A young life cut down before it has a chance to bloom is sad, but what happens if that young life is cut down by its own hand? That’s what happened with Kyle Ambrogi of the Penn football team. Kyle Ambrogi committed suicide leaving more questions than answers.
As a football player, Kyle’s statistics were nothing to yell about, but he had just had his best game of his college career. He scored two touchdowns against Bucknell, helping his Penn team rout their foes 53-7.
The family reported that the 21 year old Ambrogi had been suffering from depression. Greg Ambrogi, Kyle’s younger brother said:
I knew my brother had been having some problems. I thought he was getting better. I can’t believe it happened. I can’t cry yet.
Penn coach Al Bagnoli said:
His loss will be felt for a long time. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this time.
What causes someone with a seemingly good life and accomplishment commit suicide?
The causes of suicide are many, but these are the main causes:
- Depression
- Mental illness
- Extreme physical pain
- Despair
- Alcohol or drug abuse
- A major loss in life including job, marriage or family member
- Isolation
What we still don’t know is the tipping point for people who have suicidal thoughts. Commonly the effort is put on suicide prevention. Common efforts to prevent suicide include:
- Promotion of a happy attitude
- Elimination of alcohol and drugs
- Domestic violence reduction
- Intervention when key indicators are shown
Usually there is no reason left by the person who commits suicide, so the living are left to deal with their feelings.
These are the current statistics for suicide in the Unites States (Suicide is the green box):
concussion linked to drug & alchohol abuse
Study Links Brain Injury, Substance Use Disorders
University of Washington at Seattle – February 3, 2004
New research shows a relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and alcohol and other drug misuse, depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders.
University of Washington researchers analyzed 939 patients diagnosed with TBI to see if there was a link between their injuries and ensuing psychiatric illness The review found that patients with mild TBI were 2.8 times more likely to experience psychiatric illness in the six months following the injury. Patients with moderate to severe TBI were four times more likely to experience psychiatric illness.
Jesse Fann, psychiatry and behavioral sciences assistant professor and co-author of the study, said TBI is most common among 15- to 24-year-olds. Among the activities that contain significant risk for TBI are bicycling, boxing, football, and soccer.
Why do so many jocks drink heaily, we have found most everybody who plays football has the dizzines and the ssensation of seeing stars. Some more frequently than others but they are having mild concussions whether they know it or not. Could this lead to drinking or drug abuse, it seems posable according to the study. Please go to our web site for info on NFL concussion prevention. http://www.mahercor.com
Athletes and Suicide: Head trauma causes pot-concussion syndrom
If you know anything about post-concussion syndrome or second impact syndrom (SIS) then you have the answer to your question. Being a recently retired 10 year NFL Linebacker I finally, after 8 months of retirment, now know why I had had been having headaches, irritability, social anxiety, and major depression. For my last 3 years with the Patriots I was experiencing what I called “mini concussions”. I now know those mini concussions have largely been the reason I haven’t been able to get out of bed for weeks at a time, have lost contact with my closest friends and have struggled to maintain my relationship with my wife of 3 years. Kyle had 9 consussions when he started showing changes in his personality. My suggestion is start educating yourself on PCS and SIS and you will have your answers and be amazed. Ted Johnson (10 year Linebacker New England Patriots 1995-2004).
suicide pcs
thank you for that, im having a hard time understanding what im going through.I just want the pain in my head to go away and get back to who i was.Its six months now and i dont see things getting any better but i guess i have no choice or i do if you know what i mean.After reading your story i atleast know im not alone,at first i thought i was crazy.Every thing you said your going through is to a t.Ted Johnson you have just saved a life and i thank you.I will start learning what is going on with me and suck it up as my dad would say.Lorie
Oh the comment above the tbi caused the alcohol and drugs that is your correlation if your subject did not have an issue with this prior It makes me sick to follow the amount of funding that is going on, and yes some of this research is needed, but sometimes some of these never should have been allowed to have a dime spent on, and I wonder what going on in the minds of those that approve this funding. , I am sure in some cases the cause of the drugs or alcohol was the reason there was a wreak that caused the tbi. oh ice cream sales go up in the summertime lol
Hello all, I just wanted to put my voice on here as well. I was in a bad wreak in 2000 and it took me five years to finally be diagnosed with TBI. The sad part is that I am Native American and they were never really trained as to what to look for with the symptoms of TBI. After searching online with the issues I was having the same thing keep coming up after and TBI is what I realized I must had had. I set myself up with the best well known Neuro Psychologist and was diagnosed with it.
What makes my injury so frustrating to me is when you look at me you would never know that I have a disability and I feel the need to let people know on my first problems with memory the need to inform them that I have a memory problem and I HATE IT. It feels redundant to me and I wish i didn’t feel the need to explain my personally issues to people. I as well have had social problems and still can be found on most Fridays and Saturday nights at home, but prior to my accident I was involved in many community organizations and other interest and the loss of words made me never want to speak in public or in small group settings. It sad when you can be around family and people you have known your whole life and forget their names or when you completely can not retrieve a word from your memory when explaining or trying to have a basic conversation and you are at a complete loss for words. You find yourself playing a game of sharaides just trying to complete the conversation and feel like a total idiot I HATE THIS after 11 years of fighting.
I do not take any medication I was placed on were psychotropics I know my brain fires fast get me in a group of people with five different conversation going on and I can give you little snip-its of each of them. I don’t want to live like a zombie in a body that feels total shut down I know I have a sensitive to light, sound and on days when the clouds are out and overcast I know I am going to feel disoriented. what really bothers me are those that work with people who have TBI and act and speak as if we don’t know whats going on around us, well take us off those drugs for a while and you might learn a little more than you do and maybe if people would REALLY LISTEN and yes I know what it feels like to be heard but not listened to. We know you can’t fix us, that the damage is done but I would like to see some of these funds help us live our daily lives if there is anyway possible to offer help.
I’m going to leave this up It took me a long time to write it and I had to make several corrections. as you can tell it’s frustrating and yes I’m sure some people will tell me to get back on meds put there is a point that you decide I am going to live like this and if I decide to not be an inconveance to others and give up this fight it’s my dessioan.