have been suffering from depression. A support network of friends and family can help, no question. However, no matter how much you want to believe it, you cannot possibly provide legitimate evidence that "100%" of suicides are preventable. No reputable source would make that claim, because it cannot possibly be substantiated until the suicide rate drops to zero. Furthermore, to go on to claim that a suicide is the fault of anyone (except, maybe, the one killing him/herself) is simply ignorant, as well as insulting to the many people who have done all that they could to help their friends and loved ones yet lost them all the same. It is *not* always a "slow burn," not *all* friends/family of a person may find themselves in a position to assist, etc. There are signs to watch for, and it's important to watch for them, but like so many elements of human psychology, every case is unique. Even in cases where depression is evident, the vast majority of even serious cases of depression do not end in suicide. It's not as simple as you make out. If it helps you to believe that every case can be avoided because it gives you, as the caregiver, hope, then that's one thing. But it's simply not *actually* true, and if it were, no weekend course is going to be enough training to apply it.

[Shanks A Million]

Is that why they haven't had any suicides among troops in the last few years?

It only makes him sound like more of a fool. Suicide rate among soldiers are not just high, they're extreme. 121 Iraq war veterans committed suicide, with another 1,200 attempts in 2007, a 20% increase from 2006. The number is only rising. In January 2009, more soldiers died from suicide than combat.

[sean_miller]

It only makes him sound like more of a fool. Suicide rate among soldiers are not just high, they're extreme. 121 Iraq war veterans committed suicide, with another 1,200 attempts in 2007, a 20% increase from 2006. The number is only rising. In January 2009, more soldiers died from suicide than combat.

Was it the US Army or the Marines that just revised their anti-suicide video because it was ridiculed by the soldiers?

[Slammin' Sam]

The United States Army.

I've gotta call you on that one. I've attended my fair share of suicide prevention briefings in my 23 year Army career, and never once has it been mentioned that suicide is 100% preventable.

[Slammin' Sam]

I'm aware of that. I was trying to be charitable to the person I was repsonding to.

[DavidFehertysBike]

I've gotta call you on that one. I've attended my fair share of suicide prevention briefings in my 23 year Army career, and never once has it been mentioned that suicide is 100% preventable.

Then you should also know that the people in your circle of life are your responsibility, and that a suicide is just as much your failure than it is the one that has committed the act. I firmly believe that.

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

Back to Blasburg.

So she was apparently involved with a doc named Hess who was likely married who was also prescribing a medicine chest full of pills for her [shades of Michael Jackson and Anna Smith and a host of other celebs found dead with full medicine cabinets and no pulse]. All of which could be a motive for murder or an additional push toward suicide.

So they returned a finding of suicide. Which means she either committed suicide or the doc offed her and left no evidence of the crime sufficient for charges of murder.

Another example of how in this country a major cause of death --or contribution to death-- is prescription drugs. In the good old USA, we are eating and drinking and medicating ourselves to death. Those lucky people in most of the world who can't afford any of that simply starve to death or die of disease.

[Dartguy]

Then you should also know that the people in your circle of life are your responsibility, and that a suicide is just as much your failure than it is the one that has committed the act. I firmly believe that.

Do you belong to a cult?

[Shorty]

Then you should also know that the people in your circle of life are your responsibility, and that a suicide is just as much your failure than it is the one that has committed the act. I firmly believe that.

You really are a sick person.

[sean_miller]

Then you should also know that the people in your circle of life are your responsibility, and that a suicide is just as much your failure than it is the one that has committed the act. I firmly believe that.

When I first started dating my wife, there was a guy who was stalking her and had been for a while - he was her "friend" and was friends with others in "her circle of life". He'd created a fantasy world where they were together. About a year after we got married he called her one afternoon, depressing the heck out of her, then tried to kill himself that night. He didn't try hard enough. He was unsuccessful, and since this was apparently the third time he'd done it (contacting her before an attempt) I suspect it was a cry for attention from her. Most of the people in his "circle of life" turned their backs on him after that last attempt. "Just do it already" and "leave her alone or we'll do it for you" was the general sentiment. Some people are cruel and self centred and they want someone else to hurt as bad as they do - how are you gonna stop someone like that?

[Slammin' Sam]

Then you should also know that the people in your circle of life are your responsibility, and that a suicide is just as much your failure than it is the one that has committed the act. I firmly believe that.

And that would mean whom? The suicide that I referred to earlier that nobody saw coming was a guy in my Army battalion at Fort Campbell. Am I responsible for his suicide, despite the fact that I didn't know him very well? The point, which for all your bluster you have failed to comprehend, is that

even within one's own "circle of life" there are people who never outwardly display any intention to take such a drastic act as suicide yet do so anyway. That does not constitute failure on anyone's part and your claim to the contrary is patently absurd. I firmly believe that !

[iacas]

Okay guys, let's stick to the topic and not a certain set of posts within this topic. Y'know what I mean.

[iacas]

A good article that may put a cap on this for some: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...9711/index.htm .

[Dartguy]

Man, that's just a damned shame. So much life ahead of her.

[Awsi Dooger]

A good article that may put a cap on this for some:

Thanks for the link. Interesting piece but it seemed oddly imbalanced, great detail on some seemingly minor aspects but nothing on Erica's drinking problem. And stunning at the end when it leaves you hanging with mention of an affair with a married man -- not Hess -- and confrontational phone calls from his wife, apparently in Erica's final days if not final hours.