Why Ronda Rousey Contemplated Suicide

If you have never heard of Ronda Rousey, she was the undisputed UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion winning six (6) fights since 2013. In fact, she was considered the face of UFC and one of the best athletes in the world. That is until she lost her title to Holly Holm in November of 2015.

When she lost, she went into hiding for a couple of months. While some of us assumed she was taking a much needed break, the reality is that she went into a serious depression. In fact, in an interview with Ellen Degeneres recently, she admitted that she even contemplated suicide.

While this surprised many, it didn’t surprise me at all. Even the most successful, confident, happy people can face a “rock bottom” moment. If fact, we all hit rock bottom at some point. Some more devastating than others but we all hit one eventually.

So how does someone like Ronda Rousey get to a point where she contemplates suicide?

Heck, how does anyone get to that point?

There are many factors that predisposes a person to potential suicide.

Risk Factors of Suicide

Strong Ego Identification 

This is when you determine your own self worth based on things outside of yourself. It’s when you inflate your own worth based on your job title, accomplishments, gifted talents, physical appearance, material possessions, or education level. These things make you special, or better than, other people so it gives you a strong sense of self-worth.

I know this one really well because I was in the corporate world for over 20 years and my self worth came from my senior corporate job titles and my good paycheck. When I left the corporate world, I was blind sided at how the view of myself changed. I no longer had the title and paycheck to hang my hat on. I was lost. I didn’t know who I was anymore and, like Ronda, I became depressed. While I never contemplated suicide, I did find myself on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night telling God I was ready when he was and begging  him to bring me home.

In my case, and the case of Ronda Rousey, and so many others, ego identification was a huge issue. Ego identification creates a false sense of self that hides the real self, the real you, and causes pain and suffering. It stems from believing you’re not worthy, lovable or acceptable unless you’re perfect, highly accomplished, or better than other people. These beliefs, albeit distorted, are so engrained that, unless we are those things, we aren’t lovable.

Case in point with Ronda, after her defeat she said, “I’m nothing. What do I do anymore? No one gives a s— about me anymore without this.'”  Of course, this isn’t true. With or without the title, she is a unique, amazing woman!

Family History

While genetics is not the major contributor to becoming depressed, it does play a role. It has been proven that biological children of depressed parents are more likely to experience depression as well. In the case of Ronda Rousey, her father comitted suicide when she was only eight (8) years old.

Environmental Factors

There are several environmental factors that contribute to suicidal ideology.

• Stressful life events are at the top of the list. This includes things such as divorce, death, job loss or, in the case of Ronda, losing the title!
• Prolonged stress factors such as unemployment, bullying, harrassment, relationship issues or, in the case of Ronda, constant stress to retain here title and it was her third title fight in 9 months!
• Exposure to someone else’s successful or attempted suicide. Of course, Ronda experienced this with her father.

Health Factors

There are seveal health factors that come into play as well.

• History of presence of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and anxiety. (Perhaps Ronda since she had the family history)
• Substance abuse or addiction
• Chronic or serious health issues and/or pain (uh, I bet Ronda experienced chronic pain, fighting everyday what do you think?!)

There’s a variety of experiences and circumstances that can contribute to someone hitting their rock bottom and contemplating suicide. Ronda was able to overcome this and she did it rather quickly. Unfortunately so many others aren’t so lucky.

I am so proud of Ronda for exposing her underbelly and going public with her story.

There is such a negative stigma about depression. If you’re depressed you are weak, broken, less than … as if there’s something wrong with you.

Someone with depression is just someone who simply has some healing to do and needs some love, support and understanding along the way.

We need to deal with the negative stigma that’s attached to depression. If you do an internet search you’ll find all kinds of negative crap about Ronda! She’s being called a bad role model, a fake, and some people are even making jokes about it.

Shame on them!!

This kind of behavior and response is what fuels the negative perception of depression. Because of this kind of behavior, people who are depressed feel so much shame and, because they’re ashamed, they don’t get the help they need. Instead, they choose to bury their head in the sand, pretend there’s nothing wrong, and attempt to seem “normal”.  What makes this devastating is that if people don’t get treatment, it will most likely get worse (hence, why suicide rates continue to climb)!

So shame of those who make fun of people who are depressed! And 3 cheers for people like Ronda willing to go public in order to help others!

When celebrities are willing to speak out it helps to minimize the shame and realize that there is help and you can overcome depression.

There are a lot of other celebrities and famous people that have experienced depression as well. I have a list on my other site. You can check it out HERE if you’re curious. Some of the names on that list might surprise you.

Kudos to Ronda and others for helping us fight the stigma of depression and raise awareness that, while it’s common, it’s nothing to be ashamed of!

Hugs … because everyone could use one!

Dana