Celebrity depression and suicide

First, the suicide because that's pretty straightforward. According to People, soap star of As The World Turns Benjamin Hendrickson killed himself at his Long Island home during the fourth of July weekend. The Associated Press reports that police found him in his bed with a gunshot to the head. According to People, Hendrickson’s friends told the New York Post that he’d suffered from depression since his mother died of cancer three years ago. Apparently, no one knew just how deep Hendrickson’s depression became. While people are lamenting the loss of a talented actor, I sit here and lament at how no one saw any warning signs. Although I’ve attempted suicide multiple times, it’s not something I take particularly lightly when I attempt it. My fear is that after attempting suicide multiple times, people start to view me as the “boy who cried wolf.” My husband has assured me that he takes me seriously each and every single time — which is a comfort when I’m not depressed. But when that fog of depression hits, I’d do anything to get people to leave me alone in the hopes that I can carry out the task of taking my own life away. Some people call it a “cry for help.” Others have told me that I’m simply seeking “attention.” But things are not always what they appear to be from other people’s perspectives. It’s a shame that Hendrickson was such a good actor that he had to act both on and off screen. Ashley Judd has recently said that she suffered from severe depression as well. Judd, considered a Hollywood golden girl, shocked many people with her revelation. But like Hendrickson, she too, is a good actress — both on and off the screen. She entered a rehabilitation facility for 47 days to deal with her issues of depression, isolation, co-dependency, and signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder. She explains that her life was constantly in a state of transition as a child (she attended 13 schools in 12 years) and exhibited perfectionistic characteristics to please everyone in her life: grandparents and parents. "They said, 'No one ever does an intervention on people like you. You look too good. You're too smart and together. But you (and Wynonna) come from the same family, so you come from the same wound.' No one had validated my pain before." As for her OCD and perfectionistic habits, Judd is using her lessons from therapy to control herself. People reports: Of curbing her compulsive habit of wiping down plastic surfaces on planes and at hotels, Judd says: "Now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself."