Mike Wallace is a Special Guy

Mike Wallace may have lots of money and an illustrious journalism career that spans more than fifty years, but in these parts he’s one in hundreds of thousands (in an unfortunate way). Years ago, he spoke publicly about his depression, and, and now he’s disclosed that he attempted suicide twenty years ago. He’s 88 now, so that means he was 68 when he had his attempt. So he was white, senior and male, and that’s a group at particularly high risk for dying of suicide. In this respect, his club isn’t very exclusive.

In an important respect in mental health circles, however, he’s one in many, many people, in a very good way. He’s 88 and he’s willing to buck stigma and talk about his suicide attempt on TV. Most of us in younger generations would feel kind of funny about that, and older generations are notoriously closed-lipped about these things, so he’s a special guy for coming out with this information, even if he waited years to do it.

He discussed his attempt Sunday, May 21 on “60 Minutes,” which aired on CBS stations at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The network posted further details about the interview at: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

For more on Mike Wallace, you can check out his Wikipedia listing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Wallace_%28journalist%29

Posted by Daniele Sadres