This is National Suicide Prevention Week

This week, September 7^th through the 13^th  is National Suicide Prevention Week.  I was contacted by my friend Susan from the blogger world, who gave me a huge packet of information and links to share with you all.  Susan is also an advocate for mental health awareness and you can find her at her site "When you are going through hell keep going."

I wish I could say that I am a stranger to this topic but I'm not.  I have had personal experience with both needing and giving help to those who are feeling suicidal.  When I was still a teenager I had a boyfriend who threatened to commit suicide and began to act upon it.  He got hold of a gun (his mother had guns for protection in her home) and held it up to his head.  The gun was loaded.  His mother, his friends, and I spent several terrifying hours talking him out of pulling the trigger.  What seemed to help most was to tell him that his idea would not solve anything and that we would help him to get through this.  When he finally gave over the gun I sobbed with relief. 

In my very post here on HealthCentral, entitled Reaching Out,  I give my candid first hand account of when I called a suicide hotline.  I had the fortune to talk to a therapist named Frank who gave validation to my feelings of both anger and despair. In our phone conversation which lasted nearly an hour, Frank reminded me that suicide would not end my pain, it would simply end me.  The pain would live on with everyone I would leave behind.  It had been his experience as clinician that the ones left behind following a suicide, suffer from life long emotional scars and quite often profound guilt.  In our depressed state we may believe, as I did in those moments that people are better off without us but it simply isn't true.  Frank also helped me to understand that I would not always feel this extreme despair.  It was possible to feel better but I needed to hang on so I could have the chance to feel good again.  I am grateful to this day for the exceptional help I received in my time of need.  There are people out there who can help.

The following facts about suicide were obtained from the media and press kit created for National Suicide Prevention week by The American Association of Suicidology 

• In the United States, one person completes suicide every 16 minutes.
  
• It is estimated that 5 million people in the United States are survivors of suicide (those who have lost a loved one to suicide).
  
• 51% of people who die by suicide use a firearm, and guns stored in the house are used for suicide 40 times more often than for self-protection.
  
• In the United States, more people die by suicide (50% more!) each year than by homicide.
  
• Over 90 percent of suicide victims have a significant psychiatric illness at the time of their death. These are often undiagnosed, untreated, or both. Mood disorders and substance abuse are the two most common.
  
• There is a relationship between alcoholism and suicide; the risk of suicide in alcoholics is 50 to 70 percent higher than the general population.
  
• Whereas the overall suicide rate in our country has only slightly declined from record highs in recent years, the suicide rate for those 15-24 years old has more than doubled since the mid-1950s; and the suicide rate remains highest for adults 75 years of age and older.