Mental Health
Net
Suicide Awareness\Voices of
Education (SA\VE)
(Crisis Centers Listings, U. S. &
Canada)
Kids
Help Phone Site
Here are some links for survivors:
Living
With Suicide
1,000 Deaths-Loved
Ones Lost To Suicide
A Tragic Statistic: In 1995, a total
of 31,824 people committed suicide. That comes to about 86
people a day, or another sad way of viewing the hopelessness is 1
person in the United States chooses to take their own life every
16.8 minutes.
When I ask you to listen to me,
and you start giving advice,
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me,
and you begin to tell me,
why I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me,
and you feel you have to,
o something to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I asked, was that you listen,
not talk or do - just hear me.
Advice is cheap:
you can get it in Dear Abby and Billy Graham.
And I can do for myself,
I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me,
that I can and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact,
that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can quit trying to convince you,
and can get about the business,
of understanding what's behind,
this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear,
the answers are obvious,
then I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense,
when we understand what's behind them.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And, if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn,
and I'll listen to you.
Anonymous
By: Terry L. Hart
While most of the nation is caught up in the controversy over doctor assisted-suicide, little attention has been given to the growing number of people who take their own lives each year.
That's why Surgeon General David Satcher and a group of 450 doctors, counselors, educators and victim's family members met last October and came up with a strategy intended to help prevent this tragic loss of life. Increased research, reduced barriers to treatment, expanded insurance coverage of mental-health and substance abuse treatment, and improved depression screening were among the recommendations.
"We cannot afford as a nation to lose our children, our parents, our neighbors and our co-workers to suicide," Satcher said. "While we can't retrieve past losses, we can do something to prevent future losses."
With an average of 86 people committing suicide every day and 775,000 attempting annually, suicide has become the nation's eighth leading cause of death. More people commit suicide every year than are victims of homicide (31,284 vs 22, 552 in 1995).
According to the Minneapolis-based group Suicide Awareness-Voices of Education (SA\VE), the number one leading cause of suicide is untreated depression. Millions of Americans suffer from depression each year and of those 80% can be effectively treated. Surprisingly though, only 30% actually seek help and just half of those are accurately diagnosed.
Clearly, the problem of depression must be recognized and properly treated. Yet, according to the Surgeon General, "A purely medical approach will not do the job."
Tragically overlooked by the medical and psychiatric professions are the spiritual causes of depression and other disorders that make people want to kill themselves.
It's a fact that spirituality - or the lack of it - is a major factor in mental health.
According to a study published by The National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR), people who attend church and participate in other religious activities tend to be protected from the stress that can trigger depression when those sources include financial and health issues, neighborhood-related and other problems. And while these same people are more likely to fault themselves for family related troubles, NIHR states that, based on this study and others like it, "in general, religious involvement and life satisfaction are related."
But it isn't just religious activity that produces a meaningful life. The Bible teaches that real satisfaction comes from an ongoing relationship with God.
Truth is, the main reason people take their lives is because they're lonely, defeated, and have no hope of things ever changing or getting better. And that's precisely why the Bible was written.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, explains it like this: we are lost, without God, and without hope. "But God," he says, "is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again." (Eph.2:4-5 LB)
Life can take on new meaning and purpose, "all because of what Christ Jesus did." (vs. 7)
The real cure for hopelessness is hope, and the only hope that will not wane or fade away is one that finds its source in a personal relationship with the God of hope, a God who urges us to pour out our hearts to him, tell him about our problems, and cast all our cares upon him. All because he cares for us.
It's this kind of spirituality that is key to the effective treatment of depression, and when administered by the hope-full and embraced by the hope-less, will replace the desire to end it all with an enthusiasm to live a life which, according to the Bible, will never end.
This article is provided by "Real Answers", courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com. Visit our website at www.amyfound.org.