Psychotherapist Stacey Freedenthal had helped many people overcome suicidal thoughts before she attempted to take her own life.

Freedenthal, in her 20s at the time and pursuing her Master’s degree in psychology, had been a volunteer at a suicide prevention hotline. When callers phoned her in crisis, she used her training and education to help.

But at the same time, the depression she had struggled with herself for more than a decade was worsening. The advice she gave to others contemplating ending their lives didn’t seem applicable to her. One night in January 1996, six months after she finished her volunteer position at the hotline, she tried to kill herself.

Read on: Suicides of two mental health advocates in a week serve as a grim reminder