McGee-Stafford, 25, is a mental health advocate and basketball player for the WNBA's Wings who is stepping away for the next two seasons to pursue a law degree. She struggled with depression growing up and, in a personal essay for POPSUGAR, she details that she was raised in an abusive household.
McGee-Stafford wrote of her suicide attempts, "I could tell you the details of all three times I tried to take my life before the age of 16, ultimately culminating in me being institutionalized the first couple of weeks of my junior year of high school. But that's not what this story is about. It's about what happened when I woke up in the hospital drinking tar after my third attempt."
McGee-Stafford continued, "If we're being honest, the only thing worse than suicidal ideations is probably waking up after a failed attempt. For me, suicide was an act of control. I was so tired of hurting, feeling like I was hurting those I loved, and feeling as if my circumstances were out of my control that taking my life was the ultimate regaining of that control. Failing at that too almost felt worse than the depression itself. So I decided I'd live."