Clinically Depressed Teen With OCD Kills Self After Mother Turns Off PlayStation


Paul Bickle, 18, had OCD and suffered from clinical depression. He got into a disagreement about his PlayStation with his mother, Donna Brown, that escalated into shouting and swearing. He was playing Grand Theft Auto. Brown tried to get Bickle to calm down, but the fight intensified, and she said the following according to METRO.

“I told him it was not acceptable, but the shouting and swearing and banging got worse. I didn’t go upstairs after that. I was shouting ‘stop it. Calm Down.’ I was really distressed. I said ‘If you don’t stop this, I’ll turn it off. Then I turned off the internet connection.'”

Unfortunately, that set off a series of events that couldn’t necessarily be predicted. Bickle stormed out of the house. His mother had tried to stop him, but he was too strong. He jumped from a motorway bridge, committing suicide. The police went to her house in Monkspath, Solihull, to inform her of the tragic news.

Brown thought that the violent game may have escalated Paul’s anger, so she said the following, according to the Daily Mail.

“Because he was getting angry and losing his temper, I thought it was fuelling his anger. I had turned it off before because of the state it got him into…. Towards the end of his life he was mainly playing Grand Theft Auto, that was his favourite. I didn’t like that game because of the violence.”

Brown wants others to know how serious OCD can be and how it can affect someone and to be aware of the signs. At age 14, at first they thought that he was having normal teenage mood swings. But it turned out to be so much more. By the time he was 16-years-old, Paul’s OCD was so severe that he had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready to leave the house for college by 9:00 a.m., his washing compulsion was also extreme. He cleaned his hands so much that they bled.

Unfortunately, on the day of his death, he had seen a doctor, but returned home saying it was “pointless.” His mother said that he seemed so hopeless that day. She criticized the health care he received, believing that the medications he received were too strong, and she stated the following according to the Daily Mail.

“He had mood swings. Then he started to wash himself a hell of a lot. He was staying in the bath for hours and repeatedly washing his hands. It built up, and got worse and worse. He was washing his hands until they bled….He was not a violent person. I just think it got to him, I think he was angry with the illness.”

His mother said that he had attempted to commit suicide before and is sorry that even more action wasn’t taken to prevent Paul’s tragic death. She indicated that the police were called during a prior suicide attempt, and he was taken to a mental health facility, but was sent home, which she believes was the wrong decision that only added to Paul’s mental torment. She said the following, according to the Mirror.

“He began to have violent outbursts, extreme outbursts. He would kick things, break things. He never put his hands on me, but there was one episode when he raised his hands to push. I shouted ‘Get out!’ I was frightened, I was angry, I was hurt.”

After his death, an internal medical review was undertaken by the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. The trust indicated the following, according to the Daily Mail.

“Although in this particular case, neither this internal review nor the subsequent Coroner’s inquest highlighted any areas of negligence by the Trust that led to Paul taking his own life, we will always seek to thoroughly investigate and learn from such cases as part of our commitment to continuously improve the quality of care we provide….We take our responsibility for providing safe and high quality care to our patients extremely seriously, and following the tragic death of Paul Bickle…we undertook a robust internal review….Our thoughts remain with Paul’s family and friends following their very sad loss.”

So many tragic stories have been published lately of teens attempting suicide. The death of 14-year-old Raymond Howell, Jr. was ruled a suicide. The McKinney Boyd High School, Texas, freshman’s body was found near a culvert beside busy Eldorado Parkway in McKinney. Friends and sources close to the family indicated that he had been bullied by older kids badly enough that he requested a transfer to another school, according to an article in the Inquisitr.

[Photo By Larry W. Smith/Getty Images]

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