I think this is more, 'boo hoo, I lost the fight. I wish I'd never been born.', and less sitting in a locked room with the lights off, revolver on the table, bourbon in hand, trying to imagine pulling the trigger, and what the bullet will feel like, or how the splatter of blood and brain might pattern the wall. She was thinking of killing herself, like little children think of running away from home. Obviously, a real doctor would be required to take any "threat" seriously. But I think the 'darkness' she was wallowing in is like when a cloud 'darkens' the sky on a bright summer day by covering the sun. To me, this is like watching the fat kid tell a bunch of pro athletes how hard their workout is. You've barely begun to plum the depths of where you might go, Rhonda.
You must have really deep personal issues if your response to someone opening up this way is to call her weak or call her a loser. You really should think about yourself a bit more if that's your automatic reaction. This woman is a driven, healthy person who got caught up in something many of us will never understand. It's not a coincidence that it's a common occurrence in any fame-related field. At least she has the guts to open up about it and the brain to analyze it and set it aside.
One of my buddies who is in a moderately successful band (5 albums on a major label and played in large venues) said that people aren't designed to handle fame. People don't realize what kind of toll emotionally it puts on a person from the highs and the lows.
I just hope RR has a good support system and she needs to feel loved. This is still a young lady with a life that matters , no matter if you don't like how she goes about things. Rousey seems to be one of those attractive girls that has trouble with weight.. I can easily see her being slightly chubby if not fir MMA training...she did not look as fit as Holly and with all the side things going on , movies, getting near 30, it may be time for her to decided her passion needs to be elsewhere .. It won't take away her legacy and I fear her losing a rematch will only make things worse.
Suicidal thoughts or actions seem to be common among those who have experienced stardom and especially those who have experienced the drastic fall from stardom.
It's the whole idea that you reached your peak in your 20's and it's never going to be any better. You literally have click the reset button and not compare your new life to your old life.
I see this as more of a personality thing- she's an all-or-nothing person. Her feelings at the time were 'I'm a failure, what's the worst that could happen to me'. It was very immature to voice that; she is a role model for a lot of young women. Still, it happened, I'm absolutely sure that she would have never killed herself. Time to move on.
There seems to be a healthy combination of sexism and ignorance about depression all rolled into one when it comes to many of the posts in this thread.
I think the depression tag gets thrown around way, way too much. In many cases, I think it's about understanding yourself and what motivates you as an individual. Once you have that information, you can make piece with issues and move forward.
This doesn't qualify as clinical depression. When bad things happen to you, grief is a normal and healthy response. If your parents die and it doesn't make you sad, there's something wrong with you. If your entire identity as a human being is taken from you and it doesn't upset you at all, you probably should have been looking for a career change for quite a while already. More time has been spent talking about it than she spent feeling it. Idle speculation after the event. No lasting symptoms. Nothing approaching actual suicidal ideation. DSM requires 2 weeks of symptoms, including things like ahedonia before classification.
The problem with her is that she made herself much bigger in her own head than she should have...she was loving every second of her hype...and she felt like she owned the MMA/boxing industry. Then she lost, and everything she thought of herself, crumbled to the floor. I loved every second of it and I hope she loses again.
Yes people are acting like this has never happened. I don't think she was seriously contemplating suicide just that she was in a very down moment after being on such a high. From the interview it sounds like she bounced back from her dark thoughts pretty quickly. Competitive martial arts is very intense and Rhonda is as intense as they come. Losing in the way she did after the role she was on is both literally and figuratively very painful. I don't think many men could handle that sort of pain well.
FYI Rhonda's natural weight is probably much heavier than what she competes at in the MMA and in the Olympics she competed at the equivalent of two weight classes above what she is now. Judging by what her mother looks like she is not going to remain so petite. Anyway this is one issue that is troubling about women's sports is that looks play so important a role. I personally would like to see Kayla Harrison, who I think is a much better ambassador to my sport than Rousey, get a shot at fame and fortune but I don't think she will. She is a large woman and it will be almost impossible to get down to what is typical thought of as a very attractive figure.
