For World Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Day (WSPD) and as well for World Men­tal Health Day (WMHD Oc­to­ber 10), both lead in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions have con­sol­i­dat­ed their ad­vo­ca­cy un­der one theme: Work­ing To­geth­er to Pre­vent Sui­cide.

Sep­tem­ber 10, an­nu­al­ly marks WSPD, which pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty to raise aware­ness of sui­cide pre­ven­tion. This day is or­gan­ised by the In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion for Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion (IASP) and has wide­spread sup­port by every in­ter­na­tion­al agency in­volved in health ad­vo­ca­cy.

The World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) in their sup­port says, “On World Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Day, we are launch­ing a ‘40 sec­onds of ac­tion’ cam­paign to raise aware­ness of the scale of sui­cide around the world and the role that each of us can play to help pre­vent it. WHO says every 40 sec­onds a per­son some­where in the world dies by sui­cide and that world­wide, sui­cide ac­counts for close to one mil­lion deaths an­nu­al­ly.

To­day’s fea­ture pro­vides sui­cide pre­ven­tion re­sources from var­ied sources.

Help Guide (helpguide.org) ex­plains sui­cide best say­ing, “Sui­cide is a des­per­ate at­tempt to es­cape suf­fer­ing that has be­come un­bear­able. Blind­ed by feel­ings of self-loathing, hope­less­ness, and iso­la­tion, a sui­ci­dal per­son can’t see any way of find­ing re­lief ex­cept through death. But de­spite their de­sire for the pain to stop, most sui­ci­dal peo­ple are deeply con­flict­ed about end­ing their own lives. They wish there was an al­ter­na­tive to sui­cide, but they just can’t see one.”

This is not the way we have been taught tra­di­tion­al­ly to un­der­stand sui­cide. Here helpguide.org presents some myths about the sub­ject.

Com­mon mis­con­cep­tions about sui­cide:

(i) Myth: Peo­ple who talk about sui­cide won’t re­al­ly do it.

Fact: Al­most every­one who at­tempts sui­cide has giv­en some clue or warn­ing. Do not ig­nore even in­di­rect ref­er­ences to death or sui­cide. State­ments like “You’ll be sor­ry when I’m gone,” “I can’t see any way out,”—no mat­ter how ca­su­al­ly or jok­ing­ly said—may in­di­cate se­ri­ous sui­ci­dal feel­ings.

(ii) Myth: Any­one who tries to kill him/her­self must be crazy.

Fact: Most sui­ci­dal peo­ple are not psy­chot­ic or in­sane. They are up­set, grief-strick­en, de­pressed or de­spair­ing, but ex­treme dis­tress and emo­tion­al pain are not nec­es­sar­i­ly signs of men­tal ill­ness.

(iii) Myth: If a per­son is de­ter­mined to kill him/her­self, noth­ing is go­ing to stop them.

Fact: Even the most se­vere­ly de­pressed per­son has mixed feel­ings about death, wa­ver­ing un­til the very last mo­ment be­tween want­i­ng to live and want­i­ng to die. Most sui­ci­dal peo­ple do not want death; they want the pain to stop.

(iv) Myth: Peo­ple who die by sui­cide are peo­ple who were un­will­ing to seek help.

Fact: Stud­ies of sui­cide vic­tims have shown that more than half had sought med­ical help in the six months pri­or to their deaths.

(v) Myth: Talk­ing about sui­cide may give some­one the idea.

Fact: You don’t give a sui­ci­dal per­son mor­bid ideas by talk­ing about sui­cide. The op­po­site is true—bring­ing up the sub­ject of sui­cide and dis­cussing it open­ly is one of the most help­ful things you can do. (Orig­i­nal Source: SAVE—Sui­cide Aware­ness Voic­es of Ed­u­ca­tion) The Min­istry of Health T&T (http://www.health.gov.tt) of­fers these guide­lines for ap­proach­ing some­one who may be ideat­ing:

1. Ask a ques­tion if you are wor­ried. Do not be afraid to ask some­one if they are con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide if you have no­ticed two or more of the fol­low­ing:

• A re­cent sig­nif­i­cant cri­sis or loss in the life of the in­di­vid­ual

• Pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with themes of death or ex­press­ing sui­ci­dal thoughts

• Symp­toms of de­pres­sion, ad­just­ment chal­lenges, and the abuse of sub­stances

• With­draw­al from friends and fam­i­ly and loss of in­ter­est in hob­bies and group ac­tiv­i­ties

• Lin­ger­ing ex­pres­sions of un­wor­thi­ness or fail­ure

• Dras­tic per­son­al­i­ty changes such as out­bursts of anger, ap­a­thy, reck­less­ness, or im­pul­sive be­hav­iour

• Ma­jor dis­tur­bances in sleep and eat­ing habits: ex­ces­sive­ly or too lit­tle

2. Lis­ten. Let the sui­ci­dal per­son share their ex­pe­ri­ence and feel­ings. It may feel un­com­fort­able but de­spite how neg­a­tive the con­ver­sa­tion may seem, the fact that it ex­ists is a pos­i­tive sign. Be mind­ful of how you lis­ten. Be pa­tient and non-judge­men­tal. Give your full at­ten­tion and show con­cern. Be aware of your non-ver­bal re­ac­tions. Try to be un­der­stand­ing of the per­son’s pain.

3. Do not ar­gue with the sui­ci­dal per­son. Avoid say­ing things like: “You have so much to live for,” “Your sui­cide will hurt your fam­i­ly,” or “Look on the bright side.”

Do not of­fer ways to fix their prob­lems, or give ad­vice, or make them feel like they have to jus­ti­fy their sui­ci­dal feel­ings. It is not about how bad the prob­lem is, but how bad­ly it’s hurt­ing your friend or loved one.

Hash­tags: #World­Sui­cide­Pre­ven­tion­Day #Sui­cide­Pre­ven­tion #WSPD2019 #WSPD

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Sui­cide Help Re­sources

LIFE­LINE (24hr hot­line)

Tel: 645 2800

life­line on face­book

ALIVE (sui­cide hot­line)

Tel: 800-5588, 866-5433 and 220-3636

Men­tal Health Unit

(In­for­ma­tion Cen­tre)

Tel: 285-9126 ext. 2577, 2571, 2573 and 2590

Mon­day-Fri­day, 8 am - 4 pm

Emer­gency Care Re­sources

St. Ann’s Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tal

St. Ann’s Road, St. Ann’s

624-1151-5

Men­tal Health Unit

(NCRHA/EWM­SC)

Uri­ah But­ler High­way, Champ Fleurs

645-3232 ext. 2542

San Fer­nan­do

Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, Ward One

In­de­pen­dence Av­enue, San Fer­nan­do

652-3581 ext. 3221