Porn star August Ames (born Mercedes Grabowski), tragically passed away at the age of 23 on Dec. 5, just days after receiving backlash on Twitter over a controversial tweet. After the upsetting news broke, The Ventura County Medical Examiner Media spokesperson confirmed to us that her death was classified as a suicide. But was the decision to take her life a result of bullying? We spoke with two doctors who said the devastating loss could potentially have been due to the way people in the porn industry treated her.
“Suicide is the number two cause of death of young people, after accidents like car crashes and accidental overdoses. According to a study by Yale University, bully victims are about 229 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims,” Dr. Jenn Mann, the author of The A To Z Guide To Raising Happy Confident Kids, tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “One British study found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying. Cyber bullying increases suicide attempts just as much as face to face bullying. In situations where someone is driven to suicide from bullying, there is usually an underlying mental health issue, like depression. In the case of August Ames, she revealed publicly that she had a struggle with bipolar depression and multiple personality disorders.”
August’s reported mental health issues could have also resulted from trauma she dealt with as a kid. “She discussed her very traumatic childhood in an interview a few months before her death. August alleged that she was molested by her grandfather on her father’s side. When she told her father, he did not believe her and she was sent to a group home at the age of 12. She also talked about additional sexual trauma when she was 15 and the father of the child she was babysitting offered her cocaine and pressured her into taking her clothes off.”
HollywoodLifers, if you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, we urge you to contact the Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
