The Experts:
Stress is a huge factor in suicide, and looming very large is stress related to the economy,” said Dr. Charles Nemeroff, chairman of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., and president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“Suicide is certainly a response to hard economic times,” noted Dr. Harold Koenig, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. “Consider what happened when the stock market fell in 1929. There was a rash of suicides.”
Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and a professor at Emory University’s School of Medicine, said such financial stresses come attached with significant psychological consequences.
“There is no question that the economic downturn in our country is causing havoc with people’s mental health,” she noted. “It is very depressing to lose one’s home. It represents loss of stability, a feeling of failure. … It is scary and overwhelming.”
Comments from Moe:
The social impact of the foreclosure crisis is coming full steam ahead and is engulfing people, families, cities, counties and now snuffing out lives.
I have written about this for the past year now and I am seeing more and more sad stories that are hitting my Google alerts. There is no question in my mind that people are being pushed over the edge by their mortgages and the threat of foreclosure.
People are dying on main street over a damn home and loan!
Our government needs to do more and they need to do more now!
“By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.” So read the note that 53-year-old Carlene Balderrama of Taunton, Mass., faxed to her mortgage company, according to Taunton Police Chief Raymond O’Berg.
The message turned out to be tragically prophetic. According to local reports, PHH Mortgage Corp. — the company foreclosing on Balderrama’s home — notified police of the message less than an hour and a half before the home was to go on the auction block. By the time officers arrived at Balderrama’s house, they found she had fatally shot herself with her husband’s rifle.
O’Berg said Balderrama’s death has been officially ruled a suicide. But though the case is closed, he notes that the tragedy underscores a problem that is affecting many in the community of about 60,000, which lies roughly 40 miles south of Boston.
“It has a lot of people talking, because there are a lot of homes in foreclosure here,” O’Berg told ABCNews.com. “It’s just a tragedy. Then again, someone told me that these financial stresses are tough.”
Police said 53-year old Carlene Balderrama fatally shot herself with her husband’s high-powered rifle Tuesday afternoon, 90 minutes before the couple’s foreclosed home was to be sold at auction.
The mortgage company called police after they received the fax.
Officers found Balderrama’s body shortly afterward.
Police officials said Balderrama’s husband never saw it coming.
“He had no idea. She handled all the bills and he just had no idea. This really is a tragedy,” said Taunton Police Chief Raymond O’Berg.
1 Response
It is unfortunate that someone would take their own life because of foreclosure or economic difficulties. My deepest sympathies go out to Ms Balderrama’s family and friends. I have heard of this same type of tragedy happening in other areas of the country. Losses due to foreclosure and economic hardship are irrelevant compared to the importance of a person’s life. Let them hold their little foreclosure auction, or ruin someone’s credit, or evict hardworking people from their homes–SO WHAT! Your life is so much more important than those things. The money changers and business fatcats will have their day eventually. Move on and fight. Fight them anyway you can. But most important of all: DON”T GIVE UP BY HURTING YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE. Don’t let those animals ruin you. They simply are not that important.
Posted on July 27th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
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