We've been recently watching a lot of Storm Chasers on Netflix. Yesterday we got to the episode where Matt Hughes was revealed to have died after taking TIV2 into a tornado (2010).
Matt Hughes was a meteorologist and storm chaser. He was only 30 at the time of his death and he left behind a wife and 2 little boys. If I understand the few articles online, that weekend after their intercept he went back home for the weekend and attempted to kill himself by hanging. Supposedly he and his wife were having troubles, as well as there were also financial problems. He died 13 days later in hospital.
In a previous episode the TIV navigator, Byron, decides to quit the team. Matt, visibly emotional about Byron's leaving, says that he didn't want him to go because he'd been a good friend, made him happy, and had helped to bring him out of some low times. At the time it just seemed like a touching little scene, but looking back on it one can see how significant a statement it was.
My first thought after learning of his suicide attempt was of how happy and "high" he was during that week of their intercept, and then to have to leave everyone, go back home and fall right out of that elation - well, those kind of lows are usually way worse.
According to the articles, Matt was really good at hiding his depression from everyone. Supposedly he even hid it from his wife. I find this to be a bit unbelievable. At the time of Matt's suicide attempt he had been drinking heavily and I can't imagine it was the first time he ever self medicated. I don't believe you can really hide something like that. But I'm admitting that I really have no idea how they lived their life. Perhaps he really was able to hide it from her. One thing is certain, he wasn't sharing his feelings with anyone; letting it sit and breed in his own mind. This makes me sad to think about.
Is this a fundamental difference between the way men and women live out their depression? I've read how statistics has shown that men are more likely than women to have a successful suicide. I don't know if these numbers have changed but I'm sure a lot depends on the severity of the depression itself, something that should be compared against that data to give context.
At any rate, the news of Matt's death was pretty shocking and sad to learn. He seemed like a very sweet soul and I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that he also seemed very sensitive. Maybe things would have been different if he could have just talked and opened up to someone.
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