I was saddened to read about the suicide of young pilot Vicki Van Meter, who made news in the 1990s when she piloted a plane across America at age 11 and from the US to Europe at age 12. Her body was found, with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, at her home. She was 26.
According to the AP story by Ramit Plushnick-Masti, she was battling depression “but her family thought she had been dealing with her problems.” Her brother said that “she was unhappy but it was hard for her to open up,” that she was opposed to taking medication.
Here’s my case in point regarding my J.K. Rowling argument that no one thing can keep you alive when you are truly depressed: Before Van Meter’s second trip, across the Atlantic, she said this: “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” But that simply isn’t true for so many persons struggling with mood disorders. They absolutely have to be treated just as they would with chemotherapy had they breast cancer.
This girl (and woman) didn’t lack will power and discipline. And yet she could not, with mind control alone, win against the beast of depression. She accomplished more than any other 11 and 12-year-old did. But, like Holocaust survivor and Jewish chemist Primo Levi, she died at the mercy of her thoughts.
Every time I read a story like this, I thank God for the information that I have, for my education on mood disorder, and for the reader support network here on Beyond Blue. The next time you’re hard on yourself about your thoughts getting the best of you, just remember that you ARE fighting a life-threatening illness.