With the tragic suicide of NFL linebacker great Junior Seau, questions arise as to whether his actions to end his life was because of brain trauma caused from his hard-hitting–and being hit hard–professional football days. This link between football and brain damage from concussions is increasingly seen as a big concern; after all, brain changes means mental changes and one expression of these alterations can be depression.
Whether this holds true with Seau or not, there is no debate that depression is a serious mental disorder that should not be denied…even though there may be no warning signs from the sufferer. As in Aurora’s case, a bipolar teen who fell from her elated manic state to depression toward the end of the novel Light Fixtures, the depressive state at first offered no overt behaviors. No one saw that she was depressed until she was deep “in the dark hole” – and even then, she worked hard to try to appear “normal”. Eventually though, with the depression full-blown, she could no longer participate in life’s regular rountines.
Maybe this is where Seau headed toward and, just as Aurora felt, he began to feel a sense of no-purpose and a sense of a no-point-of-going-on. I don’t know. I only know I feel for his family and for any family who learns too late that there was trouble with a family member’s sense of mental balance, for depression can, and often does, = suicide.
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