Welcome to week 5 of Mental Health Awareness Month! Today I'm discussing two seemingly unrelated topics: The 1976 Chowchilla kidnappings and the death by suicide of golfer Grayson Murray. In 1976, 26 elementary and middle school kids and their bus driver were kidnapped by 3 armed men, their faces covered with panty hose. They were driven around for 11 hours and eventually forced to climb into a 26' trailer buried underground. After all 27 were in, the kidnappers sealed the opening and buried the remaining portion of the trailer with dirt. They dug themselves out after 16 hours. Their lives were forever changed, and because childhood trauma wasn't understood, their mental health was forever damaged.This past week on Saturday, May 25th, pro-golfer Grayson Murray took his life after a fairly public battle with depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. In an interview last year (Link in show notes at https://www.tamiwest.com/post/chowchilla-to-grayson-murray-mentalhealth), he said: I just thought I was a failure. I always looked at myself as a failure. I thought I had a lot of talent that was just a waste of talent. It was a bad place, but like I said, you have to have courage. You have to have the willingness to keep going. Lo and behold, that’s what I did, and I’m here, and I’m so blessed and I’m thankful.He was in the public eye, and felt like a failure.How are they related? They are related because they both help us to see both how far we have come in treatment, help, and stigma surrounding mental health AND how much more there is to be done. I hope you'll listen to today's episode. The reason it struck me so, in part, was because I WAS the age of those children during the Chowchilla kidnappings. In 1976 I was 12 years-old, the age where my panic attacks were debilitating, but panic attacks weren’t really a thing. I wasn’t understood. So, why did I not go down the path that some of the survivors did, including alcoholism and suicide? And, Grayson Murray was a Christian. I am a Christian. Why did he still battle, and why do I still battle anxiety?I think the bottom line is this:We have amazing treatments for heart disease. People still die.We have new treatments for cancer. People still die.With all the mental health treatments available now and to come, people will still struggle and people will still die. It breaks my hearth.I was thinking deeper about that question, why didn’t I go down a worse path? For me, it was and is so many things:-My relationship with Jesus-My family & fr
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- Instagram: Consider Yourself Hugged (new account!)
- TikTok: Short clips and stories
- YouTube: Full episodes + video snippets
- Women’s Group: A Place for Women—ongoing conversation
**The information shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please seek help from a qualified professional. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for chat and resources.
General Resources
National Alliance of Mental Illness: https://www.nami.org
Mental Health America: https://mhanational.org
Mental Health First Aid Resources: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/
About Tami & Michelle:
Michelle Kixmiller, PMHNP
Michelle is a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Tami West, PhD
Stress & Mental Health Expert Dr. Tami West uses research & fun to help transform your life.
