Rowling says she had `suicidal thoughts'

[AllardChardon]

Rowling says she had `suicidal thoughts'

LONDON - J.K. Rowling said she contemplated suicide as she suffered from depression before her rise to success, according to an interview with a student journalist.

The Harry Potter author said she had suicidal thoughts in her mid-20s, when she was a single mother and struggling to establish a literary career.

"Mid-20s life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Rowling said, according to an interview posted online by student journalist Adeel Amini.

Rowling said in the interview, parts of which were published in Edinburgh University's Student magazine, that she sought help from doctors and spent nine months receiving cognitive behavioral therapy, according to Amini.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking, `I'm a little bit miserable,'" Rowling, 42, was quoted as saying.

Amini provided The Associated Press with an audio file of his 29-minute conversation with Rowling.

Christopher Little, Rowling's London-based agent, didn't immediately respond to requests Monday for comment.

Rowling has previously said she suffered depression before her Harry Potter series brought her international success. She has acknowledged that characters featured in the series called Dementors were inspired by her illness.

The author has said she sought medical help following her separation from first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

Amini told the AP in an e-mail that he had carried out the interview in Edinburgh last month. He said Rowling granted him an interview after a chance meeting several months ago in a coffee shop in the city.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never," Rowling was quoted as saying in her interview with Amini. "What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

Fortune magazine ranks Rowling, who wrote seven Harry Potter novels, as one of the richest women in Britain, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion.



Ms. Rowling does it again. I love her honesty. She is not afraid to tell it like it is.
Depression and/or suicidal thoughts hit everyone at some point in their lives and yet few talk about it so openly.

 

[rgraham666]

I agree. Perhaps this will do something to reduce the strong atmosphere of 'Sinner! Weakling! Stupid!' that surrounds mental illness.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I agree. Perhaps this will do something to reduce the strong atmosphere of 'Sinner! Weakling! Stupid!' that surrounds mental illness.

Don't forget crazy, lazy and just get over it.

 

[rgraham666]

Don't forget crazy, lazy and just get over it.

One thing I notice is that the people who are big on vilifying the mentally ill aren't generally firing on all eight cylinders themselves.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

One thing I notice is that the people who are big on vilifying the mentally ill aren't generally firing on all eight cylinders themselves.

LOL...you've got that right!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Heck, I had homicidal/suicidal ideation in the university after my daughter was born. Thank God for university counseling centers.

Now if I, too, could only be worth a billion . . .

 

[Belegon]

I agree. Perhaps this will do something to reduce the strong atmosphere of 'Sinner! Weakling! Stupid!' that surrounds mental illness.

Don't forget crazy, lazy and just get over it.

Like racism, the only long term answer to this is raising children who find the idea preposterous...

... I'm not looking to share my story, but let's say that the "shame" of this "stigma" has made a significant impact in how I came to learn some things I should have known much sooner...

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I must just be lucky, I guess. The mother of a late friend of mine was schizophrenic. Because she had a devoted husband who wouldn't take "no" for an answer when it came to her meds, she had a fairly normal life.

My late father-in-law had PTSD and was alcoholic. We felt sorry for him but he was also completely obnoxious. It had little to do with his mental health and we never figured that there was anything "bad" or "weak" about him, just annoying.

Mental illness is a terrible affliction. It has no moral component, period.

 

[LoquaciousLady]

I must be odd. I've never really experienced the "stigma" of mental illness. Almost everyone I know has, at one point or another, either been on meds for some form of mental disorder or seen a therapist on a regular, if short-term, basis.

I notice that the "self-help" section of most bookstores grows exponentially every time I visit including a plethora of books for mental illness ranging from borderline personality disorder to OCD to schizophrenia (how does one "self-help" for schizophrenia?). Mental illness is a major theme in a dozen or so television shows, hundreds of movies, and thousands upon thousands of books, both fiction and non-fiction. There are online support groups for even the most obscure mental illnesses.

Yes, there are idiots who don't get that "chin up" isn't a cure for depression but I doubt any of us will ever rid the world of all idiots. By and large in my life I've found most people very open about and accepting of a huge variety of mental illnesses. My first thought as I read the opening paragraph or two of the article above was, "So? Who hasn't?" It just didn't occur to me until I read the ensuing discussion that this was news in any way. To me, news would be "JK Rowling has never experienced depression or had any remotely suicidal thoughts" because that would be something outside the ordinary.

 

[CharleyH]

Rowling says she had `suicidal thoughts'

LONDON - J.K. Rowling said she contemplated suicide as she suffered from depression before her rise to success, according to an interview with a student journalist.

The Harry Potter author said she had suicidal thoughts in her mid-20s, when she was a single mother and struggling to establish a literary career.

"Mid-20s life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Rowling said, according to an interview posted online by student journalist Adeel Amini.

Rowling said in the interview, parts of which were published in Edinburgh University's Student magazine, that she sought help from doctors and spent nine months receiving cognitive behavioral therapy, according to Amini.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking, `I'm a little bit miserable,'" Rowling, 42, was quoted as saying.

Amini provided The Associated Press with an audio file of his 29-minute conversation with Rowling.

Christopher Little, Rowling's London-based agent, didn't immediately respond to requests Monday for comment.

Rowling has previously said she suffered depression before her Harry Potter series brought her international success. She has acknowledged that characters featured in the series called Dementors were inspired by her illness.

The author has said she sought medical help following her separation from first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

Amini told the AP in an e-mail that he had carried out the interview in Edinburgh last month. He said Rowling granted him an interview after a chance meeting several months ago in a coffee shop in the city.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never," Rowling was quoted as saying in her interview with Amini. "What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

Fortune magazine ranks Rowling, who wrote seven Harry Potter novels, as one of the richest women in Britain, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion.



Ms. Rowling does it again. I love her honesty. She is not afraid to tell it like it is.
Depression and/or suicidal thoughts hit everyone at some point in their lives and yet few talk about it so openly.

Great. I guess she is very special.

 

[AllardChardon]

Authors, like other celebrities, can have a positive effect on the public when they discuss something personally difficult or challenging that they dealt with in their life. Shirley McLain took a shitload of crap after she admitted having a out of body experience. "Out on a Limb" changed my life for the better and I applaud her strength of character in exposing such a vulnerable side to an unforgiving public.

J.K. used her demons to create the dementors, scary things that make my flesh crawl at the thought of them. She made them that real for me. The ultimate boogyman. And now, I discover through her truthfulness that she was dealing with her own suicidal thoughts and the dementors are the product of that struggle.

Makes writing more worthwhile for me. Ms. Rowling inspired me to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a writer. Now, my goal is to become a published writer.

 

[NoJo]

Makes writing more worthwhile for me. Ms. Rowling inspired me to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a writer.

For that, she deserves her £billion. She really has completely changed the literary landscape. Millions of people have been inspired to write, by her example of perserverence and determination. And when she says that she has been suicidal (an occupational disease of authors and poets), it also helps to inspire, because JK Rowling symbolizes the Struggling Writer Overcoming Adversity.

 

[jomar]

For that, she deserves her £billion. She really has completely changed the literary landscape. Millions of people have been inspired to write, by her example of perserverence and determination. And when she says that she has been suicidal (an occupational disease of authors and poets), it also helps to inspire, because JK Rowling symbolizes the Struggling Writer Overcoming Adversity.

Not just to write, but read as well of course.

 

[starrkers]

Great. I guess she is very special.

I think this is the first time I've agreed with you, Charley.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Great. I guess she is very special.

There's a figurative painter known as Odd Nerdrum. He calls himself a Kitsch painter, but if he is, he's re-defined the term, IMO. In an interview that I read at least ten years ago, he said that he learned more about classic technique from studying the second-rate renaissance painters-- the first-raters make technique absolutely invisible. The mistakes in technique are exactly what shows the technique.

If Rowling has triggered a wave of new writers, and I think she has, one reason is that she is second-rate. In the writer's groups I visit, I read a lot of discussion about what she wasn't successful at, and how to rectify those mistakes in one's own writing. This is invaluable information, and it's by example-- doubly invaluable. Plus her own example is so anxiety-reducing-- no matter how many mistakes she made, she was still successful...

 

[AllardChardon]

Yes, J.K. made writing easier for novices. She did not write for years to be rejected over and over and finally get a little recognition. She hit it big with her first novel and that is the testament we closet writers needed to get off our butts and write something intelligent and funny and sexy and...

 

[AllardChardon]

Stella,

Thanks for the post about Odd Nerdrum. I checked out his stuff. We are huge fans of Dali over here and this guy fits right in. You are a wealth of knowledge.

Allard

 

[Stella_Omega]

Stella,

Thanks for the post about Odd Nerdrum. I checked out his stuff. We are huge fans of Dali over here and this guy fits right in. You are a wealth of knowledge.

Allard

Welcome!

If Nerdrum paints Kitcsh, then so did Dali, don't you think?

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

I view madness as a blessing. In my view, madness is merely what a very fine mad woman once wrote, "People who are called 'mad' are deemed as such because they speak the truth."

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Rowling says she had `suicidal thoughts'

LONDON - J.K. Rowling said she contemplated suicide as she suffered from depression before her rise to success, according to an interview with a student journalist.

The Harry Potter author said she had suicidal thoughts in her mid-20s, when she was a single mother and struggling to establish a literary career.

"Mid-20s life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Rowling said, according to an interview posted online by student journalist Adeel Amini.

Rowling said in the interview, parts of which were published in Edinburgh University's Student magazine, that she sought help from doctors and spent nine months receiving cognitive behavioral therapy, according to Amini.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking, `I'm a little bit miserable,'" Rowling, 42, was quoted as saying.

Amini provided The Associated Press with an audio file of his 29-minute conversation with Rowling.

Christopher Little, Rowling's London-based agent, didn't immediately respond to requests Monday for comment.

Rowling has previously said she suffered depression before her Harry Potter series brought her international success. She has acknowledged that characters featured in the series called Dementors were inspired by her illness.

The author has said she sought medical help following her separation from first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

Amini told the AP in an e-mail that he had carried out the interview in Edinburgh last month. He said Rowling granted him an interview after a chance meeting several months ago in a coffee shop in the city.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never," Rowling was quoted as saying in her interview with Amini. "What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

Fortune magazine ranks Rowling, who wrote seven Harry Potter novels, as one of the richest women in Britain, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion.



Ms. Rowling does it again. I love her honesty. She is not afraid to tell it like it is.
Depression and/or suicidal thoughts hit everyone at some point in their lives and yet few talk about it so openly.

Not surprising. She was at rock bottom.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I view madness as a blessing. In my view, madness is merely what a very fine mad woman once wrote, "People who are called 'mad' are deemed as such because they speak the truth."

Yeah, it's a blessing until suicide and numbness rear their ugly heads and don't look back even for a second.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

I've been there, and the suicidal thoughts and numbness reared their heads. I lived through it, and I still count my 'madness' as a blessing. If it hadn't happened, I would not be who I am now. And, I am grateful for it.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I've been there, and the suicidal thoughts and numbness reared their heads. I lived through it, and I still count my 'madness' as a blessing. If it hadn't happened, I would not be who I am now. And, I am grateful for it.

It affects people in different ways, because I'm far from grateful and pretty much always have been.

Lol

 

[AllardChardon]

Several teenagers in my area have committed suicide over the last few years. Like one a year or something. Tragic in a small town. This last one was the local general MD's son. I did not know him, but my kids did.

Sometimes those voices rear their heads and the children are gone before you can get them help. That is the saddest of all. They haven't even lived yet.

 

[rgraham666]

In a highly hypocritical society where the expectation is that you'll be a useful producing/consuming economic entity I'm surprised more people don't off themselves.