Suicide rate up 33% in less than 20 years, yet funding lags behind other top killers
USA Today Anne Godlasky and Alia E. Dastagir Dec. 2, 2018
More than 47,000 Americans killed themselves in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, contributing to an overall decline in U.S. life expectancy. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 33 percent. Americans are more than twice as likely to die by their own hands, of their own will, than by someone else's. But while homicides spark vigils and protests, entering into headlines, presidential speeches and police budgets, suicides don't. Still shrouded in stigma, many suicides go unacknowledged save for the celebrities – Robin Williams, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain – punctuating the unrelenting rise in suicide deaths with a brief public outcry. And research suggests our ways of living may be partly to blame, in ways that don't bode well for the future
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When I wanted to die, there was nothing anyone could say or do to change my mind. Our daughter was only 8 months old. The infection I had after giving birth was killing my body. PTSD was killing everything else. I knew what PTSD was and what it was doing to my husband, just as much as I knew what it was all doing to me. Hope evaporated. That is why I can assure you, dear reader, that is the only reason people commit suicide. Hope is destroyed. I remember the nurse saying that I was fighting for my life, but the truth is, I was praying to die. It was not until I came out of the fever long enough to open my eyes, saw my husband holding our baby daughter, and I knew I did not want to leave her. I was the only one with the power to find hope again. I thought about everything I had been through, all the times I faced death and all the other times when I thought tomorrow wouldn't be any better. And then, then I knew, that after all I had been through, there was no way I was going to be defeated. We have become a society where "normal" is what we see on TV. Happiness is great pictures on Facebook with people we know surrounded by other people having fun. Only good news is shared as if no one wants anyone to know what is really "normal" for their own lives. We communicate with text messages instead of talking. We do not speak out of fear that someone will jump down our throats and "put us in our place" when we are the only ones who surrender power for them to do that to us. OK, so, here is the best advice I can give. Be YOU! Be true to who you are inside, to your own thoughts and beliefs. Then be free to take control over your own life. Do not give power of your life to anyone else, especially to people you do not really know. I do not care what other people think of me, or even if they think of me at all. It is my life and I am the only one with the power to enjoy it! I am old now but there was a time when I was much, much younger, foolish enough to think that my happiness was dependent upon other people. Then maturity came and I knew what I would get out of life depended on what I was willing to give it. So, if you find that someone is not listening to you, find someone who will. If you find that you are lonely, find other lonely people. If you think you are not important, become important to yourself. Be true to who you are and how you are will change, instead of the other way around. Most people get bullied at one time or another, but power comes from knowing they really have no power over you. If they do not care about you, then why the hell should anything they think matter to you? They do not belong in your life, so why put them in a position where they can change your life? When you hear someone say they are raising awareness about suicides, remember, that only helps them. It does not help those fighting to find hope. Be the hope they need to stay here by letting them know you were hurting too, but kicked the crap out of what did not belong in your life so you could #TakeBackYourLife and live!
This is also how you communicate
How's your mental health? Ending the suicide epidemic begins by caring for ourselves.
USA Today Barbara Van Dahlen and Talinda Bennington, Opinion contributors Dec. 1, 2018 My husband died by suicide, having lost sight of the love available to him. But his death won't be in vain if it changes our culture of mental health.
The number of lives lost to suicide is shocking and the impact on survivors is devastating. Indeed, friends and family of those who take their lives often struggle for years trying to make sense of the loss — sometimes blaming themselves for not saving their loved one.
And the children of those who die by suicide are at increased risk for mental health challenges themselves, given the trauma and confusion they experience when a parent seemingly “chooses” to abandon them.
We tend to accept some suicide as unavoidable and inevitable. Many people believe that mental illness, depression and addiction are conditions that cannot be prevented, addressed or effectively treated. But mental health conditions and substance use disorders can be treated even if we can’t always prevent them. People can — and do — heal, recover and live productive lives despite the challenges. It’s time to normalize the need to care for our mental health. Suicide can be prevented. read more here
Pete Davidson gets emotional about online bullies, being suicidal
USA TODAY Anika Reed Dec. 3, 2018
Pete Davidson took to Instagram to address his online bullies in an emotional post that touched on his borderline personality disorder and suicidal thoughts.
In a statement on the social media platform on Monday, Davidson opened up about what the past nine months have been like for him. During that time, Davidson had a whirlwind romance with pop superstar Ariana Grande that ended with a broken engagement.
"I've kept my mouth shut. Never mentioned any names, never said a word about anyone or anything," Davidson said in the post. "I'm trying to understand how when something happens to a guy the whole entire world just trashes him without any facts or frame of reference. Especially in today's climate where everyone loves to be offended and upset it truly is mind boggling."
The "Saturday Night Live" star said that he wants to bring awareness to borderline personality disorder for people like him "who don't want to be on this earth."
"I've been getting online bullied and in public by people for 9 months," he continued. "I've spoken about BPD and being suicidal publicly only in the hopes that it will help bring awareness and help kids like myself who don't want to be on this earth."
Despite any virtual trolls, Davidson vowed to stay strong.
"I just want you guys to know," Davidson said. "No matter how hard the internet or anyone tries to make me kill myself. I won't. I'm upset I even have to say this. To all those holding me down and seeing this for what it is – I see you and I love you." read more here
Listen: Richard Madden Breaks Down Playing a ‘Bodyguard’ With PTSD
VARITY By DANIELLE TURCHIANO HOME TV FEATURES NOVEMBER 30, 2018
Welcome to “Remote Controlled,” a podcast from Variety featuring the best and brightest in television, both in front of and behind the camera.
Richard Madden photographed exclusively for the Variety Remote Controlled Podcast
DAN DOPERALSKI FOR VARIETY
In this week’s episode, “Bodyguard” star Richard Madden sits down with Variety‘s features editor of TV, Danielle Turchiano, to talk about playing a former soldier with PTSD, who is tasked with protecting Britain’s Home Secretary.
“In a lot of movies and television we see PTSD as someone closes a door too loud or a car backfires and our subject suddenly is transported back to Afghanistan in the middle of this fighting and men are dying,” Madden says. “That does happen sometimes for people with PTSD — they have flashbacks like that — but that’s not the only thing that happens.”
Madden shares that he was most interested in bringing to life the daily struggle of someone in that position — the anxiety and depression that comes with the disorder. read more here
Surveillance video shows suspect's car in deadly shooting of Desert Storm vet
ABC 13 News TJ Parker November 30, 2018
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- New surveillance shows the moments a black Ford Fusion pulled up in front of a home where a veteran was killed during a home invasion.
A man was killed after a suspect broke into his home in northwest Harris County, deputies say. They say motive is robbery.
It happened around 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the 10800 block of Gates Randal Court.
The man has been identified as 47-year-old Leandro Morales Jr.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office said the victim and his wife were at home when the wife reported hearing a sound at the back door. The husband was shot while he was investigating the sound, deputies said.
The wife told investigators she heard a noise at the back door and then she heard a gunshot inside of the house. read more here
UPDATE Billions of dollars a year go into "raising awareness" and all these years later, this is the outcome! Yet people still write checks to support that instead of people actually doing the work to change the outcome. This is what they paid for!
Suicide rate up 33% in less than 20 years, yet funding lags behind other top killers
Suicide rates are up 33% in the U.S., yet funding lags behind that of all other top causes of death — leaving suicide research in its "infancy."
Shocking suicide awareness happened 22 times this year
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos December 2, 2018
When you need to know how to get to somewhere, you plug in the addresses from where you are to where you want to be. Let's say you needed to go from Lake Nona VA Hospital to Tampa VA. What would happen if this is all you got for directions?
It tells you how long it will take, how many miles, and even how much it will cost in fuel, but the rest is up to you to figure out. Not very helpful is it? You are still lost without a clue how to get to where you want to go. Yet, as with directions, details should matter regarding anything important to know. All across the country there are people doing everything possible to "raise awareness" that veterans are committing suicide. Much like the missing directions, they are missing important details. The first thing is, they are missing an explanation on what their goal is. What is the point of raising awareness something is happening, if they do not understand the extent of how many times it happens? If they do not offer anything of value to change the outcome? If they did not take the subject seriously enough to learn how much they did not bother to learn in the first place? In 2006, Doug Barber of the Ohio National Guard committed suicide. Montana National Guard soldier Chris Dana was doing suicide awareness. He committed suicide in 2007. He was due to be discharged under "other than honorable" kick to the curb. He would have been one of the over 2 million without honorable discharges that were not even worth mentioning in the numbers left out. In 2008 the National Guard was doing "suicide prevention" followed by more years, but while some have been "prevented" far too many had succeeded.
That gives you an idea that it is happening all over the country. But when you do a Google Search on "veteran suicide awareness" you get 10,700,000 results. Why weren't all of these "awareness" groups paying attention all along? Wasn't it important enough when the VA said it was 18 a day? Wasn't it important enough when the VA said it was 20 a day at the same time they said the number of veterans living in the country dropped by millions?
Wasn't it important enough during all these years before they became "aware" of what they decided to make it their mission?
Most of the "awareness" groups left out the fact that the majority of veterans committing suicide, the known number anyway, had been over the age of 50 and yes, committing suicide before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Most of the groups still leave out the fact that while they failed to change the outcome, veterans keep committing suicide in very public ways to make sure the public knows what the truth is. So far this year, veterans made sure their names were known and their deaths could not be covered up or forgotten about. Each one of them had a name. It happened 22 times this year...so far.
PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos December 2, 2018 When you neglect all the things that go into making your vehicle run properly, you get engine friction.
techflourish.com
Heat and Friction: Primary Enemies of Car Engines Engines, Heat, and Friction “Friction, according to its encyclopedia description, is the force that opposes the relative motion or tendency of such motion of two surfaces in contact. When it comes to engines and automobiles, the term holds a deeper relevance to car performance.“ Heat and friction results from the rubbing of the many parts of an internal combustion engine. (your mind) A modern internal combustion engine is comprised of dozens of moving parts. Without proper oiling, these parts run against each other with tremendous speed, creating friction which then leads to heat.(anger)This heat can wear the mechanical parts of an engine and lead to bad performance under the hood. Worn parts due to friction cause havoc with gas mileage and emissions since the engine is pushed to work harder. Wear on the engine’s vehicle is a primary known cause of less efficient burning of fuel.
When the engine that drives everything in you is neglected, you get more friction in your life too.
If you understand the basic fact of PTSD, it takes some friction away. That is the fact that PTSD hit you and happened because you survived what the event tried to do to you. So why let it win now?
Friction happens when you think it is your fault, or you were too weak to "get over it" but PTSD hits harder when you have a strong emotional core. Just like when you feel good stuff really strongly, you feel bad stuff more. So why think there is anything wrong with you now that sadness hit if you do not feel wrong when love lives strongly? Friction happens when you surround yourself with people who reenforce the negative actions you take, like drinking, doing drugs or taking risks. It happens when they add to the terrible thoughts you are already thinking. Stay away from anything or anyone telling you about veterans committing suicide with their pushups, walks, stunts and events you are invited you to because they tell you what a good time you'll have. read more here
