September 9 through September 15, 2012 Suicide Prevention Awareness Week |
Every year since 1974, the nation has come together in a week-long campaign to help promote Suicide Prevention Awareness. All sorts of events are held all over our country, in the hopes that the information received there will help keep even just one person from committing suicide. The idea is to draw attention to suicide prevention, suicide warning signs, reduce stigma surrounding the topic of suicide (so that more prevention happens), encourage those who need it to seek mental health assistance, and to support those who have attempted suicide, as well as those who have lost someone to suicide.
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This is going to be the last installment of my suicide awareness series. I hope that everyone has benefited from reading everything so far.
Today, I will share some resources for anyone who is thinking of attempting suicide and for anyone who has lost someone to suicide. This is by no means a complete comprehensive list, but I hope that it is at least a place to start.
In the next few weeks, I will be adding a more complete resources page to my blog. I want a place where the information below is readily available for anyone to find and utilize, so keep a lookout for it.
Remember, suicide is 100% preventable. Sometimes, all it takes is to talk to someone who will listen. You are NOT alone and you ARE loved. If anyone tells you differently, they are WRONG.
If you are currently experiencing suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors, here are some resources for you to try:
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- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
- Press 2 for SPANISH
- 1-800-799-4TTY (4889) for hearing and speech impaired individuals seeking help
- Youth America Hotline
- 1-877-YOUTHLINE (986-8454)
- The Trevor Project
- 866-4UTREVOR (488-7386)
- “The Trevor Project is the leading national
organization providing crisis intervention and
suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.”
- Veterans Crisis Line
- 1-800-273-TALK (8255) PRESS 1
- TEXT 838255
- Confidential Online Veterans Chat
- Vet2Vet: Veterans Crisis Hotline
- 1-877-VET2VET (838-2838)
- Boys Town National Hotline
- 1-800-448-3000
- S.A.F.E. Alternatives
- 800-DONTCUT (366-8288)
- National Graduate Student Crisis Line
- 1-800-GRADHLP (472-3457)
- Northwest Human Services: Crisis and Information Hotline
- 800-560-5535 (toll free)
- 503-581-5535
- 503-588-5833 (TTY)
- I’m Alive: An Online Crisis Network
- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Military OneSource 1-800-342-9647 |
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- Live Chat with Trained Individuals
- Teen 2 Teen Hotline
- 714-NEW-TEEN (639-8336)
- Call between 5pm and 9pm
- Crisis Chat: Online Emotional Support
- GLBT National Help Center
- 1-888-THE-GLNH (843-4564)
- 1-800-246-7743 (Youth Talkline)
- Monday thru Friday from 1pm to 9pm, pacific time
(Monday thru Friday from 4pm to midnight, eastern time) - Saturday from 9am to 2pm, pacific time
(Saturday from noon to 5pm, eastern time)
- Monday thru Friday from 1pm to 9pm, pacific time
- State/Local Call Center numbers can be found here.
- Tillamook County Crisis Number:
- Tillamook Family Counseling Center: 503-842-8201
- Tillamook County Crisis Number:
If you have lost someone to suicide, or know someone who has, you can use any or all of the above hotlines and chat lines for immediate information, help, and support. There are trained individuals to help you understand and manage your grief on the other end of these support lines. Please, use them.
Here are some additional resources that you can use to help you deal with your loss:
- American Association of Suicidology (AAS)
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
- Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE)
- International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)
- Survivors of Suicide Loss (SOSL)
- Parents of Suicide Support Group (Online)
- The Dougy Center: The National Center for Grieving Children and Families
- Friends for Survival, Inc.
- Heartbeat: Grief Support Following Suicide
- SiblingSurvivors.com
- Alliance of Hope for Suicide Survivors
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
- National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)
Simply click on one of the above mentioned organizations and you should be directed straight to each of the resource pages. Many of these resource pages have websites listed to visit, links to online support groups, information about suicide and grief, and even book listings to take a look at. Take a few minutes to look around each of these resources and find the best ones for your needs.
Always remember: If you are in immediate danger, or know someone who is, call 911 (or any other local emergency contact number) and/or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
I hope this has helped in some way.
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Suicide Action Montreal 514-723-4000 24 hours; 7 days a week |
“Asist is a comprehensive suicide intervention training. ASIST is the result of more than 20 years of research and development, and is the most widely used suicide intervention program in the world. ASIST is partially funded through a federal grant targeting suicide prevention alternative.By the end of the workshop you will know:
- The signs of suicidal thinking
- How to intervene to prevent immediate risk of suicide
- The resources available in your area”
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“Ok, so my story… not really sure what to include so I’ll do pretty much everything.
I have a family history of mental illness, my mom is majorly depressed, anxiety, PTSD, etc. My father is bipolar, psycho, rage. My father was an abusive asshole to my mom—actually I was a rape baby while she was on birth control. He threatened to kill her if she aborted me. So, after I was born she fled away from him with my aunt to Washington state. Somehow, he always kept finding her and beating the shit out of her. That is until my 5th birthday. She figured out that he was able to pay the post office $1 and if he knew the old address, [he could] get the new address. So, she fixed that and we finally got away from him. Unfortunately, for me, I was out of a physically abusive situation and into a mentally and emotionally abusive one.
I am bipolar, anxiety, mania, psychosis, schizoaffective… and a very high IQ. My mom didn’t know how to handle me, so we always fought. She didn’t mean to, but she always ended up trying to stifle me. She was a single parent working 2-3 jobs. As I got older, things only got worse. It turned physically abusive as well. I finally crossed the line in middle school, and I threatened the school cop, and was sent to Texas to live with my aunt, again.
This was quite possibly the worst experience of my life. They treated me like the redheaded stepchild. I was never included in anything. They treated me like a prisoner. Worse even. It was during this period that my depression worsened from [just] depression to suicidal ideations and self-mutilation. I had been slightly suicidal already since about 2nd grade. I used to hide in my closet with a butcher knife held to my heart just wishing for the courage to plunge it through my chest. In 3rd grade I was hospitalized after walking to school in the bike lane, since there were no sidewalks. They thought I was trying to kill myself. I wasn’t at the time, and it only taught me how to manipulate the system. It didn’t do anything to help me.
So in 7th grade when I went to Texas, I started cutting myself on a daily basis almost. I remember the first time I ever did it was on Thanksgiving in 1999. I had been there for about 6 months and I had found quickly that everything they had promised me was a lie. They claimed they treated me like their own child, but if I so much as blinked wrong I was in a living nightmare. Whereas their kids could disappear without any notice until 10ish at night and they [would] just blow it off. Then in 8th grade there was a choir concert and everyone was cheering for their friends. I had bad timing apparently and cheered for a split second after everyone had stopped. I stopped as soon as I realized this mind you, but they didn’t believe it. So what was my punishment for such a heinous crime? I got to stay up all night on school nights for some ‘quality time’ with my drill sergeant uncle. He put me through military boot camp PT all night, let me get 2 hours of sleep, made me go to school like that, and do it all over again. For weeks.
Needless to say, this did nothing for my mental state. They had also withheld my Christmas gifts from me, but had filmed the whole thing for family and my mother to see, so they made me pretend to open my things and be happy. I wasn’t. Then you take into account that I was molested by my older cousin a couple times. I had no desire to continue living. I got so deep into cutting myself that I made morbid little designs and decorations on my arms. I thought they were beautiful. I still do.
Cutting/self -mutilation is an addiction. I haven’t done it on a regular basis since I was 19, but I still have the urge to do it every year or two. In fact just writing this is making me itch for it. It’s such an amazing sense of relief from the stress and anxiety built up inside of you. It’s more powerful than any drug in the world. I should know, I’m no stranger to them.
In 11th grade I tried to kill myself by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills and was hospitalized again. This time I was prepared but they still managed to catch me off guard. They drugged me before I went to see the shrink and was high out of my mind. The first morning I woke up, granted the only morning I was there, the girl in the room with me and her friend asked me if I wanted to burn myself with salt and ice. No, I can’t say that I do. There were about 3 people including myself who were there because they were genuinely depressed and suicidal. All the others, well, they were just behavior problems that their parents didn’t want to deal with. Take my roommate for example, she was around 9-10 and her grandmother was her guardian. She was supposed to show up that day to visit, but she didn’t. So the child started throwing a fit and trashing the place. Thankfully my mom was there to see it. I had told her the place was literally making me crazier but she didn’t believe me. For some reason she had stuck around longer than expected and when she saw that girl she immediately checked me out. It was an incredibly unhealthy place.
I had always hated being on medication. I had been on 19 different meds between 6 and 11 years old. So, I was on anti-psych medications until I was 19. At which point, I realized I really needed help and decided I wanted to get somewhere in life. I wanted to be a psychiatrist and help other people in my situation. Unfortunately that wouldn’t really happen. When I was 20, almost 21, I had surgery to remove my gallbladder and would discover that I’m terminally ill. I decided that I’d be a nurse then since it didn’t take as long as psychiatry. That didn’t work out either. The pain in my kidneys got to be too much for me to even go to school and lately to even function normally. Nursing was definitely out of the question.
It didn’t seem fair that all the time I spent wanting to die on account of my depression, I would overcome it mostly just to find out it wasn’t really any better. Nowadays, I’m still suicidal, but in a different way.
I’m terminally ill. I suffer on a daily basis in incredible pain and I’m on high enough doses of narcotics to kill a few people with one dose of my meds. Now I want to die to end my suffering. I believe in assisted suicide for the terminally ill. I feel we’re more humane to our animals than we are our sick and dying.
I’ve recently come up with an idea for a charity/foundation to help people who are suicidal get help. I’m also focusing very heavily on cutting and self-mutilation needing addiction help. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to collaborate on it with Bert McCracken of The Used, my absolute favorite band.
I don’t believe that my desire to die currently is wrong in any way. My pain will never end. Yours can. So please never give up and find help if you need it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m lucky enough to have a husband who takes care of me in light of all my problems. You’ll get through it. I promise. It may not be incredibly soon, mine took most of my life, but it will get better.” ~~Stephani Trioli~~
Thank you so much Steph 🙂 I love you sweetheart, so much! I’m so excited for you for being able to collaborate with Bert for you project! And, I am proud of you for trying to help spread awareness as well. *Hugs and Kisses*
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If you need someone to talk to, please call the number above. There is someone one the other end who WANTS to help you. Suicide is NOT the answer. |