@KiwiMurph said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
What horrible news. Article i've read on Fox Sports referenced Lifeline at the bottom of the article....
He used to do work on Fox Sports News - seemed like a real nice guy.
The NZ Herald article has all the suicide helplines too.
Which of course means this death will soon not be reported any further.
@NTA what about over in OZ? Are media there allowed to discuss deaths by suicide?
My recollection is they tend not to. But yeah the Lifeline numbers at the bottom of the article are kind of a giveaway
Horrible news.
If it is illness eg a suspected heart attack, they say so. But if none of that and 'there are no suspicious circumstances' it's usually a suicide.
His poor family.
Vickerman was quite literally the biggest guy I have ever met. A giant, in so many ways.
If a bloke of his size, his strength, his character couldn't deal with mental illness, what hope are the rest of us? It just doesn't discriminate at all.
@NTA said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
He leaves behind a wife and two young children.
That's desperately sad.
I wonder if rates of depression are higher among retired professional athletes.
@antipodean said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
@NTA said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
He leaves behind a wife and two young children.
That's desperately sad.
I wonder if rates of depression are higher among retired professional athletes.
Depression and suicide in athletes is often tied to CTE from concussion
The worst thing is, as long as suicide is a taboo topic, and no one is allowed to talk about it, it's going to keep happening.
The non-reporting of it makes it seem like it's an occasional, out of the blue thing. It's not. It's all too tragically frequent, and men make up a big number. Education, wealth, job history doesn't exclude anyone.
It's not reported on so as not to inspire copycats. People - especially youth - read it and think it's a legitimate 'out' for issues they are battling.
@Wurzel said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
It's not reported on so as not to inspire copycats. People - especially youth - read it and think it's a legitimate 'out' for issues they are battling.
That's what they say but I wonder if that is really true.
Anyway, RIP Dan.
@Wurzel said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
It's not reported on so as not to inspire copycats. People - especially youth - read it and think it's a legitimate 'out' for issues they are battling.
Funny then its not reported in NZ yet we still have the highest suicide rate in the western world.
Something clearly has to change, burying our heads in the sand wont change a thing.
The copycat argument is bullshit
@Virgil said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
The copycat argument is bullshit
The NSW police used to explain how people met their ends in the gazette. They stopped doing that after a couple of people used the same novel technique. Including one who had clearly changed his mind, albeit a little too late.
@antipodean yea I read something a week or 2 back about 3 girls, made a pact to kill themselves, 1 did it, other 2 didnt, said they were never serious...
Seems to be alot of organisations trying to make people more aware of Suicide at the moment.
@Virgil A couple of years ago the media outlets in NZ got together and decided to report suicides, but that was only after the parents of one suicide victims asked media to report it. I think they now only report it if the family requests it, otherwise it's just the lifeline information at the end of the article.
What a tragic news. So young! Devastating for his wife and young sons! RIP.
I agree that the media shouldn't discuss suicide in detail, but that's no excuse for not discussing mental illness. In NZ, and probably also in Australia (?), we have this terrible "harden up mentality" that prevents people with mental illness talking about it, out of fear of being labelled soft or wacko. It's also one of the most under-diagnosed illnesses, maybe for that reason. What we see and hear are some of the consequences of mental illness: suicide, alcoholism, gambling, other addictions, which are then either bemoaned, deplored or condemned, but there's often no discussion about what may be causing it.
I'm starting to hate this year already .. already 3 rugby union stars gone. And that's only union.
@Sneakdefreak said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
@Virgil A couple of years ago the media outlets in NZ got together and decided to report suicides, but that was only after the parents of one suicide victims asked media to report it. I think they now only report it if the family requests it, otherwise it's just the lifeline information at the end of the article.
Jim Andertons daughter took her own life and he's used every ounce of influence he has to stop the press reporting on it ever since . Occasionally if the family requests it there will be stories about the background of victims, the last one I read was absolutely heartbreaking. I'm sure we all know of someone whos taken their own life and that feeling that there's something you might have been able to do to help even if it was only lending a sympathetic ear never really goes away.
Back to the OP , very sad news . He was the sort of player you wish was wearing your teams jersey every time he played against you.
In more positive news Christian Leilafanos leukaemia is apparently in remission and he wants to get back to playing asap.
@jegga said in RIP Dan Vickerman:
Jim Andertons daughter took her own life and he's used every ounce of influence he has to stop the press reporting on it ever since . Occasionally if the family requests it there will be stories about the background of victims, the last one I read was absolutely heartbreaking. I'm sure we all know of someone whos taken their own life and that feeling that there's something you might have been able to do to help even if it was only lending a sympathetic ear never really goes away.
It was the coverage of his daughter's mental health issues (before she killed herself) that he stopped the media reporting on and I support him for doing that. I know of journalists accidentally playing a part in the suicide of a mentally ill person because they wanted to report it for their news outlet.
What is the NZRU/ARU/Super Rugby policy on player wellbeing during and after their careers? I know the NRL has support groups for players who have fallen on hard times and really try and help the young players (after several suicides from young guys who buckled under the stress of professional sports and needing to provide for their families).
