Kate Spade's death shines light on suicide

ABC News' Dr. Jennifer Ashton speaks about her family's experience after her ex-husband took his own life in 2017.
3:53 | 06/06/18

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Transcript for Kate Spade's death shines light on suicide
Course, Kate spade's Dea has shined a L on the difficult issue of E. T to continue that conversation W chief medical correspondent Dr. Jen Ashton and, Jen, I know T issue hit home for you last year, something you haven't talked about before on the air and is T suicide ofr ex-husband. Right, George. And, you kw, there's so much that we talk about inerms of preventio and howplex disorder suicide is and H we still don't understand lot. There is, of , recovery an treatment for the person that's suffering but I really wanted to help people understand the sec tragedy that happens to the family that's left behind, not just, you know, viously thinks about Kate ade's young daughter and her husband, but people who are afcted by suicide and are really the survi and I'm embarrassed to say,orge, when it hit my family as a doctor, I didn'tnow a lot about it Dee fact that it had ted threef my Rea close friends. 20 years ago I did anyone whoas affected B suicide and now that lists sadlygrowing. But, you know,t leveled us. It leveled. Mylde 16 and 1t thee and I was totally unprepared for physical and emotional trauma that's in the wake of that. I any imagine how difficult it not only F you but for children as well and rsy okayed your decision to come talk about this today. Id you all get through this together? They did okayed it and I'mo proudf them for that. You ow, the first thing is within 24 hours werell seated in our therapist's office on a Sunday afternoon. We all went through a lot of apy both together and dividuallynd we're continuing too that. I've told children that will be a of the of our lives, because there is a lot of shame and blamed guilt and anger that affects the people who live throuuicide and are affect it and we didn't to be a tragedy inthis. My whole focus as I was affected by this tragedy wasng my F together for my children, cause I certainly never expected to be a solo parent for the res my life and as any parent who's dealing with any crisis kno Y children look to you W they're strugglin and sot was and is my primary focus. And when you think Abo the lessons that C fro all this hard, hard lesson, one of the most important destigmatizing mental illness. So import GE. You know, I a say we should think of this no differently than heart disease or cancer, but mental illness does not discrete. U know, my ex-husband W a physician. I'm a phian. Ust came out of the. Sometimes there are warning signs, but this affects everyone and having that zation is ao it doesn't happen en only affects arityand is proactive and not and sometimes with me illness if you can't see people Thi it's not as serious. This iot a choice and this is real and T more we can deal with iter and the more lives W be saved. I just have to believe you sharing your story today will helpn thatffort as well to just completely destigmatizehe illness andsuicid Jen, thanks a lot for sharing. If you know someone who is ggling with these issues go to our ite, goodmorningamerica.com for information oow tohelp. Now we want T go to beginer.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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