About Suicide, Mental "Ilness" & Mental Health Stigma

Mental health stigma still has us in the Dark Ages

Boot Straps Stoicism has killed more people than anything I know in the form of alcoholism, addiction, suicide, and the long slow death of denial and PTSD.  Depression, anxiety, and PTSD are not illnesses to be scorned or defects of character - they are neuropsychological responses to extreme stress in numerous forms that affect every one differently and are NOT to be shamed by ignorant bystanders who would lay judgments on people struggling. 

While it's getting better, mental health stigma still persists like a bad dream, even today. So, while addiction and suicide rates climb, competent qualified mental health professionals are at a premium, and often difficult to find in rural areas and small towns.  Good mental health care can be found if you know where to look.  The search is worth the effort, and this blog has a number of links on our home page to get you started.

Self Help Strategies

 

If you are struggling with mental health symptoms and are uncomfortable seeking a therapist, counselor, or life coach, then get out a notebook, and START WRITING.  Write whatever comes into your head, don't censor it and UNLOAD.  When the paper owns it, you'll be able to look at it and see yourself more clearly.  This is the first step to well being.

No one knows better than you do what you are thinking and feeling, and the pen and paper are your vehicle to clear the channel, especially if you are bogged down in hopelessness, feelings of despair and raging emotion.  Remember, suicide is permanent, and feeling wretched might feel like it will last forever, but if the paper becomes your friend, then you can process those feelings and move thru them.  Being emotionally stuck is like being constipated, something has got to come out.
 

What about online coaching & therapy?

Studies have shown that online therapies can be quite effective in those dealing with suicidal thoughts. Even texting can be an effective intervention. What's important is reaching out for help, instead of suffering and staying stuck because it seems like there's no where to turn.

Below are some links to some interesting scientific articles on suicide prevention.  If you're feeling over whelming symptoms of distress, as outlined below, please seek professional mental health care.  There's no need to stay miserable and suffer endlessly alone!

 

Suicide Prevention and Texting - Easier Than You Might Think

Text Following Hospital Discharge Suicide Intervention 

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745353/

 

 

The Dead Zone - Intro to the Inception of this Blog!

Welcome to my blog! It's dreadful, I must confess... I've become a social media junky, almost over night.

It all started with a Twitter workshop a few weeks ago -- and blossomed from there. Before that, I said I would never Twitter. Who cares about what everybody's doing? How incredibly boring and stupid. And, I had forever written off Spacebook, Myspace, or Facebook (or whatever you call these silly friend site mediums) as just another lame crutch for the socially and emotionally retarded - I needed real PEOPLE!

But, I got on Twitter with my new friend Skeeter, who put together the great functional Twitter workshop, and I was hooked. Soon I was following other friends, and it was great to log on, and read all the tweets; it all seemed so much faster and simpler than e-mail. About the same time, someone kind of cool friended me on Facebook - (yeah, I still had an account set up -- I wanted to see what all the hype was about.) I definitely had this love/hate relationship going with the computer.

Enter Julie and Julia: The Movie - Thanksgiving night. I thought the story was fiction, a fun flick to showcase Meryl Streep. WRONG! True story, enter great blogging, and healing, and personal growth. Too bad Julia Child didn't see it that way.

Now, I am an expert in the arena of writing and healing -- wrote a master's thesis on it. But, that was about private trauma journaling. In my mind, public blogging smacked of major narcissism - a malady of our modern day Me, Me, Me culture. So... after seeing the movie Julie and Julia -- I was pretty impressed, Julie took a huge risk and it paid off...a blog, a project, a movie and book deal - a new life.

Now I get into reading blogs online (some of which I will share with you soon).

Still, I hadn't thought of blogging myself, until the other night, when I entered the "Dead Zone" with a few friends. Let me explain.

I went out to hear some acoustic music with friends. The musician never showed up. No phone call, no explanation - nothing. The night soon degenerated into a monumental dead zone of excuses. No one wanted to drive the 12 miles out to another cafe for music in a neighboring town. The reasons: "My Crohn's is acting up." "It's a bad night for driving, the weather's too bad." It was 6:30 pm in the evening, so I went by myself.

The whole drive out, all I kept thinking was -- what makes people decide to stop living, and start believing their own excuses? What happens to propel folks into living in what I call, "The Dead Zone of Excuses"? It goes like this: "I can't; it won't work; I'm too tired, too broke, too old, too young, etc.", to take risks, really live, and get out of my own way -- yadda, yadda, yadda.

It was a darn lonely drive. When I got there - the cafe was closed. Talk about a bummer, but never mind, it was a great night for a drive -- mild, balmy, misty -- I went grocery shopping at an unfamiliar Walmart -- got some great buys on my favorite Kashi cereal that's much higher priced out where I live. Then, I ran into the owner of the cafe!! They closed to spend time with family decorating for Christmas. "Good for them.", I thought, taking time off to be with family!

The whole ride home, I felt great; excuses hadn't ruined my night, and I suddenly realized I needed to share this experience! Yes, even BlOG about it. I got home and jumped on Twitter, to read all the tweets from my new friends (can't believe I'm saying tweets), then researched where the best blog sites seem to be. This one came up first-rate. Best tools, quick to put up, AND you can follow me, just like on Twitter.

So what I want to do now is hear from YOU! How do excuses keep you from really living? What are your favorite excuses? After reading this, how will you plan to stop believing your own excuses and get out of the Dead Zone? How do you plan to live your own unique version of Living Large?