HOUSTON – Naomi Judd died at the age of 76, a day before she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame with her duo partner and daughter Wynonna Judd.
Ashley Judd said her mother shot herself. She also said she hopes people make the distinction between their loved ones and the mental health issues they face.
A distinction that the National Alliance of Mental Health (NAMI) also wants to make clear.
“No one would take their life voluntarily. It has to be... there’s the individual and there’s the illness. They’re not one and the same. A person has their personality, their characteristics, their loving heart, their talents… right? And then there’s this illness and that is the enemy,” Angelina Hudson, Executive Director of NAMI Greater Houston, said.
Hudson said more people need to think of this as a disease. Just like anyone can succumb to diseases like cancer, heart attacks, and mental illness.
“When a family steps into the limelight and says ‘It’s my son, it’s my daughter, it’s me.’ The very first thing that is trampled on is the stigma,” Hudson explained. “Mental health conditions do not care what race, color, creed, religion, or socioeconomic status, it is an illness and it does not have a particular population that it targets. It’s the entire world.”
How to get help:
- Call this suicide hotline, from anywhere in the country, if you’re in a crisis: 1-800-273-talk (8255) or text HELLO to 741741
- The Harris Center for Mental Health is a local crisis hotline: 713-970-7000
- NAMI also has the “warm line” for those in need of mental health guidance, not in crisis: 713-970-4483
- Harris County Sheriff’s Dept Crisis : (713) 221-6000
- Fort Bend : (800) 633-5686
- Montgomery County : 1-800-659-6994
- Para llamadas en Espanol: 1-888-628-9454