• Sharing – The Emerging Science of Suicide Prevention

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I’m not a researcher but these two facts make me wonder if there’s not something we can do.

    If we have a list of “nudges” that can help people feel like they belong or help educate people about things like safety plans, etc. and we don’t know who is at risk and which nudge might help them, maybe we should just continue to generally be kind to the people around us. That means trying to understand what makes them feel supported, connected, etc., and doing those things consistently. It also means noticing if a “nudge” has the opposite effect, and trying something different instead.

    Help people feel like they belong, educate people about prevention resources, help them stay connected to family and friends, involve them, accept them, etc.

    Help your friends and loved ones by communicating the kinds of things that help you. When you feel disconnected or like you are a burden, what can they do to keep you connected? What things do they do that make it worse?

    When we don’t talk about these things we only make it worse, and we only continue to lose more people. We have to learn how to have these conversations. We have to be open to listening to the people closest to us and connecting to them without stigma and judgment. The researchers will keep working to learn more about prevention, but in the meantime simply caring about each other and being honest with each other is the best tool we have. We should use it.

  • Sharing – Persuading a Loved One to Seek Mental Health Support

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    There are quite a few ideas to consider before you talk to someone you love that I highly encourage you to read. The last thing you want to do is create a situation where they feel judged or stigmatized but it happens more often than it should. (It should never happen, we aren’t even close to that.)

    However, there is one thing that I have found really helps whenever someone is talking about their own mental health issues, or feeling embarrassed about considering therapy for themselves and it’s quoted right there in this article:

    “If you’ve gone to therapy, you can share your experiences with them, too. It can help to let them know they aren’t alone in seeking help. “

  • Sharing – Why Is It So Hard to Explain Mental Illness?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 3 minutes

    In 2022 we could say the same thing about “sad” but I would argue that we see the same thing even more so with the word “anxious” or “having anxiety”.

    Of course, with a war going on in Ukraine, two years’ worth of pandemic, political turmoil, and everything else we see when we tune into whatever news source we follow, almost everyone would consider themselves anxious, so how do we differentiate between being anxious about the state of the world, and the kind of anxiety where we are consistently dealing with panic attacks at the very thought of leaving the house?

    We don’t have a different word for that. We only have anxiety, or panic, which again, just seem like normal reactions to what is going on around us.

    On top of that, when I try and describe my anxiety to someone, even if I can get them to understand that it’s something more than just watching the news and feeling a bit nervous, I can’t really describe it. I don’t understand it. If I did, I might be able to just fix it and be better, but I don’t.

  • Sharing – 11 Things People Wish They Were Told After Someone Dies

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    There were also people who simply weren’t there. People we thought we could depend on, and they just didn’t show up. I have always suspected that many of them simply didn’t know what to say, so they stayed away. What they didn’t realize is that I never needed them to say the right thing, I just needed to know they were there. When they weren’t, it just added more grief.

    Your words are not what’s important. Your words can’t heal someone grieving. But your presence is everything.