Yesterday, Robert Enke, 32, and a goalkeeper on Germany's national soccer team, committed suicide by stepping in front of a train in Hanover, Germany. Read these links for more on this terribly tragic story.
There will be many analyses trying to explain why someone who had so many gifts could be brought to such a violent and self-destructive end. While I have little insight into the why, it is clear that this story is a profound demonstration that depression stigma can have devastating consequences.
Enke suffered from serious depression. For many years. Privately.
I find it heartbreaking that Enke would apologize for keeping his depression a secret from the public in his suicide note.
That Enke felt that he had to keep his depression to himself *FOR YEARS* is just an incredibly powerful statement of how hard people will work to keep knowledge of psychiatric problems from others. He hid this depression from the press, from his teammates, from his adoring fans. One can only imagine how challenging it is to feel so horrible on the inside and not show it on the outside.
We know that his wife and his doctor knew of his struggle.
But we will never know whether this tragic outcome might have been averted had Enke felt that he could share his secret with a wider circle.
Enke's doctor revealed that Enke had been in treatment for depression since 2003!
His death is a reminder of just how far we have to go.
