EDITOR’S NOTE: This story addresses issues linked to suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or self-injury, call or text 988 or click here: www.988colorado.com
AURORA | When he was 5, Ryyan Chacra’s mother bought him a mallard duck stuffed animal. Fondly named “Ducky Esb,” the plush duck went everywhere with him, from school to overseas family trips; the caring and compassionate nature given to Ducky a fractional reflection of Ryyan’s giving nature and boundless, compassionate personality.
Filled with unlimited creativity and compassion for others, Ryyan grew up in Denver as an only child to his parents, Tarek Chacra and Elizabeth Metz.
He went to Graland Country Day School and Kent Denver, both academic environments where he grew exponentially.
“We thought he thrived there,” Metz said, “that he liked his teachers. He made a lot of friends, and those friends he kept for the rest of his life.”
Ever-true to himself and the community around him, Ryyan campaigned for Obama, going door-to-door before he was old enough to vote. When he learned about climate change, he tried to persuade his parents to dig up their yard to plant mint for the bees.
As he grew into his teenage years, Ryyan found a love for photography, first learning on Metz’s black-and-white Olympus film camera. Upon getting an iPhone in high school, he began to document the world around him with a feverish adoration.
“He would take at least one photo a day,” Metz said. “So he had kept track of a photo diary.”
No stranger to holding himself to a high-standard, Ryyan went on to attend Columbia University, majoring in Economics with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, drawing on his ability to speak Spanish, French, and Arabic. He also developed a love for New York’s historic architecture, organizing tours for visiting friends around Morningside Heights.
Upon graduation, Ryyan accepted a job with L2 Inc, a business intelligence firm that was later purchased by Gartner Inc. While rising through the ranks as a data scientist, Ryyan never lost his solicitude for others.
Metz recalled a time that illustrated that when a junior co-worker first joined the office.
“He noticed that (she) was new, and he offered to have lunch with (her),” Metz said. ”That was the kind of person he was. He was always trying to schedule lunches with somebody. He was always looking out for whomever at work, if anybody needed help, he was always there to help them.”
After learning of his acceptance to Oxford University’s MBA program, marking another lifelong dream, Ryyan resigned from his position at Gartner. He returned to Colorado with his parents in December 2023, where several concerning behaviors began to exhibit themselves.
He became increasingly concerned with crime and having a heart attack, his parents said. The symptoms turned into a loss of sleep, often for days at a time. With the support of his parents, Ryyan sought out professional mental health resources, and was diagnosed in January of 2024 with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD.
“The O stands for obsessive, the C stands for compulsive, the D stands for disorder,” said Lynn Lyons, a licensed independent clinical social worker and psychotherapist. “It has to follow a consistent pattern where somebody has a disturbing thought, belief, fear, right, that you have some sort of disturbing thought, and then you do a ritual or a compulsion in order to alleviate your distress about this thought or belief.
While he began seeing professionals following his diagnosis, Ryyan had trouble opening up to his parents about what he was experiencing, all while their love and support for him never waivered. He became depressed, still fighting the OCD.
“The story of Ryyan is like multiple tracks to it,” Tarek Chacra said. “There’s the person he was, the person we thought we knew, and there was the hidden struggle that’s part and parcel of the story.”
Ryyan documented his experiences in journals, signing off every entry with ‘Love, Anything.’
“I can’t sleep because I have no plan or sense of self,” Ryyan wrote. “I only have fear. I keep trying, pushing, wanting to get better. But the truth is, I knew I had lost the thread some time ago in terms of purpose. My fixation on being off track keeps me spinning unproductively until I will inevitably meet an end. Finding sleep and peace through the only means remaining.”
While he was seeing several mental health professionals both before and after the OCD diagnosis, a lack of specialized training around the condition prevented Ryyan from finding the right care, his parents and local medical professionals said. A reality too many with OCD face, as one in 50 American adults live with the disorder.
“Most healthcare professionals don’t know how to treat OCD, and the ones who are experts in OCD rarely take insurance, and so it’s really hard to access appropriate care,” said Dr. Rachel Davis, Medical Director of the OCD Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus.
In May 2024, following a family trip to Japan, Ryyan took his own life. He was 28.
His parents, while grappling with the sudden loss of their son, also were left with questions about the condition that had plagued Ryyan.
They were eventually connected with Dr. Davis at CU Anschutz, who was able to provide more insight into OCD and its lack of proper research or resources.
“A guy like him, I repeat, surrounded by love and support and was successful in building a community of friends who miss him terribly, employers who did not want him to leave,” Tarek Chacra said. “For him to be lost, to me says we really all need to do a lot of work here. This should not happen in many ways.”
In Ryyan’s legacy they founded the Ryyan Chacra Foundation, a mallard duck serving as its symbol. While in its earliest stages, the foundation’s goal is to help young people open up about their struggles with OCD and depression.
In partnership with Dr. Davis, CU Anschutz’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities and Anschutz’s OCD Program, they organized a photography exhibit and speaker series titled “Love, Anything: 28 Expressions for 28 Luminous Years” that will open April 10 in the Fulginiti Gallery at Anschutz.
The exhibit features 28 photos selected from the more than 9,000 images Ryyan had taken and curated over his life, all taken from a singular collection he had labeled ‘textures.’ Each image illustrates Ryann’s keen attention to detail.
“I would be looking at the street, the charming store, the roofs,” Tarek Chacra said. “And Ryann would just leave us for a second and go down an alleyway, and he would pick up on the texture of a wall, like a brick pattern or something like that. Frankly, it turns out gorgeous.”
Registration to attend the opening of the exhibit is available online, RSVP is encouraged. Tarek Chacra and Metz hope that visitors take away a greater understanding of OCD and the rippling effects it can have on one’s life, but also a sense of who their son was.
A kind-hearted, community-minded man whose positivity rippled across everyone who he came into contact with. A force that continues to remain strong through Ryyan’s legacy and work.
“I love socializing, problem-solving, creativity and sport, music and photography are the best,” Ryyan wrote. “Above all, I love to give and lift others I care about up.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story addresses issues linked to suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or self-injury, call or text 988 or click here: www.988colorado.com