There was a recent news story about Carly Henley on a local channel and it has been announced that the long-awaited CD of Carly's Music (put together and enhanced by the very capable musicians in her family) will be available sometime in May of 2011.
I'm not sure that I liked the general tone of the news story, for it seems to allow viewers to believe that Carly was deeply troubled as a rule rather than the exception. I love the part where her family members seem to resolve to allow their loved one to be an example for many other young women who might hopefully opt to keep searching for a different path, a different alternative, once they're made aware of Carly's fate.
Indeed I do agree that Carly surely wrote and performed her music reflecting her own feelings and insecurities, but I am supremely confident that there was nothing fatal about her having done so. Many people suggest that the truly stunning among us are disproportionately among the most insecure, and that's fine, especially if it describes Carly Henley.
From the angle/tone of that news story it just becomes too easy to reach a point of close friends and family blaming themselves for having somehow missed something, about Carly, which would have magically foretold of her final choice. I say that it was Carly's relative insecurity (as represented by her music) which created so much of the highly appealing persona you can watch on YouTube or know via the descriptions by her friends in various news stories and online testimonies.
Had Carly Henley merely been a beauty queen who experienced no visible self doubt then it wouldn't be likely that she would have been as approachable to everyone as she seemed to be. It was a lot of that seeming insecurity which helped others to identify with her in life and after her death. (a one-dimensional beauty queen doesn't tend to be at the center of this scene)
This writer isn't willing to accept that there was any such measure of any flaws in Carly's personality which could have indicated the way her life would end. I'm still very much confident that it was the introduction of Zoloft into her physiology which perhaps convinced Carly that her friends and family would be better served by Carly being with God and watching over them for all eternity.
Obviously it is no accident that as recently as 2007 the "Black Box Warning" on Zoloft and other anti-depressants was altered to include references to "may cause suicidality in... young adults". There certainly had to be similar unfortunate endings in considerable numbers to effect such a change.
It would please me most to imagine young people seeing Carly Henley as someone who, despite the appearance of a wonderfully supportive, engaged, and successful family, (and a thriving world which included college/sorority life, musical performances, and photo shoots along with enviable physical beauty) STILL came to the conclusion (with or without the addition of Zoloft) that to end that sort of life was her most desired option for the near-term.
Once there, I hope young people would first think long and hard before introducing anti-depressants into their own routines, and that they might reason that, with so very much working in her favor, Carly Henley didn't make a choice that was truly in her best interest considering the obvious potential she had.
The first thing anybody says about a suicide victim is "she had everything going for her" but what if Carly Henley's story and her exceptional beauty are enough to inspire people to observe that, in all reality, Carly truly DID... (yet she still made that choice - which will hopefully cause those in some despair to consider that perhaps it is more about boldly enduring some difficult immediate steps rather than merely tallying one's accumulated blessings for a final determination as to whether they are qualified to live or die)
I really can appreciate the chance/understanding that Carly Henley may not have been as strong inside as might seem befitting of someone admired and envied by almost everybody she knew. That is still a far cry from the hint that those oh-so-fortunate people should begin or go on believing that they could have done something specific to somehow draw-out a girl otherwise known for being so expressive.
Although I did not know Carly Henley, I cannot fathom an environmental equation which would have her believing herself to have been fully void of outlets in her surroundings, or that she had known amounts of rejection and hatred in her world considerable enough to have her unwilling to confide in someone were it merely a question of living or dying.
That is to say that the people surrounding Carly Henley could not possibly have created Carly Henley in an emotional environment the likes of which would have caused her to conclude independently that there was no way out, and no alternative...
On the other hand, I truly believe that Zoloft could indeed have altered Carly's self-perception enough to inspire her to a hasty decision the complexity of which few 20-year-olds can really be expected to anticipate.
Carly Henley was someone I'd never even heard of before she took her own life at the age of 20 while a talented, popular and attractive junior at university. She seemed the person nobody would ever guess for such a fate. The media doesn't generally cover suicide but Carly Henley could inspire so much caring and understanding and it has to start somewhere... I attempt to present this blog without hurting or offending Carly Henley's family or anyone else but suicide is a delicate subject.
I learned of the death of college student Carly Henley two days after her passing, on October 6, 2010. In the days soon to follow it became clear that scores and scores of people were wounded to the core by the loss. Wonderful evidence around the internet serves to almost suspend Carly Henley's personable allure, her impressive musical talent, and a short life the likes of which most anybody could envy.
Various reports tell of her short term struggle with depression of perhaps three months in duration. Significant in that was the introduction of anti-depressant drug Zoloft via prescription some two weeks before Carly took her own life.
Not lost on me now, finally, is the wording in the "Black Box Warning" with Zoloft, which states that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in persons younger than 25. Risk is especially heightened during the first two months of taking anti-depressants.
The labels on anti-depressant drugs in the U.S. were altered to reference young adults aged 18 to 24 just three years earlier - in 2007.
It is my belief, now, that Carly just happened to land among the small percentage of anti-depressant users who are susceptible to being so affected by a powerful drug such as Zoloft.
One need not ever have known such a remarkable woman to feel the pain all around at the loss of Carly Henley.
So many life lessons are so well represented by Carly Henley's compelling spirit. Let me see if I can help some to gain fuller appreciation for a woman who continues to inspire everyone who ever knew of her.
Various reports tell of her short term struggle with depression of perhaps three months in duration. Significant in that was the introduction of anti-depressant drug Zoloft via prescription some two weeks before Carly took her own life.
Not lost on me now, finally, is the wording in the "Black Box Warning" with Zoloft, which states that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in persons younger than 25. Risk is especially heightened during the first two months of taking anti-depressants.
The labels on anti-depressant drugs in the U.S. were altered to reference young adults aged 18 to 24 just three years earlier - in 2007.
It is my belief, now, that Carly just happened to land among the small percentage of anti-depressant users who are susceptible to being so affected by a powerful drug such as Zoloft.
One need not ever have known such a remarkable woman to feel the pain all around at the loss of Carly Henley.
So many life lessons are so well represented by Carly Henley's compelling spirit. Let me see if I can help some to gain fuller appreciation for a woman who continues to inspire everyone who ever knew of her.
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