"The act of helping someone  in need  doesn't come as naturally to people as it should and people  suffer in a  variety of ways because of that.  But people suffer everyday  with  mental illness and thoughts of suicide, without anywhere to turn because we're afraid to talk about those things.   
 
This must change.  We must do more."

It's been several months since I published those words and never have they been more true.  Recent events have brought mental illness to the front and I hope it will lead to discussion and action. 

We must never lose that hope that resides inside each of us.  While the media insists to focus on the worst of our nature, it's up to us to be a positive influence on those around us.

"This wasn't meant to happen."  It rarely is.  Much talk and speculation surrounds this story.  Where is the line between entertainment and weighing the consequences of a prank?  What's the next step?  How could this have been prevented?



Michael Christian and Mel Greig, the Australian DJs who prank called the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated, say they're "shattered" and "devastated" by the subsequent suicide of the nurse who fielded the call.

In interviews with two Australian talk shows, Christian and Grieg said they  never expected the stunt would result in the death of Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two. "We're still trying to get our heads  around everything, trying to make sense of the situation," Christian told  Australia's Today Tonight. "I don't think that anyone could have  predicted what could have happened. It was just a tragic set of circumstances."

"It doesn't seem real because you just couldn't foresee something like that  happening from a prank call," Grieg added. "It was never meant to go that far.  It was meant to be a silly little prank that so many people have done before. This wasn't meant to happen."

The DJs, who host a show for Australia's 2day FM, have voluntarily suspended themselves from the station in the wake of Saldanha's death. When asked when or if they'd be returning to work, a tearful Grieg said that's the least of their worries right now. "Our careers aren't important in the moment," she said.  "There is nothing that can make me feel worse than what I feel right now and for  what I feel for the family. We are so sorry that this has happened to them."

Grieg added that she and Christian have not reached out to Saldanha's family because they don't feel it would be appropriate to do so. But, she said, they wanted to use the televised interview "to say that we are thinking of you, and if we could call you we would want to reach out to you. If we played any involvement in her death, then we're very sorry for that."

In a call to the hospital last week, Grieg and Christian pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, putting on poor British accents and asking for information about  Middleton, who was hospitalized with severe
morning sickness at the time.  Saldanha answered the call at the reception desk and patched it through to  Middleton's room, where a nurse provided detailed information about Middleton's  well-being, thinking she was speaking to members of the Royal Family.


"The call ... wasn't about speaking to Kate," Christian told Today Tonight. "It wasn't about trying to get a scoop or anything. I mean, we assumed that we'd be hung up on and that would be that. ... The joke was always on us, not anyone else. It wasn't about trying to fool someone. We just assumed with the voices that we put on, we were going to get told off and that was the gag."

The myth that suicides spike during the holidays comes back to haunt us every year.

The months of November, December and January actually have the lowest number of suicides per day,  according to the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center,  which analyzed 1999-2010 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  It found that averages were highest in the spring and summer.

"There is still this sort of ironic thought that maybe there are people not happy at this time," says Annenberg's Dan Romer. He adds that songs and movies focused on the "holiday blues" -- including the perennial favorite It's a Wonderful Life -- also perpetuate the myth.

The center, which has tracked the media's reporting of suicides since 2000, looked at stories that linked suicides and the holidays. In 1999, 77% of those stories said, erroneously, that suicides increased over the holidays. The
proportion of stories that supported that myth dropped after the center's analysis came out, but rose again last year  to 76%.

"The return of the holiday-suicide connection may be related to the fact that the adult (ages 25 and older) suicide rate has increased in recent years in step with the Great Recession," says Romer, who has directed the study since its inception.  "With more people affected by suicide, news stories about suicide may be more common over the holidays, bringing the myth back to our attention."

In 2010, there were 38,364 suicides in the USA, an average of 105 a day. The month with the highest daily average in 2010 was July, with 111.3. The lowest, 98.2, was December. The CDC says suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in 2010.

Suicide-prevention experts say stories perpetuating the myth are not only wrong but dangerous.

"An article that leads them to believe that it's normal for people in their situation to end their life may be just that little nudge that puts them over," says David Litts  of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

Litts says anyone contemplating suicide should call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. Those who know someone in distress can call  as well, he says.

Media coverage needs to be more balanced, Litts says. Coverage should include ways to prevent suicide, such as  recognizing warning signs, as well as stories about people who got through those dark times. "The number of people who positively adapt to life stresses far outweighs the number of people who do not," he says.

Those success stories may give hope to people with suicidal thoughts, Litts says. "The majority of people in their situation find a way to live. That might give them the courage to go on and keep looking for that way."

A tragic story that will be discussed for quite a while.  Also sad is the rush to judge by those who don't know the facts.  Derek Flood asks questions that need to be answered.



Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs shot and killed his  girlfriend in front of his mother on Saturday morning (December 1, 2012), and  then drove to the Chief's practice facility where he killed himself in front of head coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli in the parking lot. Belcher left behind a 3-month-old baby girl.  What makes this story especially troubling is that Belcher does not fit the typical profile for domestic violence -- not by a long shot. Before being drafted into the NFL, Belcher graduated with a degree in child development and family relations from the University of Maine. While at Maine Belcher joined the anti-violence group Male Athletes Against Violence. As a member of MAAV, Belcher would have signed a pledge which included these lines:

I pledge: 

• to educate myself on issues surrounding violence while
  developing personal beliefs against the use of violence


• to be a positive role model for my community


• to look honestly at my actions in regard to violence and make
  changes if necessary

Shocked at the news, Belcher's former University of Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove reflected, "I'm hard-pressed to find or recall a young man who had more of an impact in a positive way on his teammates and his football family in my time here. He's truly one of the great stories in the program's history."

Similarly, Belcher's former High School coach Ron Langella said,"He was a good athlete, but an even better person. An unbelievable role model." 

So what went wrong? What could cause someone like Belcher to resort to such shocking acts of violence? What could turn such an inspiring role model into a killer?

One possible explanation is traumatic brain injury (TBI), a condition that frequently affects professional football players.

Traumatic brain injury can cause emotional, social, or behavioral problems and changes in personality including disinhibition, inability to control anger, and impulsiveness. Additionally, TBI appears to predispose survivors to
psychiatric disorders including substance abuse and clinical depression. According to a study published in the Psychiatric Times, suicidal ideation is not uncommon, and rates of suicide after TBI are increased 2- to 3-fold.

All of this fits with reports surfacing in the aftermath by friends of Belcher claiming that the linebacker was drinking every day and taking painkillers while dealing with the effects of debilitating football-related head injuries.

The combination of traumatic brain injury, alcohol, and handguns make for a deadly combination that not only may be behind Belcher's murder-suicide, but has also been linked to an alarming trend of suicides and violent crime among soldiers returning from combat. Again, we find the same scenario: Good kids who suddenly "crack" and become violent. 

While personal responsibility should always play an important role in this type of discussion, it is critical to understand that TBI impairs the brain's ability to make those kinds of moral choices. So we need to seriously ask: Did football injuries turn Belcher into a killer? If so, what needs to change in the NFL to avoid such tragedies in the future?

As Sports Illustrated reports, his past Wednesday -- ironically, just days before the tragic events of this weekend -- former Kansas City Chiefs players and Army leaders said that a change in culture regarding the risks of concussions must start at the top levels in sports and the military.

Their point was tragically underscored by the deadly events of this past Saturday. As more details surface, we will hopefully be able to form a better understanding of what happened, but we should be hesitant to write this off as a case of "one bad apple," avoiding the larger conversation we need to have. When it comes to sports and TBI, perhaps it's time we asked ourselves some tough questions about how much are we willing to sacrifice for our entertainment.

Derek Flood is the author of Healing the Gospel: A Radical Vision for Grace, Justice and the Cross. Follow Derek on Twitter @theRebelGod.