Hello everyone!!! It's been since April that I've blogged and now I'm back in action.
Since the pandemic, calls to suicide helplines have increased. People need help more than ever. Our mental state is being called into question and this isn't just people like myself who suffer from anxiety and PTSD, some of the calls are coming from people who have never experienced anxiety or depression. People that don't know what to do with these feelings. We need to talk. WE need destigmatization both for mental health disorders and for suicide. We also need to learn how to help those with mental health disorders. To be understanding. To know the proper ways to help. To be compassionate.
So lets say it out loud, Suicide, suicide suicide.
We need talk about it but more importantly we need to listen. Listen because once you listen and I mean really listen, then you will understand. Once we listen we can learn and by learning our empathy can expand, our knowledge can grow, our acceptance will blossom. Talk about it so others know that it's ok to talk about it. So those with thoughts that may be beyond your comprehension, those that swim among death, that question life.....feel understood, feel heard. So those with such thoughts have a safe haven to run to. So that if they are thinking about taking their life, maybe you can be the hand that pulls them down from the ledge. Help them feel safe, heard, loved. Life is better with them in it.
Listen and learn so that you know how to help.
Grief, trauma, depression and sadness are like a tsunami that crashes upon our shore and causes chaos and destruction. Some of us are the structures that survive the wave, pieces of us taken but we are still standing. Others get washed back into the ocean when the waves recede, nothing to grab onto, no hand to hold. We, who are the structures left standing, need to be the lifeline. To offer a hand, to offer a platform to escape to, a platform to survive.
Below I've provided some links that may be helpful
Warning signs, risk factors and how to support
How to prepare for a crisis
Facts, warning signs, info, school and crisis resources
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