An Important Message about Mental Health

I know there are lots of "crazies" on here. But I think this is an important message to get out.


Bell Let’s Talk Day

Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day. It’s an initiative that is helping to break down the stigma associated with mental health issues. Bell is donating 5 cents for every text message sent, mobile and long distance call made, Facebook share of their Bell Let’s talk image and tweet using the #BellLetsTalk hashtag.

So if you tweet today use the the #BellLetsTalk hashtag.

I'm posting a youtube video about a local kid who seemed to have it all going for her but chose suicide at age 14. I'll take the ban.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQXfWChmsko


Thanks for reading.

 

A shame to be sure. But at least, and I'm not making light of her situation, she didn't pick up a rifle and gun down a dozen of her teammates before offing herself.


Made me think of this article I just happened across the other day. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I think kids these days need to a little bit of a lesson on perspective. A 19 yr old girl who looks like this...

http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/ne...iday-night-by-jumping-off-center-city-garage/

....has exactly zero justification to toss herself off a building just because she's struggling in a few classes. Go spend a day in a cancer ward, or better yet spend a month in in Myanmar after a typhoon get some perspective on what a rough day is really like.

 

I'm 33.

Already have 6 suicides I have had to deal with since highschool.

Most were people that were very well liked.

I feel sorry for the cops, I bet they see that shit daily.

 

@SPL It's not a question of perspective, it's a question of medical science, psychiatry. You just demonstrated exactly what the problem is.

No matter how you look, how rich you are, etc. if you suffer from depression or any other mental health problem, you have a medical condition and what you need is professionnal help.

 

In the moment of crisis it is not possible I think to rationally sort through the issues. Given the wrong conditions and timing that failed math test is as huge as flying the Enola Gay. I know. I have had over twenty years to sort out why my brother pulled the trigger on himself. I only wish I had not seen it. Xmas eve has never been the same. Think before you treat someone any less than you would treat yourself.

 

Look I get it (well maybe I don't). People get depressed, clinically, and have difficulty coping or whatever.

I just find it odd that you don't see clinical depression and people killing themselves off in statistically significant numbers in locations around the world where they are far less privileged. Maybe they just have better coping mechanisms in the 3rd world.

So I at the end of the day I see it as more of a selfish choice to make.

 

You do. The USA is only 33rd highest in suicide rate; many of the countries ahead of us are far less privileged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_suicide

 

That's really, really awful. I can't even imagine it. Sorry to hear that, man.

 

As a guy who has a wife who works in a psychiatric hospital, I can say that her job sucks. The amount of heartache that she deals with every day, would crush lesser people. But the successes help offset the losses.

Last week they had 2 suicides on her ward.

 

Mental Illness is an actual medical condition.

Despite with the general population thinks. It's like telling some one with Diabetes to NOT have diabetes.

 

The biggest thing this Movement is trying to do is to get people to talk about it. Trying to let people know that they are not alone and people can help them. I can't imagine how helpless it must feel. I've been lucky!

 

Damn, I clicked on this thread thinking it was going to be All Metalhead, all the time and you guys are in here being serious. Frack...

 

Mental issues are really hard to describe to people not affected by them.

Depression runs in my family. My great grandfather shot himself, granted at an old age, and my father was briefly hospitalized for depression.

I suffer depression and ADD. Docs think the depression is probably linked to the ADD as people with ADD tend to get frustrated with themselves.

Depression is hard to describe. I'd say it's an inability to see anything positive at all in your life and hyper focus on one or more negative issues. The amount your brain hyper focuses on those negatives can drive all purpose, joy, hope, etc. from your mind. Your brain hits a point where EVERYTHING is negative and the only thoughts are "why keep going like this? Why not end it?"

Serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, etc. all work in balance to transmit neural signals. If one chemical is out of whack then there are mental health issues.

Getting them in balance is key for mental well being. The problem is that there is no way to measure these in a living person. Treatment is trial and error and based on the patients perception of their condition.

 

Another interesting and somewhat humorous perspective on Depression.


http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-07:00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00-07:00&max-results=5

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

 

Lot of similarities, Daron and Lucas.

http://www.newstopic.net/obituaries/x849280031/Obituaries-for-Jan-29-2014

 

I can't never remember which famous news anchor "came out" at the end of his career about his life long battle with depression. Brokaw or Jennings maybe, it was one of the nightly big timers. Rather shocking at the time when he did it during a broadcast.

 

We did an AFSP Out Of The Darkness walk in October, and I could not believe how many families were there that had lost someone. Suicide has a huge stigma and most think it happens to other people. The last 8 months has been very frustrating, because now, my family is those other people.

I don't get mad at people who dismiss it, because I use to be that guy. I think we can all agree that life's lessons are usually the hardest to swallow.

 

It does suck, every time. I remember all the ones I had to go to during my 6+ years so far.

 

I've seen a few, vividly remember the first one. The others not so much...

 

Just found out today a friend from High School killed himself last night. I sensed something was wrong this summer and when I asked him about it he said he was cool, just messing around. I've been in a bit of a daze all day. The only thing I can think is he was too scared to let people know how bad he was hurting. I hate the stigma that goes along with mental health, especially today.