Student commits suicide

Senior Craig Doss lost his long battle with manic depression Sunday night.\nDoss, whose parents said he had been suffering from the illness for years, was found by his roommate hanging by a nylon strap in the basement of their home in the 400 block of N. Herald Street just before midnight, Sgt. David Drake of the Bloomington Police Department said.\nDoss' father, Steve Doss, prepared a letter for friends of the family informing them of what had occurred. \n"I know we have all prayed for the healing of our son," he said in the letter. "That healing finally came Sunday when Craig took his own life."\nSteve Doss said his son's battle with depression led him to two previous suicide attempts.\n"(Manic depression) is a horrible disease," he said. "It's a constant battle. He was fighting demons in his brain every day."\nCraig Doss' mother Judith remembers her son as "a generous, giving, funny, kinda half-crazy guy." \n"He was very giving and very reliable," she said. "You could always rely on him when you needed to."\nCraig, a St. Louis native, was an avid rugby player. He played for the IU team as a freshman.\n"For an aggressive rugby-type person he was very compassionate," Steve said. "He had tremendous compassion for those who didn't have much. A lot of people didn't realize that about him."\nCraig was majoring in public policy and Spanish. He studied at the University of Madrid last semester through a program sponsored by IU, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin.\nHowever, even in Spain, he was at war with his "demons."\n"When he was in Spain he had gone to a museum and seen some of Van Gogh's work," his father said. "He told me that from just one look at his artwork he could just see the torture in the artist."\nBut more than anything, the Dosses will remember their son -- not for his battles within -- but for the good work he did for others.\n"There was a motto at the high school Craig went to -- 'Men for Others.' He lived by that," Steve said.\nAccording to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide was the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds in 2000. Research has shown that some people may be predisposed to manic depression, caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, through heredity. Depression can also be triggered by a distressing life event, another illnesses, a change in health habits, substance abuse, or hormonal fluctuations, according to the group's Web site. For more information, visit www.nimh.nih.gov. \n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.