https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/suicide-prevention-national-suicide-hotline.html
What to Do When a Loved One is Severely Depressed
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/health/depression-suicide-helping.html?
@sabaray this is a really great article. Two important takeaways from it:
“Your job as a support person is not to cheer people up. It’s to acknowledge that it sucks right now, and their pain exists,”
“It’s important to know you can’t trigger suicidal thinking just by asking about it,”
Also, the suicide prevention hotline is a great resource not just for those people who are thinking of suicide, but also for those that are worried about a friend or loved one and aren’t sure what they should do:
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Be kind to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else is dealing with.
This is what I shared on social media. I am always happy to talk to anyone on this forum who might be struggling with mental illness or with a loved one who is struggling.
NBC story on how suicide rates are going up. Nevada is the only state it has gone down.
And Nevada still has a rate higher than average. Very sad.
These are the kinds of conversations we should be having. Instead of speculating about celebrities, ask yourself - is there one person in my life that I’m worried about? Chances are high there is. Reach out to them and ask how they’re doing. It could have a bigger impact than you expected.
I wish that I could both like and find these comments helpful.
And I’ll put the call out here…while I hope that we will all reach out in real life to ask for help or to help others…
To anyone on CC - parents, students or just reading here because you like the content…
You are important, you are worthy. If you need help or someone to talk to…someone to cry to…someone to wonder to…as they say, look for the helpers. People WANT to help. Reach out.
Mental intervention is as important as any other medical intervention any of us need. There is help and a plan that can work for you.
I know that many people feel that they want to help - in the abstract. In reality, I have my doubts about how much help all this really is.
I agree that it can be frightening to help. But there are people who will provide assistance and support and I will take the professionals’ word for it that reaching out does make a difference.
People often do nothing because they are so afraid of doing the wrong thing. I hope if we start talking openly about suicide then people who could make a difference will feel empowered to act because they will have a better idea of what to do. I’m never going to give up hope that people do care about each other.
So true! I would also add that we need to be kind to each other online as well. Its so easy to forget that there are real people behind the avatars. I’ve been surprised by how criticism and reprimands can sometimes sting, even though they are handed out by strangers on a forum. Its easy to get frustrated by some of the things we read, especially here, but we always need to keep in mind that there may be quite vulnerable people on the other end of the screen.
While I thank you guys for the kind words, I don’t think of myself as brave. It took me a long time to come to peace with my mental illness but then I kept losing friends to suicide and my silence was deafening.
I’ve been lucky beyond belief that my family accepts and supports me through everything. Too many families shun those with mental illness. Just a few days ago, we took in a friend who is battling depression and alcoholism after her very longterm boyfriend told her she was too muchof a burden and kicked her out.
I just want to extend the support that I’ve recieved to anyone who might need it.
I wish there were a different word besides “illness” that we could attach to the mental health issues that people have. Illness implies certain things which are not always the case, and somehow there is a stigma which might not be attached to a different word or term.
Sometimes CC posters rail against the fact that there seems to be a glut of psychology majors, but evidently, despite the glut of majors we are still drowning in psychological problems every which way.
Cancer is an illness, diabetes is a chronic condition. No one bats an eyelash when we use terms such as “illness,” “condition,” or “disease” when describing disorders of organs other than the brain.