I wanted to briefly build on this week’s discussion of suicide and suicide prevention that took place over on my podcast, A Light in The Darkness. Specifically, I wanted to talk about how we all need to do better at helping those in the darkest moments of their battle, those who are suicidal. And we […]
A recent study came out that suggested that raising the minimum wage even one dollar would result in a 3.5 percent decrease in suicide. And while that number might sound small, it comes out to 27,550 suicides prevented in the 25-year period examined by the study. The research went on to suggest that a two-dollar […]
Yesterday, I talked about how scars can prevent those of us who battle the darkness of mental illness from getting the help we need. Today, I want to expand on that by talking about a very real example of that: post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Earlier this year, the Philidelphia Inquirer ran a story about […]
I wrote yesterday about how so many of us suffer in silence, battling a darkness that only we can see. And I wrote about how that silence helps feed the horrible stigma that surrounds mental illness. Yet it isn’t just silence that makes it hard for us to open up about our struggles. Often, scars […]
This post feels a little weird to write because it is the blogging equivalent of standing on the shoulder of giants. And the inspiration for this post is a giant to me. Her name is Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess), and if you don’t know her work, you should because it is amazing. Jenny talks […]
Today is International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. It was established by Congress in 1999 after Senator Harry Reid, himself a survivor of his father’s suicide, introduced a resolution to raise awareness. Twenty years later and I would say we still have a lot of work to do. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that […]
I included this quote yesterday, “I’d rather hear about your depression than your suicide.” It is a very important quote, but I cannot take full credit for it. It was shared from the ‘Enlightened Consciousness’ Facebook page. I’ve also seen it on the ‘St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church’s’ Facebook page, and it may very well have […]
