Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Suicide Prevention. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Suicide Prevention. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

You Matter Too! + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

Have you known or been associated with someone who has committed suicide? I know it has certainly touched my life. My uncle, who served in the Korean War, committed suicide when he wasn't given a bed in the Veterans' Hospital Psychiatric Ward--something he was guaranteed as a veteran and a diagnosed schizophrenic. He knew he was having problems and when he tried to get admitted, he was turned away. He had nowhere else to turn and so he took his life. I was quite young and don't remember too much about the details. The one thing I do remember is how broken up my Dad was---I had never seen him weep before. He and my uncle had been extremely close as brothers growing up.
I have a friend who struggles with depression and it's not because of any diagnosed mental disorder. It's because she has had a very abusive, neglectful, and traumatic childhood. The things that happened to her have scarred her for life and sometimes the pain is too much to bear. She has survived several suicide attempts. She is currently doing well right now and because of her cries for help, she has many friends who have rallied around her and offer support. I'm so thankful that things are turning out OK for her. 

I think the most ironic and shocking incident happened when I was working at an alternative high school that was for troubled youth who were falling behind and getting lost in the shuffle. We were just beginning to observe Suicide Prevention Week, when our principal's son turned up missing. Later that week we learned that he had been found, dead from suicide. It was so tragic to learn of this and so ironic that it happened during the actual week of what we were trying to prevent....suicide. It brought way too close to home the fact that suicide knows no boundaries.

Even children think about suicide. During a news conference Utah Lt. Governor, Spencer Cox, talked about his childhood, when his parents divorced and how he was also teased and bullied at school. He thought about suicide and shared how a great scout leader helped him through his darkest time.

Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day and all of September is Suicide Prevention Month. According to the World Health Organization, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds globally, with more than 800,000 deaths due to suicide each year. That’s approximately one person every 40 seconds. Many more attempt suicide.
Image - Nichole Jensen
 With those alarming statistics it's high-time that people unite and set aside differences they may have. This past weekend was the National Weekend of Prayer for Faith, Hope, and Life. It was for people of faith from all denominations to join together and use the power of combined prayer to help those whose lives have been touched with suicide and those struggling with thoughts of suicide and mental illness.  

Prayer is a wonderful way to unite people of faith and it also facilitates action! For the rest of the month, watch for articles on events and ways you can get involved to help prevent someone from doing the unthinkable. There is help available and we can be part of someone's decision to choose life! Here are some organizations that can help someone in crisis.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Fear Of Failure Causes Anxiety + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

This past September was National Suicide Prevention Month. I, like too many others, have had personal experiences where suicide has touched me personally, or has been way too close for comfort. 

But I've had far more experiences where, although no suicide was involved, the impact of stress and anxiety have affected lives and could easily have ended in suicide. These are stories about teen anxiety that need to be told in the hopes that we can start to recognize and prevent what could happen later on.

In my 9 years of working within the school system, I have been close enough to teens to see what motivates them. I have followed some of their lives and have somewhat of a sense of what can make a teen feel pressure, anxiety, worry, and the need to fight or take flight! I will be sharing one story now and more later about some things that definitely make a teenager anxious and feel stress. Maybe if we can recognize some of these situations, we can be of help!


Fear Of Failure
I knew A. when she came to our unit fresh from a detention center.  She was smart, but had decided that school was not the way she would be successful....

Something that filled her with anxiety and dread was math. At some point along the way, someone or something had convinced her that she couldn't understand or do it. At all. In anticipation of math, she would begin to hyperventilate and would start to panic. The only way she could get through a math lesson was if she had someone right there helping her through ALL the problems, which doesn't happen often in a busy classroom. More often than not she would refuse to work, throw her materials, and leave the room with angry words hurled at whoever happened to be around. Gradually, she was able to get help and encouragement. She learned to retain some of the things she was being taught and she became more confident, thus feeling less stress when she was asked to do math problems on the board or at her desk. She got the assistance she needed that year because she made it crystal clear about how she felt about math and, luckily, there was someone available who was willing to work with her. 

Not all kids are able to verbalize their fear and trepidation when they run into academic hurdles. Sometimes they will take the fail, rather than turn attention on themselves and their problems. Unlike A. they are not squeaky wheels that will get the grease!
 Today is "My Post Monday!", a curation of the week's best original content. It's all about posts from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize(Affiliate links welcome)