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A Eulogy for Nolan Ryan Williams, M.D.

thefrontierpsychiatrists.substack.com · 4,318 words · saved by 1 readers

When people talk about how important mental health is, what they really mean is that they wish people would stop dying by suicide. Sometimes, they also mean that death by overdose should stop. What they leave unsaid is more important: I loved someone, and lost them, and can’t bear the thought of that happening again. But, of course, it does happen again. The coroner reported the death of Nolan Ryan Williams between October 8th and 9th, 2025. His lab was notified that suicide was the cause of death on the morning of the 10th. The official statement from his family, and any subsequent statements, will be found here. This is a eulogy.1 Many of Nolan’s close friends are devout Christians, and I will begin with the following for both its poignancy and with them in mind: “Christians are not … to delude people as to their capacity to master death. Christian care precludes giving them over to their own resources, in the fantasy that those resources may be adequate. Rather, Christian care for t

When people talk about how important mental health is, what they really mean is that they wish people would stop dying by suicide. Sometimes, they also mean that death by overdose should stop. What they leave unsaid is more important: I loved someone, and lost them, and can’t bear the thought of that happening again. But, of course, it does happen again. The coroner reported the death of Nolan Ryan Williams between October 8th and 9th, 2025. His lab was notified that suicide was the cause of death on the morning of the 10th. The official statement from his family, and any subsequent…

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