KUSA - Recent celebrity suicides in the local and national headlines bring up important lessons on what to look for should a loved one show warning signs of a suicide.
In the national headlines, Don Cornelius - the founder of Soul Train - died after committing suicide. The art world was surprised when contemporary artist Mike Kelley was found dead in his Los Angeles home, police say it appears he committed suicide.
Here in Colorado, many were shocked when well-known Denver entrepreneur Noel Cunningham passed away. It was even more startling and sad when it came to light that Cunningham took his own life.
9NEWS Medical expert Dr. John Torres says often but not always there are signs leading up to the death,and it is good to be aware of those signs. Sometimes it is clear.
"One of the biggest most obvious signs is they start talking about death, and they want to die, they want to kill themselves, and there is no real reason to go on," Torres said.
Other times the signs can be a little more obscure.
"They start having excessive mood swings, any type of mood swings that are out of character for them. If you notice all of a sudden they are sleeping a lot more than they used to or hardly sleeping at all," Torres said. "If you find out they are using drugs and alcohol, and they never did that before.
"Have they bought a gun and they never had a gun before? Then it is extremely serious and you need to get some kind of intervention right away."
Dr. John said that do listen and do not blow them off.
"Do not say, 'You will be fine, just sleep it off and you will be okay' or say 'There is no way you will ever do that.' That is almost a dare," Torres said. "The best thing to do is sit down and have a blunt, honest conversation with them and find out where they are coming from. Listen to them, and do not be judgmental."
If you or someone you know needs to get help, you can also go to www.suicidepreventioncolorado.org.
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