Tag: suicide ideation

Jeremy

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, depression, mood disorders, suicidality

Jeremy

This song is one of Pearl Jam’s greatest hits.

I have enrolled in a study from the UK about mood and depression. It monitors phone activity. For example, according to it’s sensors (GPS on my phone), I walked for 37 mins yesterday. I don’t know how accurate that is because I know that if I did walk continuously for 30 mins, I would be hurting really bad.

Yesterday I had PT. The therapist had me do six different exercises. My foot was so fatigued after doing just one set of ten on each that on the way back to the train station, my ankle exploded in pain. I knew I was in trouble. And my ankle continued to hurt the rest of the day. It is still throbbing but not as bad as it was last night. I had trouble walking down the stairs and had to use my cane to get around the house. Any type of pressure or weight I put on it, just caused me more pain. The PT wants me to do these exercises every day. Well, I will but not today. Today is a day of rest. I had wanted to walk to Walgreens, which is only a couple blocks from my house, but didn’t want to risk being in more pain. I really haven’t left my room except to eat and go to the bathroom. Doing stairs is painful, but not as much as last night.

I also had my therapy appt, which was after my PT session. I am glad I had it in the comfort of my home so I could put my foot up and take my pain medication. Yesterday was a long day. I woke up at 0330 so by 1230, the time for my therapy, I was getting to be toast. We talked about my friend that died, how I knew him and stuff. I think for the first time in a LONG time, I talked almost the entire 50 minutes. My therapist was listening, which in and of itself, is weird because she likes to talk.

I wrote two blogs yesterday and was shocked with the response from one of them. I guess my writing about something dear to me as suicide is a good thing. One of my blog followers commented on it and then reblogged it because it angered her as much as it angered me.

I can’t seem to write today. Just am feeling so down it’s like pulling teeth trying to get the words out. I haven’t been into my game all day. I was trying to find old missions that I could do as I am almost caught up. I have a shit load of crops I got to request to finish the missions I have, which is two pages. The rest are stuff I just need coins for so I can buy the crops. They are expensive so have 3 million coins doesn’t get you very far. I have 29B coins in my bank but you can only withdraw 100K at a time. Wish I knew that before I made such huge deposits, but then, I didn’t think I would need so many coins. There is one crop that helps me build up my account and it’s a short crop, which is good. I don’t have to wait all day for it to harvest.

I seriously want to kill myself one day. I don’t know if it will be this week or this year but I am so tired of “being”. Being in pain the last three days has really soured my mood. All I can think about is death and dying. I really don’t feel like I am making a contribution to anything, like my therapist says I do. I just feel like I am a lump on a log, and a stationary one at that.

more rants on suicide

by Midnight Demon, posted in suicidality, suicide, suicide attempt, suicide attempt survivor

More Rants on Suicide

Have I mentioned how much I love Twitter? It brings me on the front lines of any suicide articles. I recently have two rants that I will discuss that I have read today concerning suicide and suicide prevention.

The first is a Washington Post article about a guy that wrote an email detailing his suicide, to multiple journalists. All he wanted was acknowledgement and validation of his work that he published in the 70s. What did these journalists do? NOTHING. Until it was too late. The author of the article asked “what was she supposed to do”? Answer: TALK TO THE PERSON! This guy waited several hours for a response before he jumped to his death. He was obviously waiting, desperately, for some kind of response to acknowledge his statements. And when he didn’t, he died. He died a needless death because these journalists didn’t take him seriously. The author states she got the email late, and he was in Japan, she was in the states, so went to sleep! Then when she woke up hours later, she decided to pursue the matter. In those precious hours, she could have responded with something, anything. All she had to do was hit reply. A one liner was, in my mind, all that was needed. It angers me that this guy was obviously in distress and was blatantly ignored. I hope this journalist learned her lesson. That suicide intentions of any kind are not to be ignored.

The second piece was about how psychiatrists deal with suicide. In the article, the author found it difficult to find someone to talk to about this. It was not talked about. Also in the article, it mentions her friend, who happened to be hospitalized for severe depression because she kept attempting suicide. Her friend had a therapist, that after she attempted, hung her out to dry. She didn’t want to treat her anymore. So now her friend is without outpatient care. She has not been able to find a therapist to deal with her suicidality. Because once you mention the “S” word, no one wants to deal with you. I have found this out myself. When my therapist permanently located to her current office 30 miles away from and my car broke down, permanently, I tried to find a therapist within a 5 mile radius of my house. I talked to 10 different therapists. ALL referred me to another therapist once they inquired about my suicidality. Because I had and was currently suicidal, they didn’t want anything to do with me. Then when I was able to find someone in my hometown, he was sweating bullets whenever I brought up my suicidality. How was I supposed to talk to him when it was obvious he was scared of losing me? I said fuck that and went back to my current therapist. We have phone conversations and I see her whenever I can borrow my sister’s car.

This article cited sources from the AAS and Dr. Paul Quinnett, two of my favorite sources. I commented on the article because it was dear to me. I know first hand the stigma around mental health professionals when a patient dies by suicide. I have read countless articles about it. It is a very difficult topic. And once a patient dies by suicide, it scars the practitioner for life. I have had many discussions with my therapist about what would she do if I died. She couldn’t fathom it, nor talk about it. I once brought her an article about what to do if I should die. She rejected it. And this is from someone who welcomes everything I bring her and hoards what I give her. I wanted her to know there were resources out there to help. She wanted no part of it. And this article highlighted that. Most professionals that lose a patient to suicide are alone, but they don’t need to be. As survivor resources that the AAS provides become more widely known, therapists are being helped by their peers and healing can occur.

Random 743

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, chronic physical pain, depression

Had therapy today. About 40 mins in, I didn’t want to talk anymore. I get bored easily in therapy. Sometimes I can talk through, no problem. But other times, it’s like pulling teeth trying to come up with conversation. Luckily, my therapist asked some questions so the last ten minutes flew. We talked about my blogs that I sent her. She said she doesn’t know how I write on serious topics so well. I had sent her my Zero suicide and my Twitter rant. The Twitter rant was just a bunch of my tweets strung together to make a paragraph. I just rambled on Twitter one morning because I felt like I had to get things off my chest.

The zero suicide blog was again, something to get off my chest. I didn’t think it was that great but my therapist thought so. She said my writing is getting better. I guess writing every day does that to you.

I got another migraine today, this one not as bad as yesterday. I didn’t go out today because my bowels were unpredictable. And I would have to shower. I don’t feel like showering. I will have to sometime tonight or tomorrow morning as I have PT. My ankle is still smarting so I haven’t done any exercises. I tried doing the rolling ankle and it hurt too much. I wish I knew what I did to cause this damn flare up. But I was just sitting, watching the football game, when the pain started. Drives me up a damn wall. If I don’t have a pain syndrome, I must be losing my mind.

So there has been some problems with my royalties from other countries. I don’t understand what the problem is as there was GBP deposited into my account a few months ago, but yet the Canadian dollar cannot be processed. This was from August and I am just receiving notification of it now. I called my bank and found out that only USD can be deposited into my account. But that is what IS being deposited. And don’t they have the currency exchanged?? I changed banks so I am hoping that solves the problem. If not, I am not sure what I am going to do. My writing partner is baffled because she has had deposits from Australia in her bank with no problem. I hope that I don’t have to open an international checking account just for my royalties. It will suck because I never know how many books are going to sell in a month. Because of this mishap, I no longer can use my other checking account like I have. I will have to transfer money from my current account to the other. Which is a pain because it takes 5 business days to complete the transfer. This is the problem of being an author, an international one at that!

Ankle is starting to throb again. I just realized that I have to request my pain medication soon. I am glad I don’t have to have an office visit again until next month. That gives me some time to try and lose a few pounds. I have been trying but it’s been hard with this depression lingering over me and craving sweets, which have been abundant with the holidays. I just finished the last of the sugar cookies my niece made before she went back to college. College. My little baby is in college. I don’t know where the last 19 years have gone. She was a preemie and now is an adult. A smart adult. Going to college.

Zero Suicide

by Midnight Demon, posted in psychache, suicidality, suicide, suicide attempt

Zero Suicide

For most of the day, I have been reading on Twitter, “Zero Suicide”. While I believe in decreasing the suicide rate, I don’t ever think there will be zero suicide in any population, in any country of the world. In the words of the father of suicidology, Edwin Shneidman, he stated before his death, “well how many suicides do you want, and I say I don’t want any, but I want there to be the freedom to do it. So there is a morality. I study suicide but I am not pro-suicide. I am for suicide prevention”. That to me, sums up the notion there can never be zero suicide. To think that one day there can be, is just foolish. Now to prevent suicide, that is another ball game. I believe that there should be every effort to prevent a suicide from happening. But to do that, you will have to do quite a few things. Suicide must be talked about like cancer is talked about. Cancer was once considered taboo. People thought if you talked about it, you could get it. So it is with suicide, that talking about it will lead to someone taking their life. This is a myth. The next is that if you are suicidal, you will be forever. As Shneidman has explained, suicide is a time limited event. It doesn’t last forever. You might, like me, have lingering thoughts of suicide or once your mental pain has decreased, you no longer think about taking your life.

It just angers me when people talk about “zero suicides”. I get the sentiments but I just think it is foolish without serious interventions and preventions out there. Increasing hotlines or having your family doc talk openly about it. All that is needed is usually an open ear. Increasing services rather than taking them away. Decrease wait times for call back services or for psychiatric crisis teams. If there were more people who actually had help that was available to them rather than waiting months for an appointment, there definitely will be less suicides, possibly. This has to be more than words on a sheet of paper. I once heard of a case in the UK that a woman was waiting desperately for a callback from their crisis team, for days. She was begging them for hospitalization. They denied it or there wasn’t a bed available so she ended up killing herself. Her daughter was left to deal with the aftermath. I know things like this happen in the US as well. My friend’s daughter was once in the ER for days before there was a bed available at a psych hospital/unit.

I just think that if more mental health professionals dealt with suicidal people rather than pawn them off to hospitals, there might be less suicides. I am not saying that is the answer to every case, but if outpatient services are afraid of suicide, how is the client supposed to trust them?