“High-Functioning Depression” and Suicide

Individual Counseling Insights brought to you by California Psychotherapeutic Resources, Inc.

Fans of the Ellen DeGeneres Show are well aware of the talent and love for life on display by the show’s DJ, Stephen “tWitch” Boss. They are also undoubtedly aware that tWitch committed suicide on December 13 at a motel in Encino, just miles from his home.

Stephen Boss known as tWitch

From the outside, tWtich’s life was a fairy tale dream. He enjoyed financial success, had a beautiful wife and three lovely children and was planning several new and exciting projects.

The obvious question, then, is “Why?” Why would someone who seemingly had everything commit suicide? And a more difficult follow-up question arises: If someone was in such pain that they would end up committing suicide, how in the world did close friends or family miss the signs of his despair?

In a suicide note left at the scene, police indicated that he referred to past challenges. Did he share these challenges with anyone? Or, more to the point, how could he possibly have hidden his struggle with such challenges?

In a video on NewsZone, reporters explore the incidence of “high-functioning depression” and the possibility that that is exactly what tWitch was confronting.

Watch the video here:

Photo: Lexi DiStefano