National Suicide Prevention Week – Day 7 – Continue the Work

Hello,

We made it to the end of National Suicide Prevention Week. Thank you for spending time on this important cause this week, it means the world to me. Just because this week of public awareness is over doesn’t mean the work stops here. Those who struggle with mental health don’t just struggle this week, they struggle year round.

Continue sharing the resources, continue reaching out to friends, continue donating, continue involvement with local organizations. We can make a difference. We can help those in need. We can end the stigma around mental health. We can allow more people to see tomorrow.

While my daily blog posts on Suicide prevention will end, I will not stop fighting. Thank you for reading, donating, sharing – it makes a huge difference. If you’re looking for more ways to get involved, check out To Write Love On Her Arms blog post.

See You Tomorrow and Every Day After That.

Lauren

National Suicide Prevention Week – Day 5 – Support Treatment & Recovery

Hello,

It is Day 5 of National Suicide Prevention Week, and today the focus is supporting treatment and recovery. There is so much that we can do for one another, reach out, vocalize what those people mean to you, share the resources but for people who are struggling with mental health, treatment and recovery is ultimately what will make a difference.

Therapy and counseling is not free and it’s not cheap. Not everyone has health insurance and even if you do, it may not cover these services. And the resources that help people in crisis can’t run without donations.

To Write Love On Her Arms – This non-profit provides counseling scholarships to those in-need that cannot afford to get help. Donate Here.

Crisis Text Line – This service provides free around the clock support to anyone who needs someone to talk to, all people staffing the crisis text line are trained crisis counselor. Donate Here.

Suicide Prevention Lifeline – This service provides free around the clock support to anyone struggling with mental health as well as provide support to people surrounding anyone who is struggling with mental health. Donate Here.

You can also find a list of local crisis centers which really need donations to keep doing the good work they are doing – find your local crisis center here.

Every Dollar Counts.

See you Tomorrow.

National Suicide Prevention Week 2018 – Day 3 – Know and Share the Resources

Hello,

It is Day 3 of National Suicide Prevention Week. The focus today is know the resources and share the resources. There are resources out there to help people who are suicidal but most people do not know about them. Obviously, if someone is in immediate danger, you need to call 911 (or your emergency number if not in the US). But if someone is in need of help but isn’t in immediate danger, there are resources that you can share with them.

The Crisis Text Line is one resource that has personally helped me and is a great option for people who don’t want to take the step to actually call someone. As a member of the millennial generation, I admit that I am more comfortable texting than talking on the phone and I know a lot of people feel the same way. The Crisis Text Line is free and is staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week by trained individuals who will talk to you about anything and everything that you need to talk about. They will also connect you to other resources if deemed necessary.

Crisis Text Line (US)

741741

Crisis Text Line (Canada)

686868

The Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free support to individuals in crisis as well as support for the people close to these individuals who need help in knowing how to assist them. The Lifeline is free and staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Suicide Prevention Lifeline

1-800-273-8255

There are also great resources specifically for veterans, The Veterans Crisis Hotline 1-800-273-8255 and Text Line 838255 and resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people (ages 13-24) The Trevor Project 1-866-488-7386 or text TREVOR to 1-202-304-1200 from 3 PM – 10 PM (EST) Monday – Friday.

You can find these resources and local resources in your area at http://www.twloa.com/find-help. I encourage you to put these phone numbers in your phone in case you or anyone you love ever needs it.

I’ll See You Tomorrow.

Lauren

National Suicide Prevention Week 2018 – Day 2 – World Suicide Prevention Day

Hello,

I am back for Day 2 of National Suicide Prevention Week and today is also World Suicide Prevention Day. Today, lets focus on awareness. Did you know that 800,000 people die from suicide worldwide every year? That is one person every 40 seconds. The suicide rate has risen 25% in the United States in the past 20 years. (These stats provided by To Write Love On Her Arms/www.twloha.com)

You are probably familiar with the high profile suicides of Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, and Kate Spade (just to name a few recent cases). But let’s revisit the stat from above, 800,000 people die from suicide every year. It isn’t just people who are famous, it can be anyone, anywhere. The sad reality is that it is probable that someone you know will die from suicide.

Mental health still has a stigma attached to it. We don’t talk about it, we don’t get treatment for it, we don’t understand it. By not talking about mental health, we aren’t recognizing that there is a problem we aren’t addressing the fact that suicide is on the rise, as a whole we fall under the assumption that this is rare and it won’t happen to me or anyone around me. But the stats do not lie, and it’s simply not true.

So today, I’m asking you to talk about it with people in your life. It isn’t the easiest conversation to have, but the more we talk about it, the more aware we are, the more prepared we are to help others and change those statistics. Also, by talking to the people you love about mental health and suicide, you are showing them that you are someone that they can turn to if they are struggling.

Image Credit: To Write Love On Her Arms

This year, To Write Love On Her Arms created the slogan Tomorrow Needs You for World Suicide Prevention Day. It asks supporters to finish this statement: Tomorrow Needs Me Because…

Take a second and finish the statement and ask your friends and family to finish it too. Because Tomorrow Needs You. Find out how you can help spread awareness, raise money, and help others here.

I will see you tomorrow 🙂

National Suicide Prevention Week 2018 – Day 1 – Know the Signs

Hello!

It’s been a minute – other time commitments have kept me from blogging but no matter what is going on in my life, I stop to participate in National Suicide Prevention Week. This year that falls on September 9 – 15. This cause is very important to me because I struggle with my own mental health and have been suicidal multiple times. I know what it feels like and I am grateful that I am still here today and I want to help the millions of people who struggle with mental health to see tomorrow. This week I will be blogging each day of National Suicide Prevention Week and today the focus is on knowing the signs that someone is struggling with suicidal thoughts because guess what, most suicidal people do not freely tell the people around them that they are struggling.

I’ve been watching a lot of ABC lately (Bachelor in Paradise anyone?) and they using their advertising time on pushing their fall TV debut shows, the one I’ve seen the most is the ad for A Million Little Things, an ensemble drama surrounding the unexpected suicide of a friend. The term unexpected suicide is probably redundant – is any suicide expected? Anyway, the quote from the ad that plays over and over in my head is “how could we not know?” And that is the thing, suicide hits the surrounding people as a shock because the signs are not as obvious as one might think.

Credit: To Write Love On Her Arms/www.twloa.com

Above is a guide of suicide warning signs put together by the team at To Write Love on Her Arms. Of course these aren’t all of the signs and you may not see any of these signs in a suicidal person. A common misconception is that suicide is selfish – the person is only thinking about themselves. This is completely false. There is a lot of guilt with feeling suicidal. You feel that you are a burden to everyone around you and that your depression is just bringing everyone down. And because of that, many suicidal people hide what they are feeling because they don’t want to burden the people around them any further. The thought is that yes, the people who love me will be sad and hurt if I go through with this but that ultimately it will be good for them to not have to worry about me any longer.

If you notice any of these signs, the best thing you can do is to check in and be there for that person and let them know that they matter. Sometimes all a person needs to hear is that their existence makes a difference.

Check out these resources for more warning signs:

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

https://afsp.org/about-suicide/risk-factors-and-warning-signs/

To Write Love on Her Arms

https://twloha.com/tomorrowneedsyou/day1/

I’ll be back tomorrow for Day 2 of National Suicide Prevention Week and World Suicide Prevention Day.