A 25-year-old UC Berkeley alumnus died in an apparent suicide on May 18.
According to UCPD Lt. Eric Tejada, police responded to a call at 2 a.m. from a passerby who reported suspicious behavior. Officers found Andrew J. Maxwell with a gunshot wound to the head at the vista point of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was taken to Highland General Hospital in Oakland.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed that Maxwell died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 3:08 a.m. that Friday at the hospital.
Tejada said Maxwell left a note which led police to determine that it was a suicide.
Maxwell graduated this semester with a master’s degree in public health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He also graduated and earned a bachelor’s degree in integrative biology in 2009.
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It would be really interesting to find out how many of these cases were on mind meds. The current fashion in medicine seems to be to throw pills at people with little or no consideration for their overall health. Hey, you can watch PBS on a random night and find better medical advice than this (ie Drs. Daniel Amen, Mark Hyman plus several others I can’t think of at the moment). I’ve been there and what you eat is of overwhelming importance when you are depressed. Please, before you let them medicate you (or especially if you’re already on the meds) consult “The Mood Cure” by Julia Ross, especially note the discussion of the neurochem 5-HIAA on p. 224–it turns out that in a small but significant proportion of those prescribed Prozac/Paxil/Zoloft, the attempt to boost serotonin actually suppresses 5-HIAA….producing extreme violent outbursts (like Columbine High).
Dr. Anne Blake Tracy has served as an expert witness in numerous cases against the pharmaceutical companies over this. They usually settle out of court (as in the Columbine case) rather than have this matter aired in a public forum. Look up what they charge for a prescription of these drugs and you’ll see why (when they can get you hooked on them, why cure anybody of anything?)
When I was a student at Cal, there were times during my freshman year when I had difficulty
adjusting and for a time I became very depressed. Eventually I was able
to deal with the problems and enjoyed my time there. However the same
cannot be said of some students whom I observed to be having difficult
emotional issues. I think most students will agree, it’s very easy to
become lost in such a large student body. If someone disappears, few
take notice.
Even back during my time at Cal around 2000, there had been several suicides during my 4 or so years. I hope that in light of this tragedy, the school will make greater
efforts to emphasize the psychological services all students can
access.
Greater outreach is especially needed for the college population, and for young men in general, a group that is largely ignored with regards to mental health awareness. According to the CDC, nearly 80% of all completed suicides are by men. In 2009, suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death for men aged 10-14, 15-24, and it was the SECOND leading cause of death for men aged 25-34. These trends have only worsened, not improved.
For many types of mental illness, in men it is the early 20s when most symptoms begin to manifest. Men start to exhibit signs of many kinds of mental illness several years earlier than women do. This coincides with the college years, and it may interact and exacerbate problems with adjustment, introduction to alcohol, etc.
Although I do not know what caused Maxwell to commit suicide, I hope this tragedy can somehow prompt greater awareness.
The end of the year has several of us committing suicide. Please visit the Tang Center if things are looking like they are too tough to handle.
Except how the Tang Center sucks on every single level. Why would anybody go to a place where you’re constantly accosted by doctors who would rather “save your soul” than be a patient advocate?
Please share the details. Your experiences there sound very different from what I have had.
This is the fourth fellow Bear to take their own life since I started attending Cal in Fall ’10. One is far too many, four is incomprehensibly too many. I understand that as people who tend to be quite intelligent, it is impossible for us to be blind to problems in the world that some people have the luxury of being blind to. I also realize that many of us have a tendency to live in our heads and over-analyze things. Both of these issues do have a tendency to make life more painful. However, as a Bear we have an extreme privilege that many people born with a naturally sharp intellect do not. We have each other. We have the opportunity to connect with people who are like us and who are capable of understanding where we are coming from. We have people to talk to that can empathize with us, who feel the same way. We can and should support each other, because during our time here we are surrounded by people who are more like us than we will encounter once we are out of this environment.
Lot of error and unfounded assumptions in your comment, for example:
“I understand that as people who tend to be quite intelligent, it is
impossible for us to be blind to problems in the world that some people
have the luxury of being blind to.”
So by your logic, Mitt Romney – an intellectually sharp guy who has an MBA and a JD from Harvard - necessarily cannot be blind to the plight of the masses… meanwhile the unwashed masses, by virtue of their own stupidity, are blind to their own struggles.
“I also realize that many of us have a tendency to live in our heads and
over-analyze things. …[this also has] a tendency to make
life more painful.”
But as a practical matter: the annual suicide rate in the US among the college-aged population is ~12/100,000 for persons not currently/recently enrolled, yet is only half that for those persons who are/have recently been enrolled.
Try again.
Was this post truly necessary, McPhail?
Dude, it’s called empathy. If you can’t recognize it, you probably shouldn’t disclose such to the rest of the world. Keep it to yourself … like Dexter.
I pledged with Andrew. He was always a bit of a loner, but seemed happy back in college. Can’t help but wonder if we were all blind, or if things went downhill for him after we parted ways. You also have to keep in mind that many of those who suffer become very good at hiding it. There is also some guilt about not keeping up with him after we graduated.
I consider it quite inappropriate to start an argument and post a few statistics on an article like this. Maybe next time you could just say something nice or even try for something meaningful instead of focusing on the ‘practical’ matters.
*alumnus
Alumnus or alumna, singular.
Bless your heart.