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Session aims to prevent suicide
By SEAN BARRON
YOUNGSTOWN
Anyone who spent time with Jeffrey Hipple saw a teenager who played basketball, enjoyed baby-sitting his two younger sisters and loved to make people laugh — partly by impersonating actor Jim Carrey.
What no one saw, however, was a troubled youngster who had several classic symptoms of depression that led to his using a firearm to commit suicide in 2000 at age 15.
“He was a great kid … a good athlete who was captain of his freshman basketball team,” recalled his father, Eric Hipple. “He had many symptoms, but we didn’t know what it was.”
For years, the loss was devastating for Hipple, a former NFL quarterback who talked about depression and suicide prevention Friday during his workshop, “Tackling Depression, Suicide Prevention and Surviving Suicide Loss.”
Mahoning, Columbiana & Trumbull County Suicide Prevention Coalitions sponsored the event in Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center.
More than 100 mental-health professionals and others attended the seminar by Hipple, who played 10 years with the Detroit Lions and is a former Fox Sports analyst. He is now an outreach coordinator for the Depression Center of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and author of the book “Real Men Do Cry.”
Hipple, who’s also suffered bouts of depression, showed clips of his playing days to emphasize that like success in football, reaching out to someone who’s depressed or suicidal requires teamwork.
He played during the 1980s in a culture that stigmatized men who discussed problems and shared feelings. Today, however, a cultural shift has taken place in the NFL, in part because the league has a lot invested in players and wants to ensure they’re healthy physically and emotionally, he noted.
“The thing about stigma is that it’s a killer,” Hipple said, adding that Jeffrey didn’t talk about his depression yet had symptoms that included a sudden drop in grades, a withdrawal from others and a loss of appetite.
A broader cultural trend sees most men who want to fix problems themselves rather than seek help. Most women, on the other hand, open up with others to solve problems, he pointed out.
“I spend a lot of time talking to men because men don’t talk,” Hipple said.
The main tools for increasing resilience to depression and suicide are having a sense of purpose, good communication skills and support, all of which usually short-circuit part of what can lead to suicide — extreme loneliness and the feeling of being a burden to others, he noted.
It’s also vital to get over being afraid to ask if someone is suicidal; doing so does not give the person the idea to commit the act, explained Hipple, who also works with military personnel, students and organizations, among others.
Last year, 72 residents in Mahoning and Trumbull counties died by suicide, noted Cathy Grizinski, associate director of Help Hotline Crisis Center Inc. She didn’t have figures for Columbiana County.
Beyond the numbers, though, each suicide leaves many heartbroken family members, friends and other loved ones whose lives are forever altered, she said.
“It’s very important to remember that their families are grieving; their families are overwhelmed,” Grizinski added.
The most at-risk group for suicide are men age 22 to 44, she said, adding that depression doesn’t cause suicide, but many such deaths are partly the result of untreated depression.
For more information on helpful strategies to deal with depression and suicide, go to www.depressiontoolkit.org.