Category: General

The Overnight

In a previous entry I talked about doing an overnight walk for suicide prevention.  This walk, also called the Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk, is held by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).  As I write this, we are within weeks of the event, so I wanted to take some time to discuss the training and fundraising I have done as a part of this journey.

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who donated money towards my fundraising efforts.  There is a 1000 dollar minimum in order to even participate, and I was able to meet and even exceed that minimum.  In addition, I want to thank everyone who has supported me in ways that were not financial.   I appreciate everyone who has supported the cause of suicide prevention. 
 
In terms of the training, I am not even sure when I began, but I believe it was towards the last half of March or early April.  I have done some 10Ks recently, so I knew I could do 6 miles pretty easily, but I didn’t want to assume I could just do it all.  While the exact mileage can vary, The Overnight will be at least 16 miles long.  I started at 9 miles, then did 10 miles the week after that, and 11 miles the week after that.  After those 3 initial weeks I started doing every 2 weeks, and I have done 12 miles, 14 miles, and just finished doing 16 miles.  This experience has included a lot of lessons in foot care and what shoes and socks are going to work.  I have went through a lot of band-aids, tender tape, and Aleve, but I can say at this point I am prepared and feel confident about getting it done.  The walks themselves could also at times be mentally challenging, whether it was thinking about my dad, boredom, or just wanting to quit.  Luckily, though, I know the actual event will give me enough support to finish.
 
I have to say it is a nice feeling to know that I have “done the work” and now it is almost time to go do what I have worked so hard for.  I can’t wait to attend this event, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you afterwards.

Spirituality and Suicide

In doing some research about suicide prevention I ran across an upcoming event in May that I wanted to share.  It is called the National Weekend of Prayer for Faith, Hope, and Life, and it will run from May 13th through the 15th.  The following information about the event is taken from https://theactionalliance.org/faith-hope-life/national-weekend-of-prayer

During the weekend of May 13-15, 2022, the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s (Action Alliance) Faith.Hope.Life. campaign invites faith communities across the nation to come together to pray for those whose lives have been touched by suicide. Save the date for this coming year and join us for National Weekend of Prayer for Faith, Hope, & Life.

We encourage involvement this coming May, as well as all year round, by utilizing other Faith.Hope.Life. campaign resources aimed at helping faith communities across our nation play an active role in preventing suicide such as:

For those of you who are religious or have a spiritual practice, I encourage you to check out this webpage to learn more about the weekend and how you can participate.  As a Christian, I was glad to stumble upon this webpage.  Not only was I glad to see an official event, but I am planning to participate in some way.  As you can see there are several options available, from something as simple as a prayer to learning ways to personally help others.  If you are looking at participating in this weekend, how would you like to do so?  How can you pass this event along to others?  I look forward to hearing about what you might be planning to do.

Project 2025 Participation

In last month’s blog entry I referenced Project 2025, which is led by AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention).  For this month I would like to elaborate some more on the project by mentioning some of the groups that are also involved in the project.  Here is that list: 

National Commission on Correctional Healthcare: https://www.ncchc.org/
 
National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: https://theactionalliance.org/
 
SafeSide Prevention: https://safesideprevention.com/
 
American College of Emergency Physicians: https://www.acep.org/
 
National Institute of Mental Health: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/
 
 
Education Development Center: https://www.edc.org/
 
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: https://www.va.gov/
 
 
Suicide Prevention Resource Center: https://www.sprc.org/
 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/
 
National Shooting Sports Foundation: https://www.nssf.org/
 
 
 
As you can see from the list, there are over a dozen organizations that are working with AFSP on Project 2025.  I find it inspiring that these groups are working together to provide suicide prevention education and investiagate ways to reduce suicide.  Do you recognize any of these organizations?  I assume that a lot of people have heard of the government organizations, such as the VA and the CDC, but there were definitely a few on the list that I did not recognize.  I encourage everyone to go through this group to see how each organization is working to prevent suicide.
 
I would also note that while Project 2025 is on my radar and includes some big groups, no doubt there are many other projects and initiatives out there with the aim and goal of suicide prevention.  These projects are important too, because every action, no matter how small, makes a difference and adds to a bigger change.  Are you aware of other suicide prevention projects?  If so, I would appreciate hearing about them.  You can comment on this post or email me at healthbyd@gmail.com with the information.

Project 2025

For this month’s post, I wanted to mention Project 2025 from the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention).

This is taken directly from their website: https://project2025.afsp.org/
 
A nationwide initiative to reduce the annual rate of suicide in the U.S. 20 percent by 2025.
 
Our bold goal. 
 
Despite the fact that more is being done today to prevent suicide than at any other time in history, the rate of suicide continues to rise in the United States. Led by the largest suicide prevention organization in the United States, with guidance from the top minds in the field and dynamic data modeling, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has determined the programs, policies and interventions that will prevent as many suicides as possible. Project 2025 is the collaborative effort to implement and scale these strategies nationwide.   
 
Together with its board of expert advisors, AFSP has examined:  
Who are we losing to suicide
How we were losing them
Where we are losing them
What we can do to save lives
 
Four critical areas have been identified to save the most lives in the shortest amount of time:  
Firearms
Healthcare Systems
Emergency Departments
Corrections Systems
 
Additional details can be found on the website, however this gives you an overview of the project and the goal.  Now that we are in 2022, 2025 isn’t too far away.  I am hopeful that we will meet this goal and then will move forward with an even bigger goal beyond this one.
 
What are your thoughts on Project 2025?  Do you agree with its goal, or do you think it could be bolder?  Do you agree with the four critical areas that they identified to target?  Do you support the work the project is doing?  What other areas do you think should be included?  Do you think other goals should have been included in Project 2025?  I welcome your comments and feedback.

Suicide Survivor Loss Photography

Most of us have heard of the saying “a picture says a thousand words”, and for the most part I think that rings true.  The expressions on a face, the background, the interactions between everyone or everything that is going on in the picture – these make pictures an expression that can be described in so many ways.  Colorful.  Dramatic.  Bold.  Raw.  Beautiful.  It is indeed challenging to describe pictures in only a few words. 

In my research into suicide prevention, I have found some articles and websites that have focused on suicide loss survivor photography.  These have included pictures of the suicide loss survivors themselves as well as suicide loss survivors holding a picture of someone they lost to suicide.  What I have seen and read so far has been very powerful, and the pictures convey so much emotion.  I highly recommend searching for “suicide loss survivor photography” and checking it out for yourself. 

In addition to checking out the suicide loss survivor photography that is already out there, I want to invite you to email me at healthbyd@gmail.com for a similar project.  If you are a suicide loss survivor, please send me pictures of yourself either on your own or with a picture of someone you have lost to suicide.  Include as much or as little detail as you want to share with the world, and my plan is to share these on my webpage.  I am also hoping to take some of the pictures myself and add over time.  If you have any questions about the project, please feel free to email me at the same address that was already mentioned earlier.

While suicide loss survivor photography can be somber, I think there is real depth that can help aid in the awareness and prevention of suicide.  I look forward to working with everyone on this project.

Rethinking Suicide

In the last month I read a really interesting book about suicide prevention and would like to share some of the highlights with you for this month’s blog entry.  The book is “Rethinking Suicide: Why Prevention Fails, and How We Can Do Better” by Craig J. Bryan.

While the book is worth reading for more of the details, I wanted to point out a few major themes.  The first is that mental illness does not likely explain the vast majority of suicide attempts and/or completions.  While some resources will suggest that up to 90% of suicides are traced to a mental illness (either before the suicide or presumed after the suicide), that number may be much lower.  The author highlights several cases of someone attempting or dying by suicide where the post-event analysis cannot find any diagnosable mental illness that would be correlated to the suicidal event.  This makes suicide prevention more challenging, of course, because there is plenty of evidence to suggest that suicide doesn’t require some type of mental illness.  It is theorized that suicide is the result of many different factors coming together all at once, and unfortunately we haven’t figured out all of the numerous factors that can play into suicide. 
 
The second major theme is that we should start to look at suicide prevention more from a systems perspective instead of an individual one.  The example that the author gives as a model is automobile safety.  Instead of focusing solely on individual factors, we have improved safety features on cars and have laws related to mandatory seat belt use for everyone.  A systems approach to suicide prevention mentioned by the author included “means restriction”, with examples such as locking up guns and engineering that prevents people from jumping off bridges. 
 
There is so much great information in this book, and I have only scratched the surface.  I encourage you to read it and see if it challenges you to “rethink suicide”.

Suicide Loss Survivor Day

In my last entry, I mentioned Suicide Loss Survivor Day, which is held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving in the United States.  For this month’s entry, I wanted to give you a personal glimpse of my journey as a suicide loss survivor. 

As you might suspect, being a suicide loss survivor is not a club that anyone wants to be a part of, but I have considered myself a ‘member’ for over 10 years now.  Before that time, I had heard of some people being touched by suicide, but it hadn’t really hit close to home.  Then, in March of 2011 my cousin Craig died by suicide, and it was a total shock.  His son Aaron also died by suicide in March of 2014, which was devastating as well.  However, the loss that affected me the most was when my dad died by suicide on July 27, 2012 – a day that split my life into two parts: life before dad’s suicide and life after.
 
A short blog post cannot possibly convey the myriad of emotions that I have been though as a suicide loss survivor, and my journey is unique from anyone else.  A checklist won’t also give my experience justice, but here are some of the major themes:
 
1.A tremendous amount of guilt for not preventing what would eventually happen with my dad…and trying to reconcile that
 
2.Fear, terror, and trauma for trying to relive what could have happened in my dad’s last moments – a torture that I still don’t understand why it comes up
 
3.So much sadness – sadness for what my dad suffered through, and now sadness at what he is missing here on Earth
 
4.Feeling that there is a lot of meaningless stuff in our world compared to losing a loved one so tragically – this has made it hard for me to work at my job(s) sometimes
 
5.Wondering how to keep moving forward in a world that feels so broken 
 
So…it’s not pretty stuff.  It’s hard.  It’s challenging.  But yet, I keep moving forward.  Taking a worldly view, at this point things have went pretty well, but I will never get over this loss.  However, I can still hope and move forward, and that is what I have chosen to do.  The loss is always with me, but the hope is there too.  And, that’s what a survivor does, right?  We work with the loss to create the hope.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

While I have discussed this organization in previous posts, I wanted to revisit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and talk about some of the work that they do for suicide prevention.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (afsp.org) was established in 1987 with the mission to “save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide”.  The organization focuses on funding scientific research, educating the public about mental health and suicide prevention, adovcating for public policies in mental health and suicide prevention, and supporting survivors of suicide loss and those affected by suicide.  AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states as well as a national office in New York City and a public policy office in Washington, D.C.

A couple of major events that I have known about from AFSP include International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day and the AFSP Out of the Darkness Walks.

International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day occurs on the Saturday before Thanksgiving in the United States – many cities host an event for suicide loss survivors to come together, and more information can be found here:

https://afsp.org/international-survivors-of-suicide-loss-day

There are also community, campus, and overnight Out of the Darkness Walks – for more information about each one, check out this link:

https://supporting.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1370&language=en

Personally, I have attended a few International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day events and found them to be emotional and impactful, yet also full of hope.  I was also planning to participate in an Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk in 2020, however it has been postponed until at least 2022.

In addition to these events, AFSP’s website contains a variety of resources on both suicide loss and suicide prevention.  I encourage you to visit their website and learn about the variety of resources they provide as well as ways to act for suicide prevention.

World Mental Health Day and Mental Illness Awareness Week

For September’s blog post, I talked about National Suicide Prevention Month, National Suicide Prevention Week, and World Suicide Prevention Day.  As we move into October, I want to highlight some other observances that are related to suicide prevention.  One major note here, however:  ANYONE can have suicidal thoughts and be impacted by suicide.  Although some suicides can be linked to a diagnosed mental illness, that should not be the go-to assumption.  As we think about mental health as a whole, connections can be made between mental health and suicide, so that is why I am choosing to highlight some of these events that go beyond suicide prevention.

 
World Mental Health Day is held every year on October 10th and has been around since the 1990s.  Several different organizations promote it, and I present a few of them here.
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes October 10th as World Mental Health Day, and this year’s theme is: “Mental health care for all: let’s make it a reality”.  You can find more information here: 
 
 
The World Federation for Mental Health also observes October 10th as World Mental Health Day, and their theme is: “Mental Health in an Unequal World”.  More information can be found here: 
 
 
In addition to World Mental Health Day, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is observing Mental Illness Awareness Week, including the following dates: 
 
  • Tuesday Oct. 5: National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding
  • Thursday Oct. 7: National Depression Screening Day
  • Saturday Oct. 9: NAMIWalks United Day of Hope
  • Sunday Oct. 10: World Mental Health Day
You can learn more about this week and these different days by going to: 
 
 
I hope you will take a look at these websites and learn more about both mental illness and mental health.
 
Like I said last month about suicide prevention, the best part about this information is that there is hope that one day there will be no suicides or mental illness.  Please join me in working towards that day.

Suicide Prevention Month

Although I didn’t necessarily plan it this way, it is fortunate for me that I start focusing my blog on suicide prevention right around Suicide Prevention Month, which is nationally recoginized in the United States in September.  There is also National Suicide Prevention Week, which is September 5th through the 11th this year.  Lastly, there is World Suicide Prevention Day, which is always held on September 10th.  Since there are several events happening in a short amount of time, I am including links to provide further information about each event.

 
National Suicide Prevention Month:
 
 
 
 
National Suicide Prevention Week: 
 
 
 
World Suicide Prevention Day: 
 
 
If you visit these links, you will find a wealth of information about suicide prevention as well as ways you can support the cause.  Your involvement can be as simple as a conversation or as in depth as being on the “front lines”, but the beauty is that any contribution you make can save a life or lives.  Whether you have thought about it or not, suicide touches all of us in some way, and it can also be related to many other issues.  By taking the time to learn and contribute to suicide prevention, you are affecting everyone.  Your role may not save the entire world, but it can save one person’s world, which is so important.  As we go through National Suicide Prevention Month, National Suicide Prevention Week, and World Suicide Prevention Day, my hope is that you are challenged to learn more about suicide prevention.  Then, after learning more, I hope you will consider finding ways to act and spread the message of suicide prevention.  
 
The best part of suicide prevention is that there is hope and that one day there will be no suicides.  Please join me in working towards that day.