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Blogger receives death threats after saying mentally ill friend's death was a 'blessing' | Blogger receives death threats after saying mentally ill friend's death was a 'blessing' |
(35 minutes later) | |
A blogger says she has received death threats for a post she wrote describing the death of a mentally-ill friend as a “blessing”. | |
The post published on blog site xoJane, entitled “My Former Friend’s Death Was a Blessing,” detailed blogger Amanda Lauren’s troubled relationship with a high school friend who suffered from schizoaffective disorder. | |
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness similar to schitzophrenia and bipolar disorder and can occur only once in a lifetime or recur intermittently, normally triggered by stress. | Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness similar to schitzophrenia and bipolar disorder and can occur only once in a lifetime or recur intermittently, normally triggered by stress. |
Lauren wrote the piece after she said her friend Leah (a pseudonym) died falling into a bath tub. She wrote: “It sounds horrible to say, but her death wasn’t a tragedy, her life was.” | |
The post, which has since been removed, detailed various incidents between the two women including how Leah allegedly once tried to “hook up with a guy” Lauren had a crush on. | |
On analysing Leah's Facebook profile, she wrote: “While most Facebook posts, at least in my feed, are pictures of engagements, weddings, vacations, children, pets and links, her page felt like the diary of a fourteen-year-old girl with an eating disorder from a Lifetime movie circa 1993.” | |
“This girl had nothing to live for.” | |
Stassa Edwards, a writer for online magazine, Jezebel, commented: “Throughout the piece, it’s clear that Lauren is concerned only with herself; there’s no attempt to empathise with a mentally ill woman, no attempt to intervene in her 'former friend’s' clear unravelling. | |
“There is only Lauren’s concern with herself.” | |
Responding to criticism and alleged hate mail, Lauren told Gawker: “Maybe if someone is not doing well and doesn’t know how to help themselves and reads that and thinks, ‘Oh my gosh, it could come to this, maybe I should talk to a therapist, or a psychiatrist’. | |
“I just feel so bad that her life was so filled with suffering and I just hope she’s in a better place. That’s all I meant.” | |
Lauren has previously been criticised for another post entitled: “Staying Hot For My Husband Is ESSENTIAL To A Successful Marriage.” | |
On removing the article, the website's editor wrote in a post: “I apologize for an article that was posted here yesterday, entitled ‘My Former Friend's Death Was a Blessing.” | |
“I deeply regret the hurt that this article has caused and understand that it has perpetuated stigma and diminished the lives of people with mental illness. | |
“I am committed to immediately reviewing our vetting process to ensure that this experience has a positive influence on the ways in which we at xoJane present all women going forward.” |
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