ATLANTA — The world of country music is mourning a star after Naomi Judd died this weekend. Just 24 hours later, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The 76-year-old’s death by suicide is putting a new focus on mental health.
Channel 2s’ Lori Wilson spoke with a psychologist about the pain many people are feeling right now.
“I’m going to make this fast, because my heart’s broken,” daughter Wynonna Judd said as the duo was inducted in to the Hall of Fame. “It’s a very strange dynamic, to be this broken and this blessed.”
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Judd had been open and honest about her mental health and battle with depression, a foe that isolation and a pandemic rubbed raw.
Psychologist Rosalyn Pitts-Carter said mental health struggles like depression can be triggered by our environment and experiences that tap into something already in our makeup.
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“It’s biological,” Pitts-Carter said. “It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s nothing that you’ve done or haven’t done. You’re biologically predisposed to experience these symptoms.”
Pitts-Carter points out the during the pandemic, we’ve had stressor after stressor and many people have not had a break.
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Wynona Judd and sister Ashley Judd said getting back on tour, or perhaps even this weekend’s induction ceremony, likely would have lifted their mother’s spirits. But Pitt-Clark said that still would only have been a temporary relief.
“The best form of treatment is medication combined with talk therapy,” Pitts-Carter said.
The Judds were scheduled to play at the Gas South Arena in Duluth in October.
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