I so appreciate you posting this...most of you here know that I suffer from this and have attempted suicide. I don't know how everyone feels but yes you SI feel such a sense if relief that it's going to be alright, that you don't have to suffer anymore, that you won't be a burden to anyone...it's not the answer but it is the answer a lot of people choose. I struggle most days and imagine I will for the rest of my life...I hope that like Erica I can help people understand that it's not the person it's the illness!

I just took the most amazing 30 hr NAMI Family-to-Family facilitator training this past weekend. And last night I attended a 1 hour QPR training. If coroners combined the suicide by car & cop statistics, the rate would reflect the enormity of the epidemic.

I encourage everyone to spend 30 minutes learning about QPR. It's so simple, and saves so many lives.

Peace to everyone

Not really. I stuck around for the people around me. I did not want to hurt them. I just kept thinking if i took my life, it would affect a lot of people. I could not find a reason to stick around for myself. i am still trying to find my purpose...

I appreciate everyone's openness here. It's a hard topic. Peace to all.

You don't know how much I could have written this myself ...

Hi Erica,

I have taken the ASIST training (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and, in the organization that I run, we encourage all our staff and caregivers to take the same training, which we pay for. We work with many high risk youth and suicide is an ongoing concern for us, hence the need for a highly trained staff.

Here's the link to ASIST in case you are interested. It may be similar to QPR but is a Canadian program.

ASIST

I had a friend over just to chat the other day and she asked me if my depression was better or worst. I told her that it was the same. She said "How would a person know if they were about to kill themselves"? I don't know, as I have never gotten to that point. I have driven myself to a psych hospital and got admitted when I had panic attack. I thought though that it was a good question and had no answers. Anybody?

Wow, this is a lot of really good discussion! I didn't expect it at all.

My friend and I have signed up to take a short QPR Gatekeeper course online.

We go and speak to all kinds of different groups about NAMI and what we offer in the area.

We currently have two IOOV presenters, and we decided to augment with a short QPR introduction.

Thanks everyone for your honest comments. It just blew my mind that 1/5 of all people suffer suicidal thinking at some point in our lives, and NEVER did ANY DOCTOR tell me that throughout my daughter's 10+ years of mental illness.

I think it's absolutely criminal. Can you imagine leaving the hospital after a cardiac event WITHOUT any WARNINGS!?!?

The stigma surrounding chronic AND acute mental illness has got to be stopped.

Peace to everyone.

Pea, a person would know if he/she suffers from chronic suicidal thinking, has a plan, a place, and a time in mind. That's the highest risk. The trick is for society to start acknowledging suicidal ideation (thinking) as a medical condition equal to a very high fever. It is an indication that the body and mind is stressed for some reason. The reason can be social stress, economic stress, walking pneumonia before diagnosis, thyroid disease, pancreatic disturbance, concussion, ad infinitum. There are so many things that cause it that we need to be taught to watch for the symptom of suicidal thinking and what to do every time it happens. The biggest danger is hiding it and becoming accustomed to the thoughts. Then it's really hard to know when it's becoming more urgent.

That's awesome Wendy! I see ASIST as a provider tool, and QPR as a general tool that the whole public should know. QPR should be taught in grade school with CPR in my opinion. With at risk populations like the one you work in, it's essential to put prevention tools into the hands of the first responders which are often the other students. I'm sure you already know all this.