Cristy Cobb said her son Liam Cobb dealt with mental health issues long before he died by suicide at the age of 19, jumping from a wind turbine earlier this month. She hopes that her son’s life can serve as inspiration that it’s possible for life to get better even when people feel they’re in a dark place.
“I don’t know that we did everything right, I’m certain that we did not. But I also don’t believe in giving up,” said Cristy, who lives in Douglas. “I believe that we should still keep trying to help each other because I have to believe that Liam’s story is much bigger than Liam’s life and his death.”
Cobb also wants her son’s death to serve as a reminder for people to reach out to those they know who have mental struggles and let them know they matter. She and her husband made an active effort to call their son multiple times a week, describing him as an introvert who had a tendency to self-isolate.
Cristy has had her own issues with depression and suicidal ideations but has learned the value of reaching out to friends, family and health professionals, something she recommends to everyone with the same problems.
“Being alive hurts, but for me it doesn’t mean it’s a good enough reason to not do it,” she said.
She now finds inspiration in a note Liam sent her during the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging her to get up because life won’t get better on its own.
“That’s just the way he was- you have to keep moving, you have to get better,” she said.
Liam’s Troubles
Liam had told his parents a few years ago that he wanted to end his life and even expressed a plan to do so. Cristy and her husband Jim took him very seriously, knowing their son’s high level of intelligence.
“He was brilliant,” she said.
A nurse at Memorial Hospital of Converse County, Cristy is versed in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training, a methodology used to help people with suicidal ideations receive help. Despite finding the experience terrifying to have to use on Liam, the Cobbs did what they could to help their troubled son.
“He was in such a dark mental place at that time,” she said.
After seeking help for her son, Cristy was deeply troubled by the lack of resources available for people struggling with mental health issues in her area, particularly for someone like her son with a high level of intelligence.
As recently as the past month Liam confided in his mom about some of his ongoing mental struggles.
‘Too Smart For His Own Good’
Cobb said her son had a complicated mind, and she believes his intelligence may have contributed to his spiraling. He was unable to accept some of the unfortunate realities of life, she said, calling him “very tortured.”
“His IQ was probably higher than what was good for him,” Cobb said. “He had a very hard time accepting the world as it is.”
He also liked to push the limits of nearly everything. Cobb said her son pursued sports in order to gain enough endorphins to deal with the world and the frustrations of life. He was incredibly adamant about not using drugs or alcohol and refused to take medications for his mental health issues.
Throughout his life and even as far back as when he was a small child, Liam had a fascination with the way things worked in the world.
Cobb was a talented hockey goalie growing up, but around his junior year of high school switched over to competitive cycling full time, partly out of a desire to have more say over the outcome of his individual athletic performance.
Liam won the 40-mile race in the famous Dead Swede Gravel Race Tour in 2020 as only a 15-year-old, earning the nickname “speedgoat.”
“He was just fast,” Cobb said.
He also expressed a deep interest in investing, frequently asking people what their investment strategies were for retirement, not a question that a teenager typically poses to adults.
His quirky, high-level of intelligence showed up throughout his life in sometimes humorous ways.
During his eulogy speech last weekend, Liam’s cousin Lee Diklitch remarked how Liam showed little interest in a college tour he took last summer in Indiana but instead peppered the tour guide with questions about the local crime statistics and the placement rates for recent graduates of the school.
“As you can imagine, she was less than thrilled with this test as she led this group of potential students and their parents around campus,” Diklitch said.
Liam also held a sympathy for the world’s most vulnerable populations, frequently helping out senior citizens and small animals.
Over the last few years, Liam got into bodybuilding, a goal that meshed perfectly with his goal-oriented mentality, harnessing his desire for self-control through an intense focus on his nutritional intake.
New Opportunity Gives Hope
It was through bodybuilding he got connected to the wind technician job, a job Cristy said she never suspected would lead to his death,
Cobb said Liam loved his wind technician job, working for a company called Vestas in a role that challenged his intelligence and physical abilities. It was an important contrast as he had previously dropped out of high school out of frustration that he wasn’t challenged enough, however did later earn his GED.
After nine months on the job, Liam was already on a leadership track with the company, about to start traveling around the country to work on turbines. He expressed nervousness to his mother about this added responsibility.
“That scared him for sure,” she said.
Unfortunately, the new job didn’t resolve some of the deeper underlying issues ailing him, even after his psychologist told Cobb that Liam was doing everything, he was told to fight his internal demons.
At the time of his death, Liam was living in a small home on his grandparents’ property in Casper. Near his bedside was a wind technician manual.
There’s no doubt in Cobb’s mind that her son purposely took his own life because no safety equipment was found on him.
Having worked at the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper for a number of years, Cobb broke the news to countless people and even children that their loved one had died. Still, she said nothing compared to finding out it was her own child, even while recognizing Liam’s human free will and the power of God in life.
“Nothing prepared me for that,” she said.
During his eulogy, Diklitch mentioned a movie he had recently seen about a cyclist who set out to climb 10 mountain peaks in 48 hours for no other reason than to challenge himself and improve his mental health, a goal Liam likely could’ve seen eye-to-eye with.
A particular quote stood out to Diklitch from the piece: “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
If you or someone you know is in danger of harming themselves, please call 911. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call or text the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or via https://chat.988lifeline.org.
Contact Leo Woflson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
