Nicholas Hughes was only a year old when his mother, poet Sylvia Plath, killed herself. Her bipolar disorder, coupled with a turbulent life, is generally blamed for her suicide.Now comes word that Nicholas committed suicide. Reports say he suffered from depression. Not only is this a sad reminder of how mental illness travels in families, but Nicholas also lost his stepmother to suicide 6 years after his mother's death.
In addition to our biographical sketch of Sylvia Plath, you can read selected quotes from her works and life collected by Jone Johnson Lewis at the About Women's History site.
It’s ironic that Sylvia Plath appears as a character in a book released last month by Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In the book she is condemned to Dante’s hell for her suicide, which she now regrets, especially leaving her children behind. She finds salvation in understanding and forgiveness. What a strange coincidence.
lord help them!!!
I find it disturbing though I am sure realistic and newsworthy to hear of the sad news of Sylvia Plath’s son. On the news tonight on CBS they explored the area of teenage suicide. 6% of the youth in this country, ages 12 to 18 suffer from severe major depressive episodes and the task presented was to screen all youth so that more teenage suicides do not occur.Unfortunately, there is not good, reputable help available for these 6%. Our child psychiatrist does not even count how many patients he has for fear of being more overwhelmed than he already is. There is a major need in this country for more child psychiatrists and more therapy that can be accessed as drugs are not enough. Mental health parity would help some of this but doctors are reluctant to go into this field because it requires not only an adult psychiatric degree but then a child pychiatric residence and in the end less pay because your clients are all on Medicaid…
Did you know that according to the Center for Disease Control/Massachusetts Department of Education Youth Risk Behavior Survey (1999), 33% of gay youth will attempt suicide? In fact, gay teen suicide attempts are four times that of heterosexual youth.
In Always My Child: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Your Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Questioning Son or Daughter, author Kevin Jennings associates this statistic with the stressors gay youth face, such as:
1. Increasing awareness of same sex attraction. (see Am I Gay?)
2. Disclosure of sexual orientation to family and friends. (see Coming Out)
3. Victimization provoked by their sexual orientation (verbal abuse, threats of physical violence, etc.). (see Gay Hate Crimes)
It saddens me to know that there are people that know god but have so little compassion. The suicede of Sylvia plath’s son is very sad. May god forgive him and give peace to his soul. He will be in my prayers.
The mother kills herself, the stepmother kills herself, the son kills himself… Why doesn’t anyone see the link? The father, Ted Hughes lived with all these people and drove them to death with emotional abuse! Emotional abuse is more dangerous than physical abuse because it leaves no scars and only shows when it’s too late…