Effective Tools for Suicide Prevention by Jennifer McGregor*
Depression and suicidality are some of the most dangerous and underestimated health conditions affecting people today. The CDC notes suicide as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and points out that suicide rates have gone up in nearly every state since 1999. People kill themselves for myriad reasons, ranging from tangible challenges in their day-to-day lives to invisible, internal struggles no one else ever sees.
Fortunately, this is preventable. When it comes to suicide, our actions matter. As a society and as individuals, we have the power to lower suicide rates and protect one another from this avoidable tragedy. Here are some tools you can use to prevent suicide in your community:
Access to Health Care
Suicidality is a medical problem. Proper health care is essential in preventing it:
- For many people, talk therapy can reduce suicide urges and provide effective coping tools.
- Depending on the root cause behind suicidality, medication may also be appropriate.
- Insurance should cover mental health care, at least in part.
- If you’re uninsured, there are funding options available to help cover costs.
Strong Social Support
Fight for a strong, supportive community:
- Efforts to reduce homelessness can lower suicide rates.
- Affordable, accessible treatment for substance use disorders can prevent intentional and accidental overdose.
- Mental health services and education in schools can help children, teachers, and parents notice red flags early enough to intervene.
- Create safe spaces for at-risk individuals, especially people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.
Suicide and the Self
If you struggle with suicidal thoughts or urges, you are not alone, and you can protect yourself.
- If you are currently considering harming yourself, seek emergency medical care immediately.
- Many people are what’s known as passively suicidal. Though this is marked by a lack of urgency, it is still dangerous, and you should speak to a doctor or therapist as soon as possible.
- In addition to talk therapy and medication, coping skills such as exercise, eating a regular, healthy diet, and learning how to sit in unpleasant emotions can make a big difference.
- Meditation and mindfulness can also help soothe your spirit and teach you to live in the moment, rather than dwell in the past or fear for the future.
Suicide affects us all on both a community and an interpersonal level. We have to learn how to join together and address the root causes of suicide. In doing so, we can ensure that fewer people – and perhaps, eventually, no one – is lost this way.
*Jennifer McGregor is a pre-med student, who enjoys writing about health and medical topics and providing reliable health and medical resources for Public Health Library users. She knows how difficult it can be to sift through the mountains of health-related information on the web and wants to make it easier for people to find high quality health info.
***
Dear friends –
Karl Jung tells it like it is: “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.” So ok, we’ve got our work cut out for us! Brothers, sisters, don’t give up. Stay tuned, the plot twists will be intriguing. Stand upright, get aligned, ‘cause the actors will be unpredictable, even the archetypes erratic. Decay & blossoming will be happening simultaneously, & the line between wisdom & craziness will get blurry.
But you are not alone, & there’s no way to describe the epic sweep of spiritual forces working behind the scenes. And yet if we really listen, we can feel a pulsing, a harmonious throbbing, undulating in waves out from the unseen, working thru US to help form our reality.
SO: Are we willing to confront uncanny truths that some might regard as too unruly? Are we brave enough to penetrate to the depths, that perhaps in the past we were too timid to look at, let alone deal with? Our willingness to focus our intention for the good shall give us the power to ultimately emerge from this pandemonium with our integrity, intelligence & heart forces shining.
H.P. Lovecraft captures it: “Pleasure to me is wonder. It’s the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability. To trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty.”
Swimming in it with you
~hag
17 October 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna unlocking the mysteries of retrograde Mercury (occult Venus – think messenger of Love writing itself a letter!) – Our solar system’s smallest, speediest planet is heading toward inferior conjunction on the 25th. Tonight, it shines in the southwest next to the waxing crescent Moon just 10 minutes after sunset. The Moon sets shortly after, taking the retro love note into the dark to ponder.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I see the beginning
Begin again from this end
Coming forth well invoked
& flowing like a web on the wind…
~hag
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31 October, 1 pm – 3 pm CT
‘Soul to Soul’ on-line Festival with the Central Regional Council
Join the CRC for an All Souls Pageant on All Hallows Eve, honoring our connection with our Beloved Dead, thru music, & poetry & Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts – ‘Break Out’ sessions & live music with special guest Rev. Carol Kelly
Halloween 31 October 2020, Saturday 11 am – 1 pm PT / 1 pm – 3 pm CT / 2pm – 4pm ET
Stay tuned for ZOOM details
All Souls Election Day Vigil Tuesday 3 November 2020 7 pm – 9 pm CT
We will hold space with each other & connect with the ‘so called dead’ to bring healing on both sides of the Threshold, during Electon Night 2020, through Soical Sculpture with Lucien Dante Lazar & special guest host Anne Nicholson
Join Zoom Meeting
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Friday 6 November 2020, 7 pm – 9 pm CT Connections Revealed
The Connection Between Epidemics, the Souls of the Dead, & the Spiritual World – Leading thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg based on Spiritual Scientific research & indications from Rudolf Steiner
With Group Eurythmy, Singing, Social Sculpture while reading the names of the dead, & Break out Sessions.
In-person at Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & 3 fold Cultural Hub, in conjunction with the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave.
Join Zoom Meeting
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One tap mobile
+13126266799,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (Chicago)
+16468769923,,98412080773#,,,,,,0#,,054456# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 984 1208 0773
Passcode: 054456
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acVfkxLHkM
Really appreciate this post! Belgium has one of highest suicide rates among the world. Most people here are confronted with a suicide (attempt) in the family or their wider circle of acquaintances. One of the building blocks in helping, I find, is bringing the topic of the taboo sphere, make mental health discussable, and bring it to public awareness that the human family is not divided in normal people and frail individuals that attempt suicide, but that the mental health of all of us is pretty frail… and because of that, we ought to be compassionate and understanding with each other.
Yes, & with the current world situation, the numbers of people who feel hopeless has increased.
I will share your comment with Jennifer McGregor.
Thanks for responding