10 Famous People Who Attempted Suicide But Lived To Achieve Amazing Success

10 Famous People Who Attempted Suicide But Lived To Achieve Amazing Success

We all have bad days.

Some have very bad days.

Some people’s bad days are so bad they think they can’t go on…

…but these days pass. And people who feel like this can bounce back and move on and despite depression and even suicidality, go on to enjoy and achieve incredible things.

Happiness can come after wanting not to live; and here are 10 amazing and inspirational examples:

via Thought Catalog by James Swift

We sure do hear a lot about homicides in the news and on the Internet. Alas, despite the incessant coverage of the latest and greatest mass shooting or botched robbery, the CDC data makes it clear as day: Americans killing other Americans is nowhere near as big a social problem as Americans killing themselves.

The numbers are unmistakable. On average, there are about 15,000 annual homicides in the U.S. That’s a lot, to be sure, but the number of suicides, at about 42,000 per year, nearly triples that sum. For all the hubbub we hear about firearm violence, how peculiar it is that more people kill themselves via suffocation than there are gun homicides in the U.S. each year (and for the record – yes, the nation’s gun suicide rate is nearly twice as high as its gun murder rate.)

Despite being such a common occurrence – it’s the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, for crying aloud – the topic of suicide remains shrouded in a needless stigma. Even now, the topic is often framed as a sign of supposed “mental defectiveness” one ought to be greatly ashamed of. Even the media shies away from “normalizing” suicide, out of the baseless fear that frankly discussing it and its root causes may magically cause more people to off themselves.

As it turns out, a lot of immensely important people have attempted to kill themselves, only to learn the grave error of their impulsive mistakes, survive, and then go on to have incredibly successful careers as entertainers, athletes, business leaders and yes, even national heroes. Looking for a good reason to abstain from offing yourself? Take a cue from the ten formerly suicidal folks below, who stared death in the face, came back from the icy brink of the sepulcher and totally won at life…

1. JOHNNY CASH

A Country Legend Attempts Suicide By Spelunking

In 1967, Johnny Cash was mired in a deep addiction to amphetamines and barbiturates. Abandoning all hope, the beloved country crooner drove to Nickajack Cave in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he aspired to get totally lost in the pitch blackness and die. After a few hours, however, he claims to have heard the voice of God himself telling him to hang in there; when he eventually found his way out of the caverns, he was greeted by his wife and mother, who later said they felt drawn to the site because they sensed something wasn’t quite right with the Man in Black. He would go on to record music for another three and a half decades – winning heaps of Grammys along the way – before succumbing to natural causes in 2003.

2. MICKY DOLENZ

A Member of the Monkees Purposely Plays in Traffic

Micky Dolenz, drummer and singer for the made-for-TV boy band The Monkees, was so distraught after his wife left him in the mid 1970s that he tried to kill himself – by getting rip-roaring drunk on Scotch and sitting in the middle of a roadway with the hopes of being splattered by an inattentive motorist. It’s an eerie example of life imitating art, as several years earlier, the cult classic musical Head literally began with Dolenz acting out a suicide attempt. At 71, Dolenz is still alive and kicking, though – in fact, he and the surviving members of the Monkees are still touring and he’s probably about $9 million richer than anybody reading this.

3. ELTON JOHN

He Nearly DID Let The Sun Go Down On Him

Hey, you know that Elton John song “Somebody Saved My Life Tonight?” Well, it’s based on a true story – specifically, the time John collaborator Bernie Taupin literally yanked his head out of an oven to keep him from asphyxiating on gas. It wasn’t the only time the flamboyant frontman tried to check out of the mortal coil, though. John also tried to kill himself by downing 60 Valiums a few years later – ironically, smackdab in the middle of “Elton John Week” in Los Angeles. Now 69, the “Rocket Man” remains one of the most successful musicians on the planet, raking in an impressive $42 million in 2016 alone.

4. PRINCESS DIANA

One Intentional Fall Almost Wipes Out Two Royals

According to biographer Andrew Morton, Princess Di almost died five times in the early 1980s. In the 1992 tome Diana: Her True Story, the author describes how the British royal attempted suicide by flinging herself through a glass cabinet, slitting her wrists with razor blades, trying to open her veins with a lemon slicer and literally hacking herself with penknife. The most serious attempt, however, occurred in 1982, when Lady Di took a dive down a flight of stairs; at the time, she was three months pregnant with the future Prince William. While Di’s life was cut short in a 1997 auto accident, her legacy is undeniable: more than 15 years after her death she is still regarded as the consensus pick for most beloved British royal in history

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