Suicide is a major, preventable public health problem.

[ScreamingMeemie]

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml

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In 2007, it was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 34,598 deaths. The overall rate was 11.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people.An estimated 11 attempted suicides occur per every suicide death.

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Suicidal behavior is complex. Some risk factors vary with age, gender, or ethnic group and may occur in combination or change over time.

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I have lost a husband, a father-in-law, a grandfather-in-law, and a cousin. This is an epidemic in my family. It's not funny. It never will be, and together we can work together on this. We can make it so thousands of us are not left behind to wonder why.

[Lars39]

1. I lost a grandfather-in-law also.

Like a ripple, it devastated many families. :(

:hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. ...

:hug:

My job now, is to make sure that the fourth generation never looks at it as a viable option.

[ejpoeta]

2. i've struggled with depression most of my life.

my sister first suggested i go see a doctor. she is bipolar. i went and was sent to a psycho shrink as i refer to him. he told me if i act happy i'll be happy. i got the impression i was just not trying hard enough. I then went on a downward spiral in which i cut myself off from my family and gave all my possessions away. I displayed self destructive behavior feeling like no one would notice if I weren't here anymore. I called it the darkness. I have a whole notebook filled with my dark thoughts. My sister found that notebook when I decided to ride 4 or 5 hours on my bike to my brother's house. I didn't tell anyone where I was going and was gone for three days. She sat up all night with me convincing me to go to the hospital where I was voluntarily admitted for is it a 72 hour hold? no it was probably 48 hours. I thought my family was conspiring against me. I remember sitting at a table with a couple of my siblings and my dad on the other side. they involuntarily admitted me and i was there for a week and a half. in the crazy ward. I was given prozac and eventually came out of the basically despondent place I was.

This is a painful time in my life. I was 22. it was 1995. I had tried to get help and wasn't taken seriously until I ended up in the hospital. I have never let myself get to that point again. It is so dark a place. I just wanted to die. I still have that notebook. It scares the crap out of me. I don't ever want to go back there again. I tend to think I have gotten different treatment depending on if I had insurance or not. I remember when the county mental health clinic refused to see me because I hadn't been able to pay for the last visit. I remember one time I was really bad... I had to leave work and went to the doctor's office and I am confident that if I had had insurance I would have been in the hospital again. They kept me in the office for awhile and made me give them assurances I wouldn't hurt myself.

I do everything I can to prevent getting to a place where such a thing as suicide would be even possible. I have a husband and three kids now who rely on me. And having lost my own mother at the age of 12, I wouldn't think of making my kids go through life without me. My mom died from being sick for several years. She didn't have a choice. I do.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. You are incredible

and I am glad you are here.

I tell my brother in law, who promises me (much like my husband did) that he would never do that to us, to picture my son's face on that day...whenever he thinks it could be an option.

Take care of yourself.

[ejpoeta]

11. thanks. i think the hardest part is when people try to tell you to just snap out of it

or that you just have to try harder. It's easier to spot it now, but when i was younger I honestly thought it was me and I should be able to get myself out of it. There are things you can do that will help. I think of it like I have the logical part of my brain and then the dark part. The logical part knows that my family would miss me, but the darkness tells me I'm nothing and people would be better off without me. Tells me that no one really wants me around. THe darkness grows and overshadows the logical part. Once that happens it is pretty hard to pull yourself back. I pay attention. I get blue. I get sad. But I also know that I have people who will be there to help me if I get too far. And I also know that it will pass if i can just get through the bad days. I wish people would take mental illness seriously and treat it as the illness it is. IT is not just in your head. Until society treats it as such we are going to have people fall through the cracks.

[Iterate]

5. Looks like we've been down similar paths

and I suppose that 35,000 families a year can say the same thing.

You'd think that with so many families there would be a powerful network of support for research and treatment, maybe with a coordinating agency, but I think the case is that it's just so devastating that most families turn inward and think (necessarily) of their own survival. Day by day.

I've looked for research about the causes and about surviving families, but it's all pretty thin and uncoordinated. I've even thought about trying to organize something like that myself, but as you know, sometimes you just have put it away for a while.

You hang in there.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. In my case it is trying to get my family to realize we have a very real

problem here...and to try and keep my son alive. As much as I adored his father (my husband), as much as he can love his daddy... what happened that day was a very wrong thing. While we praise him for the good that he did, and the wonderful life that he gave us, we must also be angry at how it ended. It's about saving my son, and future generations in my family.

[Dappleganger]

6. Grandfather and great-grandfather here.

Numerous attempts by other family members including my own father. Bi-polar and major depression run strong in the family, as well as an innate east-Texan desire to choose your own way out.

On the other hand, I do support those who want to end their life due to complicating health reasons. I used to be very much against it until we pulled the plug on my mother. If a person doesn't want to be a prisoner in their own body they should have the right to end it on their terms.

[seabeyond]

7. here is a twist. ours is a family secret. my mom was getting treated, had threatened

4 a.m. on the 26th of dec she died. my dad told me aneurysm. i didn't believe him. i went down to funeral home and read the report. suicide. in the car in the garage....

13 years and i have never said anything to my father. we dont talk about the "fake" death, but we dont talk about reality either. i told both my brothers. both said, they didn't read the report, so they cant know it was suicide.

this illness out of the blue, hits mom and kills her and we never talk about it...

it is all surreal.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My brother-in-law took his life...

He was suffering from the painful radiation treatments that were supposed to kill his cancer...

Plus he was dependent on other people taking him to the hospital (quite a few miles away) for the radiation treatments.

He was fiercely independent and having to rely on other people, plus the huge body image change (via colostomy) was just too much for him. Plus the pain that apparently was not being adequately addressed.

It came out of the blue; he emailed his brother (my husband) about his sorrow, but by the time my husband called, it was over...

[phasma ex machina]

9. Sorry to hear that Peggy. Some members of my great big dysfunctional extended family suffer from

depression. I always remind such relatives that their family loves them and would miss them terribly. In other words, they need to put the needs of their family to love them first and their depression second.

I'm unsure of the effectiveness of my approach.

[Pavulon]

10. You are 100% correct. Depression and other mood disorders should be treated like cancer

as something that can and will kill you without proper treatment. I am amazed by the lack of care available for most people. Quality mental health care is VERY expensive and community based care can go a very long way to prevent needless loss of life.

[Iterate]

12. k. for all