Suicide, is something we can live without

Suicide: ‘People think it’s a choice’

West Virginia has eighth-highest rate in country

By Mary Wade Burnside
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — Rebecca Wells saw her husband transform from a motivated business executive who enjoyed working out to someone overcome by depression, which ran in his family.

He sought counseling, took medication and even tried shock therapy. But one day in March 2006, the Huntington man told his wife he was going out of town. Instead, he went to a nearby lake and killed himself. Authorities found him just after Wells filed a missing person report.

“I have days that I have anger, but I’m not angry at him,” she said. “I watched him struggle to get out of bed and I watched him cry.

“What really makes me angry is when people think it’s a choice. He didn’t go through what he did because he wanted to.”

Because Wells wants to spread the word about suicide, she has become a bit of an activist. She has organized a walk called “Out of the Darkness” that will take place Oct. 6 in Ritter Park in Huntington, and she also joined the board of the Morgantown-based West Virginia Council for the Prevention of Suicide.

Bob Musick, executive director of the council, which he runs from his office at Valley Healthcare System in Morgantown, began the group in 2001 to reach out statewide to help people, both those considering suicide and those who have experienced the self-imposed death of a loved one.

West Virginia, he noted, has the eighth-highest suicide rate per capita of all 50 states, he noted. Alaska ranks No. 1.

“One reason is we rank high in guns in the home,” Musick said. “We also rank high in rural areas and we rank high in the number of senior citizens. Each one adds on to it.”

To commemorate National Suicide Prevention Week, which takes place Sept. 9-15, the council will begin a Suicide Survivors Group, which will meet from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at Valley Healthcare System, 301 Scott Ave., Morgantown.

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Luke 10
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou?

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt alive.

29 But he, willing to ajustify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise