Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, depression and schizophrenia.
Families can be loving, they can be problematic, and, above all, they can be complicated. Author and professor Clancy Martin’s family of origin was very complicated indeed, featuring a dashing, charismatic father who founded his own religion and also dealt with schizophrenia. The family was also faced with suicidality, including Clancy’s own wish to die at age three and multiple suicide attempts spanning most of his life. He tells host Dr. Michelle K. Murray about what a lifetime of trying to die feels like, about his own complex family, which features five children over the course of three marriages, and how just in the last few years he has managed to finally lose that urge to make the worst decision one can make. Talking about frightening mental health topics, as he did in his memoir, How Not To Kill Yourself, led him to not just shake that feeling but also led to helping others who are in danger, which helped Clancy even more. It’s an eye-opening episode, an episode that lets in a lot of sunlight, featuring a guest who once saw only darkness.
