Germany stunned by Enke's suicide death (soccer star)

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Germany stunned by Enke's suicide death

By JUERGEN VOGES (AP) – 7 hours ago

HANNOVER, Germany — The suicide death of Robert Enke left Germany stunned Wednesday, sending the soccer-obsessed country into mourning and leaving the national team without its top goalkeeper for next year's World Cup.

Enke's widow appeared at a news conference, broadcast live throughout the country, saying her husband battled depression for years before he stepped onto the tracks and got hit by an express train Tuesday evening not far from his home.

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"The death of this athlete shows that soccer is not everything in our life," Kaessmann said. "Behind popularity and success there could be profound loneliness and desperation."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/11/sports/s031514S39.DTL

[NYC_SKP]

1. I read that earlier. Stepped in front of a train, was afraid of losing custody of adopted child...

...it it became known that he was suffering from depression.

And they lost a child already.

:cry:

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Here is more about the children

GOALKEEPER Robert Enke threw himself in front of a 100mph train because he feared losing his adopted daughter, his shattered widow revealed yesterday.

German international Enke, 32, had secretly battled depression and anxiety for years.

And he was terrified that if it was made public, the baby girl he and his wife adopted last year would be taken away.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2724416/Suicide-goalie-Robert-Enke-feared-losing-second-daughter.html#ixzz0WcArEeLd

[Frank Booth]

4. That's very sad, and it was obviously a frightening possibility.

But now there's a certainty that this girl will grow up without her father.

[chatnoir]

7. Yes, he visited her grave everyday, I read

She died at 2 yo of a heart ailment.

The train he threw himself in front of is near the cemetery where she is buried. :(

[Joanie Baloney]

3. Very sad

Some sports figures cannot handle loss (just like some regular people). My thoughts go back to Donnie Moore of the Angels who committed suicide after being the goat in a crucial game. What a loss but maybe it will shed some light on the harsh realities of depression and athlete/fan psychology.

-JB

[nyy1998]

5. Part of it is the system

It expects you to mature very quickly. They want these athletes handle playing sports in front of thousands of people(and possibly millions more on television) at an age where some people are going to college. Oh, and there's barely any training for it(except for football and baseball). Soccer athletes are being trained by professional clubs at 12 years old?!?!? Basketball players are starting to get recruited by college coaches at 14 years old! I considering myself a HUGE sports fan, and I just find this absolutism ridiculous.

[Joanie Baloney]

6. Very true

And money keeps this world going round and round...

[Oldtimeralso]

8. I Fellow Sorry For The Train Engineer.

I have been in the cab of a locomotive for 13 fatalities. Now after I retired they offer counseling and paid time off. None of my fatal incidents were suicide (6 grade crossing and one pedestrian)but they all tear you up on the inside.

My only experience with suicide was when an engineer friend of mine had one on his trip down,I marked off away from home terminal and "deadheaded" home with him (I would not let him touch the throttle the whole trip).

I can't imagine what this fellow railroader feels like, having a national star take his life in front of him and no way to avoid it.

[Karenina]

11. DeutscheBahn has long-standing protocols in place for the drivers...

each of whom can expect such an occurrence 2-3 times during a career...

[Brickbat]

13. I thought the same thing.

Mr. Brickbat just got on with the railroad a couple years ago and I dread the day it happens to him, suicide or not.

It makes me so angry when I read stories about suicides-by-trains. I know people who kill themselves aren't thinking straight anyway, but there's a person at the throttle of those trains, and it's almost always impossible to stop. I'm sorry for your experiences.

[Forkboy]

9. Depression is so brutal, and so many do their best to keep it hidden.

I never spoke out about my own until it was too late and my wife had left. I came a hair's breadth away from ending my own life because of depression. There doesn't seem to be any beating it, and managing it is the best one can seem to hope for. And that's so much easier said than done.

I truly hope his wife finds a way to deal with this without blaming herself in any way. It sounds like she tried to do all she could to understand. But even with understanding the darkness beckons all too often.

[Karenina]

12. Recent events are SCREAMING at us to review our understanding of

what illness, dis-ease and treatable conditions are. We ignore these issues at our own peril.

I'm so sad about Enke. He had witnessed what happened to Basti and apologized in his suicide note that he had deceived everyone into thinking he was OK... :cry:

[earcandle]

10. Wow! I read this and realize how much the integrity tone scale should be in the public school

system to give people the tools to get out of the pits and get
up to at least where they were born at normal.
Forget about abundance and power source for now. 

[Blue_Tires]

14. very sad.....