Suicide Prevention Month is coming to an end. But that doesn’t mean the awareness has to stop until next year. Mental Health and Suicide Prevention are important to address year-round, and you can help by starting the conversation! This year’s theme was Creating Hope Through Action. Research has shown that people are less likely to attempt suicide or to die by suicide in communities that support, care for, and affirm all their members. To make change happen, we need to take action to shift our culture from silence and stigma to encouragement and understanding.
Let me summarize the key points that I talked about this month. Week 1: Learn the Warning Signs – Hope Begins With Awareness. We all have mental health and it’s as essential to a person’s life as physical health. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and shapes how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Week 2: Reach Out – Help Is Within Reach. It is important to find the help that is right for you when your mental health feels off. Hope and healing can come from many places and in many forms to get the support that you need. Talking about the resources available across Minnesota and in your community can help remove stigma and normalize talking about mental health and focusing on hope and healing. Week 3: Connect To Protect – Relationships Save Lives. Often our first points of contact when we are struggling are our friends, family or colleagues. If someone you know is struggling emotionally or having a hard time, talking with them can be the difference in getting them the help they need. Talking with a loved one about mental health and suicide can be an uncomfortable and an uncertain topic, but it is also one of the best ways to prevent it. We can all take action to have these conversations with someone who may be suicidal by using the five action steps from #BeThe1To. Week 4: Advocate For Change – Your Voice Matters. Talking about mental health and suicide on a community level can help raise awareness and support of suicide prevention efforts and encourage those who need extra support to connect to services. Surrounding people and families with supportive neighborhoods, businesses, schools, faith communities, and services is a critical way to support every person. Communities that work together in an intentional and proactive way is vital to providing needed mental health and suicide prevention support and resources.
I will leave you with this: We can remember, and we can remind each other, that there is no finish line when it comes to mental illness. It’s a journey, and sometimes we can see the path we’re on all the way to the horizon, while other times we can’t even see five feet in front of us because the fog is so thick. But the path is always there, and if we can’t locate it on our own, we have loved ones and doctors and medications to help us find it again, as long as we don’t give up trying to see it. -Wil Wheaton. I came across an article by Wil Wheaton during a support group session while I was navigating the rough waters of my deep depression. He had spoken at a NAMI statewide conference in Ohio back in 2018. Here is the link to his full speech, if you would like to read the whole thing: My name is Wil Wheaton. I Live With Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed.
As I close out another prevention month, just remember, if you or someone you know is struggling, PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP! Unseen battles are the hardest fought battles. You are never alone in your journey. You can talk to me, even if we don’t know each other. As scary and uncomfortable as it is, sharing is caring, and caring is healing! So with that — STAY; Your story is not over and your life matters!
Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe! ~Sally~
