My understanding about DFW’s suicide is that he had recently gone off medication - cold turkey - that he had been taking for quite a while to manage his (severe

My understanding about DFW’s suicide is that he had recently gone off medication - cold turkey - that he had been taking for quite a while to manage his (severe) mental health problems and that was a primary contributor to the event. If anything, his suicide illuminates the fragility of many people and how they are truly teetering on a knife’s edge due to chemical reactions beyond their immediate control. Before he killed himself he had written (at least a few times) about finding meaning in the companionship of dogs and how he was finally “happy” with his state of being which, I think, contributed to stopping his medication.