Suicide awareness/prevention talk

[mysideofthings]

I am happy to see that suicide is being talked about, but I am left wondering WHAT is going to be done about it? I have lived in this town for many years, and when I have been in crisis and at that point, I was left basically on my own without adequate support or a place to go.

There are inadequate resources for people who are suicidal. The hospital is not a place that is equipped to deal with it, which is the only place there is. The ER often sends people home, and the psych ward is not an adequate place for people in that state since it is often overcrowded with lack of support being provided outside of medicating a person and group therapies.

Sorry, but you cannot admit a person (if they aren't sent home from the ER), medicate them, then send them home and tell them to follow up with inadequate community resources.

People like myself have struggled for years, and when you are in that state, doing what you have been doing for years, seeing a therapist/psychiatrist and taking medication is not enough.

There needs to be more put in place like a mental health hospital (not long-term facility) separate from the hospital, crisis centers, a safe place to go that is quiet and not overflowing with people with various degrees of mental health issues or people who are on drugs/alcohol, a place with educated staff (not like in the ER where they are more trained for medical situations), a place to seek refuge and stabilize for a few days, a week, etc. but also with adequate followup services for several weeks or months to help a person through/after the crisis.

Those are things I personally would find helpful, and I don't believe 'just' talking about suicide awareness and prevention is enough. There has to be action to provide adequate resources for those who struggle. They need to step it up and stop sending people out the door of the hospital to fend for themselves. It hasn't worked yet and will not work.

People in that state need help. So, where is it?

[WeatherWoman]

What is the Crisis line like? Tried USTAT?

When My anxiety was out of control and i was having panic attacks most of the day for weeks, I went to my doctor and got connected with USTAT. It was a lifesaver for me. Not sure if it's still available as this was 7 years ago.

[alexoliversen]

I know I have had some hard times in my life, and mental/spiritual battles where I have thought about suicide but I overcame such thoughts. I see them now more as trials or challenges in life.

The way I see it is the longer you live the chances you have of finding happiness. Once you call it quits then there are no options, and it's game over, so you got to hang in there and ride out the storm. Everyone has ups and downs, and life ain't always perfect so we have to be strong and find strength from our past experiences to overcome the rough times. Each time we suffer we learn from it and become stronger because we learn different ways of dealing with the problem. As long as you look for an answer and direct yourself to overcoming the challenge you become better.

I read somewhere there are much less cases of mental insanity in France than in North America. The reason being their approach to solving mental insanity is through changes in lifestyle, thus removing yourself from negative environments and situations. I find for myself that I spend a lot of time at home in my office writing and thus I begin to get depressed being isolated in my cave, a useful thing I do is go out to parks and the beach or Starbucks or Tim Hortons just to be around people which makes me feel a lot better. Being around good spirited people and sharing your problems help alleviate stress, as constant influences in our environment and lifestyle affect our minds and thus eventually affecting our brains. There are more severe cases which need medication but that's only solving the symptoms not the root of the problem. We have to realize that we are our genotype, half of us come from our genes the other half from our environment, thus if you improve your environment it solves half of the equation. Genes are a little tougher to change ;) but it doesn't mean we are born with bad genes and some times if we fix the environment we might to be able to ease the problems so that we don't even suffer from the negative traits of our genes.

Peace and God bless.