Monday, November 05, 2007
On My Own, an untold story including Charmaine Dragun
Charmaine took her own life recently. She was a popular newsreader for the Ten Network in Australia. She was intending to marry her long time boyfriend and start a family. Everything seemed to be going for her. At age 29, she waged a private battle with depression.
While there are many 'causes' of suicide, suicide tends to run in families. It is linked with depression. In my family, one cousin suicided over lost love, leaving a child in foster care. An auntie suicided after contracting TB in the fifties. Another aunty suicided after her husband of over sixty years passed away. My great grandfather is said to have suicided after losing his wife, his job and haveing placed his children in foster care for which he had to leave them. All of them had different reasons, all from the same family.
Today, suicide still has a multitude of reasons. Penny Easton had been apallingly railroaded by a corrupt ALP government who took her job, her children, her money and humiliated her publicly from the cowards castle of parlaiment. In Australia, two factors contribute to our high suicide rate, drought and drugs.
Drought cripples farmers, so that at some stage, they cannot afford to plant seeds for when the drought breaks.
Drugs cause mental illness. Cannabis may be just as deadly, in that regard, as any other upper or downer.
I never knew Charmaine, although I saw her a few times, and thought her pretty. She had been with her boyfriend since they were 16. It isn't his fault, and it wasn't hers either. It was a mistake, for life is very, very sweet. I feel it is time, if drugs were involved, that these be identified and denounced for the curse they are.
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Charmaine Dragun 'lived her life full of love'
By Lauren Wilson
CHANNEL Ten newsreader Charmaine Dragun, who took her own life on Friday, was planning to marry her long-term partner and start a family.
Those close to Dragun - who read Perth's nightly news bulletin from Ten's Sydney studio - said yesterday the popular 29-year-old suffered from depression.
"Charmaine fought a brave and private battle with depression," her family and close friends said in a statement.
"She was determined not to allow it to control her, and because she cared so much for the people she loved most, she never wanted to burden them. In such tragic circumstances, there will always be a search for answers.
"While her death was defined by depression, her life was defined by love.
"Despite her struggle, Charmaine was the eternal optimist.
"It's important people know Charmaine wasn't a negative or needy person and never wanted to be the victim."
Dragun and her long-term partner, Simon Struthers, a forensic pathologist and bass player, were planning a surprise wedding at their joint 30th birthdays in March next year.
The couple, who had been together since they were 16, had also begun talking about starting a family.
A lover of music, Dragun purchased Bjork concert tickets hours before her body was found at the base of sea cliffs at The Gap, a notorious suicide spot in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
In the statement, her friends and family said she had struggled with living in Sydney. "While she did find it difficult living away from her family in Perth, she was surrounded by a tight-knit group of supportive friends in Sydney. She enjoyed Sydney, but there was no denying that Perth was her home."
Yesterday, the Ten Network declined to confirm speculation that it plans to move its news bulletin back to Perth next year.
It has been reported that Dragun sent a text message to Struthers minutes before she died.
There were also reports that she had recently changed her depression medication.
Brain and Mind Research Institute executive director Ian Hickie said it was common for people suffering from depression to make short- and long-term plans to divert their attention from the depressive episodes that plague them.
He also said it was a myth that women were less likely to attempt to take their own lives.
"Women attempt suicide much more often than men; tragically, men succeed much more often than women because on the whole they choose more lethal means."
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