Consider Yourself Hugged

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