Christine Chubbuck | Analysis of the First "On Air" Suicide

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of christine chubbick just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll go through the background of christine chubbick i'll look at the incent that occurred in this story and then i'll offer my analysis christine chubbick was born in hudson ohio on august 24 1944. her father's name was george and her mother's name was pegg she had two brothers she was the middle child she attended a school for girls in cleveland chubbick was depressed and had mood swings she was treated by mental health professionals she was interested in finding a romantic interest but did not have much success in high school she started a group she called the dateless wonder knitting club at age 16 she started dating a man who was 23 but he would die in an automobile collision shortly after this in 1965 she would earn a degree in broadcasting from boston university she went to work for a television station in cleveland and then for another one in canton after this she worked for a station in pittsburgh pennsylvania she had moved there to be with a romantic interest but the relationship did not last she quit this job and worked as a computer operator for a hospital for four years and then worked for a cable television company for two years this was in florida she made her way back into broadcasting by working for a station in saint petersburg and then took a job with wxlt which was an abc affiliate the owner of the station was a man named bob nelson even though he hired chubbick as a reporter he eventually gave her a talk show called suncoast digest the show was supposed to give attention to those concerned with lost segments of the community the station was not sophisticated it was a small station without a lot of technology reporters were given polaroid cameras and told to go find stories the pictures they took were taped to a board and the camera would pan over the pictures as the stories were read on air their audience was not substantial suncoast digest for example only averaged about 500 viewers on most mornings pressure to build a bigger audience predictably led to chasing sensationalistic stories the motto of the station became if it bleeds it leads chubbuck lived in siesta key florida in a cottage owned by her family she decorated the interior of her bedroom to make it look like a teenager's room her mother and younger brother moved in with her after her mother divorced her father her younger brother moved out but then her elder brother moved in chubbick her mother and her elder brother got along quite well however chubbuck was having a number of mental health problems so similar problems to what we saw earlier in her life i'll cover more about this in the analysis in early july 1974 chubbick purchased a smith wesson model 36 this is a revolver chambered in 38 caliber now moving to july 15 1974 the show suncoast digest was getting ready to start that morning chubbuck told the workers in the studio that she needed to read something during the opening of the show this was out of the ordinary this is the first time she ever asked to change the format in this way chubbic sat at the desk of the news anchor as the guest for the show waited in an interview area for about eight minutes she read a newscast covering three national stories and a local story about a shooting that occurred at a restaurant this segment had a clip that was supposed to run but it jammed chubby continued and said in keeping with channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts and in living color you're going to see another first and attempted suicide she used a sarcastic tone to say blood and guts and in living color she was looking directly at the camera and smiling tentatively her left hand was shaking and her right arm stiffened as she spoke those words she quickly produced her revolver placed it behind her right ear and discharged it chubbuck fell forward into the desk and then slid out of her chair onto the floor the broadcast was faded to black by the technical director but non-time to prevent what happened from being broadcast at first people in the studio were angry because they thought chubbick was joking they soon realized this was not a joke several people in the community called the police and the station chubbuck would be pronounced dead 14 hours later after being taken to sarasota memorial hospital now moving to my analysis chopin was being treated by a mental health professional specifically a psychiatrist she saw the clinician last just a few weeks before she died she used to talk to her mother and brother about how she was depressed and feeling suicidal there were specific items she talked about chubbick had difficulty with romantic relationships she was going to turn 30 soon and she never had been on more than two dates with a man and she had never had sex she had overdosed on drugs in 1970 and would bring that up as a topic of conversation frequently she never explicitly told her family about a specific plan to bring an end to her life chubbick used to frequently put herself down referring to herself as dateless as she had done when she was in high school amplifying her concerns about finding a romantic partner was the time pressure put on her by a recent operation about a year before her death her right ovary was removed the physician told her if she wanted to conceive she only had two or three years to do it after that she would probably never become pregnant it was also reported that chubbick was romantically interested in a man named george peter ryan he worked at the station with her she referred to him as gorgeous george for his birthday chubbuck baked him a cake she was trying to get his attention he was already romantically involved with another co-worker named andrea kirby chubbick knew kirby well and felt crushed to lose to a romantic competitor chubbuck had talked to the knight news editor about her suicidal thoughts telling him that she had purchased a firearm and was thinking about committing suicide on air the editor changed the subject he believed it was simply chubbick trying to be funny kind of a sick sense of humor chubbick's mother had considered telling the management at the television station about the suicidal thoughts but she figured they would simply fire her and make things worse on the day of chubbick's death she appeared to be in an extremely good mood according to her mother she told her mother that she would be back by 10 45 am this is expected when a person decides to commit suicide their mood often gets better because they believe the end of their suffering is near after chubbick's death her mother would tell reporters that chubbick was terribly terribly terribly depressed chubbick loved her job but she had nothing else in her social life she had no close friends no romantic attachments no prospects chubbuck was sensitive and she would try to reach out but she was not successful she just couldn't connect with people her mother also claimed that the mental health professional who was treating chubbuck did not think that chubbuck was serious about not wanting to live chubbuck was highly self-critical she would not accept praise from anybody she was defensive and would become distant when people tried to be friendly to her or pay her compliments looking at the personality profile for chubbick she appeared to be high in openness to experience she was intellectually curious for example she had a number of interests growing up like she would get into something but then she would give it up so perhaps she was becoming bored as well she was creative she used to put on puppet shows and she tended to experience emotions intensely we see that chubbuck was high in conscientiousness she was a hard worker she wanted to do a good job at the tv station she was low in extroversion she wasn't particularly friendly or outgoing and she tended to have low positive emotions we see mid-range to low agreeableness she clearly was willing to compete and didn't get along with people all the time but in other ways she was altruistic so again overall probably a little low but not very low as far as neuroticism we see that chubby did have a number of negative emotions she was depressed and perhaps sometimes anxious she also seemed a bit insecure as far as mental health i'm not aware of any reports about specific diagnoses many believe of course that chubbick was depressed there are many reasons this theory seems reasonable she reported that she was depressed many times she was treated by mental health professionals for symptoms of depression she had a suicide attempt in 1970 where she overdosed on prescription medication ultimately she did die by suicide in 1974. she had longed for romantic relationships but was unsuccessful and she did not feel satisfied in her career the next question is why did chubbick choose to die by suicide on air obviously this is pretty unusual it never happened prior to christine chubbick the motivation to die could certainly be all the symptoms of depression that i talked about the question becomes why do it publicly what was her objective there are a few theories i'll go through three here more than one of these could be a play at the same time they're not mutually exclusive the first theory it was to protest the tv station's policy of chasing sensationalistic stories this may have been a factor but i don't think it was a major factor i think chubbick wanted to make it appear as though this was the reason to tie her behavior to something larger to connect it to a more significant story theory number two chubbick lived a life of trying to get attention she wanted to be recognized romantically and for her talent as a reporter she largely failed in both ways with her actions on july 15 1974 people would have to notice her now she would get the attention that she had wanted from everybody theory number three perhaps this was an expression of pain of isolation even if it was just for a moment she wanted everybody to face her pain to empathize with her to understand her chubbick was described as socially awkward she was unable to connect with people perhaps this was a way of trying to connect of finally having people kind of turn their heads and look at her and notice her i think the sequence of events for chubbick's behavior went something like this chubbick was suicidal for a long time in addition to symptoms of depression chubbick had dichotomous thinking she tended to see life in extremes if her life wasn't very good it must have been very bad in her way of thinking after a string of what she viewed as defeats she categorized her life as horrible she wanted to get more information about how to bring an end to her life so she obtained permission from the tv station to do a story about suicide where she interviewed a police officer the officer gave her the idea of the method that she would ultimately use she probably thought about it and realized that was something she could do on the air i think much of the reaction to christine chubbuck's story falls along the lines of here's a person that no one listened to no one wanted to help she was in plain sight asking for help but was ignored the reality is a bit different chubbick's family invested a lot of resources in getting help for her she saw a number of mental health professionals her communication with her family was relatively open including her feelings of suicide and depression it sounds as though her family did everything they could do it was like watching a slow-moving automobile collision they knew there was risk but they didn't know how to stop it today's video is sponsored 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use the code dr grande 12. now moving to the lessons learned the case of christine chubbick was tragic there are many lessons i will cover three here first lesson what really stood out in this case was the isolation chubik had some connections with people but not in the area of romance her situation wasn't as clear as she was approaching other people and those people were rejecting her some reports indicate that when people were romantically interested in her she created the distance it was not about rejection but rather about a disconnect she could not navigate romantic situations second lesson as i mentioned one of the concerns that chubbick's mother had was that if she told her daughter's employer about the suicidal thoughts her daughter would have been fired i don't know what would have happened but there was certainly a risk of that happening in 1974 firing a person for being suicidal was not against the law under most circumstances these days it probably would be for example under the american with disabilities act but in reality that's very difficult to enforce as far as employment matters and in some ways as far as really anything the law covers the reality is that employers cannot be counted on to help with mental illness their tendency is to dispose of people with mental health conditions as if those people are liabilities this creates a dangerous situation for everyone it doesn't help the person with the disorder it doesn't help society the employers are simply behaving in anti-social and narcissistic manners laws are on the books without enforcement they aren't very helpful if somebody was driving through an area and there was a sign that said the speed limit was 35 and they realized they were doing 55 but then they saw a sign that said speed limit never enforced they probably wouldn't worry about it too much that's what's happening with mental health and employment moving to the third lesson even if the intervention from mental health professionals did not seem to be successful in the case of christine chubbick usually treatment is effective if somebody is struggling with depression or any mental health symptoms mental health treatment will often alleviate those symptoms the stigma surrounding seeking mental health care is certainly real but it is not logical rather it is simply the result of a lack of empathy for those who are suffering those are my thoughts on the case of christine chubbick please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021