In that book, she examined the striking number of artists, poets, novelists, and composers who exhibited the symptoms of mood disorders, including Byron, Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, and Edgar Allan Poe. While promoting that book, Jamison's next subject was all but forced on her. A lot of them would bring up pictures. I was hit by how little discussed suicide was. From 1980 to 1992, the rate of suicide in children ages 10 to 14 increased 120 percent, and in a 1997 survey, one in five high school students said that he or she had seriously considered suicide.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students.
Yet many parents who check to see whether the campus has a climbing wall in the athletic center never think to ask about the university's mental health program. It's not a question of caring or education, but a question of just not thinking about suicide. It's a harrowing topic, frightening for good cause. It's associated with illnesses that are very stigmatized. Jamison hopes that her book better conveys an understanding of the pain endured by the suicidal.