“Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death.[6] Risk factors include mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, and substance abuse” according to Wikipedia.
Traditionally, suicide is associated with misery, pain and suffering mostly resulting from financial troubles, traumatic loss and poverty. Logically, ending one’s life puts an end on the sources of suffering and brings relief.
However, we now see a new risk factor: high achiever risk. We see this in high school students pursuing achievement and high profile, successful celebrities. I call this new risk factor: “High Achiever Psychology: Parts Unknown.”
Let’s look at these:
Kate Spade, 55-year-old well-known New York fashion designer, committed suicide on 6/4/2018.
Anthony Bourdain, 61-year-old world-renowned chef, travel and CNN program anchor, writer, took his life on 6/8/2018.
Robin Williams, 63-year-old Oscar-winning movie star and best-known Hollywood comedian, hanged himself on 8/11/2014.
Ernest Hemingway, 62-year-old Pulitzer and Nobel Prize famous writer, shot himself in the head on 7/2/1961.
Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and Robin Williams were icons and epiphany of talent, success, fame, wealth, and the best elements of so-called good life. They demonstrated all the quality and characteristics that people want to emulate to reach the stardom. These high-profile suicides not only shock the celebrity circles but also shake the whole media empires.
Everyone is perplexed by the unanswered mystery, “Money, fame, stardom, awards are glamorous but still not enough to motivate these highly successful people to keep on breathing. Would the celebrity success model lead more driven people to stardom and then perish in a similar fashion? Then what should people believe, pursue, and follow?”
From my professional therapy practice in Silicon Valley, the following are some observations:
- Age Perspective: Age 55-65 was defined as old adult life stage but it should be redefined as Mature Adulthood Mid-Life Stage. In traditional Human Development Theories, mid-life crisis used to happen during the age of 35-45 and the crisis manifestation includes boredom instability; i.e., existing marital/family/career/lifestyle and a burning desire to break free from the routine, comfort, or confinement.
These high-profile suicides shed light unto the Mature Adulthood Mid-Life Unknown Psyche; that is, existential crisis and mortality. What is the next goal after the stardom, climax of career success? What is the meaning of all the glories? What is the meaning of life? Where is life leading to after the physical health declines?
2. Career Perspective: After decades of upward career trajectory, how to prepare to face the parallel bleak downward slope, such as pre-retirement, retirement, forced retirement, the loss of stage, the loss of ?
3. Stardom Perspective: How to continue stardom and prevent it from diminishing? How to make the transient star quality and great life style into celestial immortality?
4. Perfect Life Perspective: Celebrity life is portrayed by the lens of camera, images which can be modified and edited to perfection or completely eliminated. In reality, they are not a perfect superman or superwoman. Ironically, in the real life, rejection, setback, and heartbreak are crucial ingredients for human development and and can not be modified or eliminated as easy as images or cover up with fashionable clothing and accessories.
5. Market Driven Perspective: Celebrities are considered as pioneers in trend setting and also symbolize the selling power for visible and invisible ideas or products that people consciously and unconsciously desire to have and to follow. They can become marketing tools and victims in the pursuit of the stardom at the expense of a balanced and healthy life.
6. Substance Use Perspective: High profile celebrities live high demand, high stress life which take a big toll on their physical and mental health. In order to enhance their energy and performance, substance use, abuse, and addiction is a hidden but common denominator. Substance use includes alcohol, prescribed medicines, illegal drugs, etc., which increase impulsivity, cloud judgment and brain dysfunction which can push any individual over the edge.
7. Holistic Life Perspective: Above six perspectives emphasize on talent discovery, grooming, career adventure to top-notch success icon. The time and resource are mainly devoted and prepare for an individual’s path to extraordinary career stardom but no emphasis on invisible and intangible characteristics modeling, such as family unconditional love, resilience in abrupt interruption, internal happiness, and life wisdom.
Leo Tolstoy, 82-year-old Russian author (9/9/1828-11/20/1910), died naturally but he was wracked with despair and contemplated suicide. His forbidden book, A Calendar of Wisdom, published in 1912, can be a wise antidote for modern high achievers in dealing with Mature Adult Mid-Life Crisis.
“We are here for a short time. Knowledge is limitless. Therefore, the most critical knowledge is not a particular skill or discipline but rather wisdom about ‘how to live’.”
“Strive for goodness without any expectations for rapid or noticeable success. For the further you progress, the higher your ideal of perfection will rise. Yet is it the process itself, this striving, that justifies our lives.”
Final thought: If you feel, think, or exhibit any of these, please consult a therapist as soon as possible.