A LONG HIKE
Dear Friends of the Foundation,
Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day.
In the United States, a person dies by suicide every 11 minutes. And while brain disorders affect people of all ages and genders, the CDC reports that men and boys make up nearly 80% of those lost to suicide each year.
Last year, we lost Ryyan to suicide. While this day is a heavy one, we face it with a sense of purpose. As we take on the work of charting a way forward, we realize that the task at hand is not a sprint or even a marathon, but instead, a phased, protracted, mixed-terrain, steep, winding, and long hike.
With your help, we are beginning to support research and outreach works to better understand Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), to lessen suffering, and to help young people feel comfortable with who they are and open up about their often hidden struggles.
Here are some of the initiatives we have been working on actualizing since our last announcement in February.
Reach Out For Ryyan
To celebrate Ryyan’s life in the most affirming way possible, we will be holding our annual Reach Out For Ryyan event on his birthday, September 27.
As all of us who were fortunate to have Ryyan in our lives know, he stood out as a truly great friend. On September 27, we invite you to emulate Ryyan by reaching out to a friend or family member. Whether it’s calling a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while to let them know you’re thinking of them, or connecting with someone you see every day on a deeper level, reaching out for Ryyan is a way to keep Ryyan with us and honor his legacy of building deep friendships and connections.
We also see Reach Out For Ryyan as an opportunity to fight against the societal stigma surrounding brain disorders and suicide.
Ryyan struggled with OCD and depression. Tragically, it was difficult for him to express the extent of his suffering to his friends and family, even as he offered us his unconditional friendship and support.
No one should have to suffer alone or in silence. To the extent that you are comfortable, we hope that Reach Out For Ryyan can be a chance to let your loved ones know that there is no shame in seeking help, and that you are someone they can talk to about these difficult topics.
You can find more information here. We hope you will participate!
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
“We do not want to be here.”
Those were the words we shared on August 6 when we first met with the University of Colorado Anschutz team to discuss how the Ryyan Chacra Foundation (RCF) could support Dr. Rachel Davis’s work on OCD.
OCD is a tormenting brain disorder that prevents some patients from opening up about their struggles, even to their closest friends and family. As such, it is vastly misunderstood.
While we wish that our circumstances had not brought us to CU Anshutz that day, we are very glad to have met Dr. Davis, a psychiatrist who lives with OCD herself. In many ways, we wish we had met her in January 2024. Ryyan could have benefited from Dr. Davis’s professional perspective – specifically, her first-hand understanding of OCD – as well as her capacity for empathy and understanding.
We are excited to announce that RCF will be establishing a grant to fund OCD research at CU Anschutz.
We will also be supporting the staging of a three-month exhibition of Ryyan’s photography and writings at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in spring 2026. The exhibition will focus on OCD and will incorporate speakers who will discuss the complexities of the condition.
Graland Country Day School
Looking back, we could not identify what Ryyan was dealing with behind the mask he presented to the world. We were not literate in the language of OCD. We had no way to predict what OCD, when masked, could do to an otherwise intelligent, gregarious, caring, and successful young man.
As a brain disorder, OCD can be stealthy. It often takes an average of 11 to 17 years to diagnose it, which is why we reached out to Ryyan’s middle school, Graland Country Day School, to explore outreach possibilities.
Today, we are happy to share that RCF will support its first Graland initiative this Fall, when therapist, author, and podcaster Lynn Lyons will discuss OCD as part of a mental health awareness lecture addressed to parents and teachers.
Our hope is that educating caregivers on the complexities of OCD might help young people access the help they need sooner.
LOOKING AHEAD:
In attempting to accommodate the calamity we live with, we think of the over one hundred billion humans estimated to have existed on Earth to date.
It is reasonable to compute that the entire historical record may mention, at best, a minuscule fraction of the nearly countless masses of nameless, faceless beings we will never know and whose contributions we will never account for.
And while in the grand scheme of existence all will eventually come to pass and be no more, there remains, as we live today, a past we can learn from, a present we can shape and live through, and a future in which we can aspire to realize goals that matter right now.
We cannot bring Ryyan back. But we can ensure that his essence will always be with us – and that his life is, and will continue to be, consequential.
Finally, we cannot conclude without expressing our deep appreciation to all who have generously donated, who have offered to volunteer, and who graciously want to stay connected with the Foundation.
Many thanks — and much more to come!
With love,
Elizabeth Metz and Tarek Chacra
