A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
I've written before about the issues with language policing, but this is probably one of the more controversial areas where I believe that words matter less than people might think. We aren't "supposed to" talk about successful suicide or failed suicide attempts. Sara of Surviving Sara brought this up recently, and I told her it's… Continue reading Failed/Successful Suicide: Do Words Matter? What’s the Real Failure?
This post isn't about saying that suicide is something people should choose, or that it's a good choice, or that it's a choice that they want to have on the menu. I'm writing this because, while it's much more complicated to get into the element of choice, I believe that it's inaccurate to say that… Continue reading Is Suicide a Choice? (Regardless, It’s Not Selfish)
The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook by Kathryn Hope Gordon aims to support people experiencing thoughts of suicide to help manage their emotional pain, drawing on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) strategies. The book begins by guiding the reader through worksheets to reflect on reactions to the suicidal thoughts and identify risk factors and elements in the environment… Continue reading Book Review: The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook
For Pride Month, I wanted to talk about an important mental health issue facing LGBTQ+ youth. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among North American youth, and the level of risk is even higher in LGBTQ+ youth. That's not good. Stats Here are a few stats for LGBT youth: LGB youth attempt suicide 5x… Continue reading Suicide Risk Among LGBTQ+ Youth – A Pride Month Post
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. It's also National Suicide Prevention Week and National Suicide Prevention Month (that's a lot of awareness!). I thought it would be a good time to talk about suicide attempt survivors. The term "suicide survivor" isn't generally used for people who've lived through suicide attempts. Rather, it's the term used… Continue reading Suicide Attempt Survivors: Yes, We Do Exist
Let's say you're scrolling through your Twitter feed. You see a tweet that makes it seem like that person intends to imminently act on suicidal thoughts. What do you do? Unfortunately, there isn't really a good answer. I've been on the reporting side on one occasion. Someone had posted on their blog, which was shared… Continue reading Suicidal Posts on Social Media: What Should Platforms Do?
A blogger I knew died by suicide yesterday. She scheduled a blog post and a Twitter share of the post to go live after the fact. One of the things mentioned in her post was that her plan was to be struck by a train. Today I was looking at the Twitter comments in response… Continue reading Guilt Is Not a Suicide Prevention Strategy
Today is World Mental Health Day (the 27th annual), and this year's focus is on mental health promotion and suicide prevention. Suicide awareness is a big part of this. The message from the president of the World Federation for Mental Health, which organizes World Mental Health Day, states: "The object of making suicide prevention the… Continue reading Suicide Awareness Isn’t Enough for Prevention
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. There are many ways to approach the concept of suicide prevention. One of those ways is to decrease the stigma related to suicidality, because stigma tends to promote silence, and silence is definitely not a good thing when it comes to suicidality. One stigmatized belief that I see frequently expressed… Continue reading No, Suicide Is Not Selfish
I first learned about the concept of cognitive deconstruction when I reviewed Jesse Bering's book Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves. He wrote about it as a process of narrowed thinking that can occur leading up to a suicide attempt. What cognitive deconstruction is The American Psychological Association defines cognitive deconstruction as: ... a mental state… Continue reading Cognitive Deconstruction and the Lead-Up to Suicide