Stigma kills.
Words matter.
Knowledge is power.
Through education and conversation we CAN change how the world views mental illness and suicide. Will you start by sharing this and helping others learn why every word matters?… Read more...
Category: Suicide
I Am Not Mental Illness Ashamed (M.I.A.)
Trigger Warning: Strong emotional content and suicide method referenced. If you are in crisis, text “help” to 741-741 or call 988
by Dave Snell
About five years ago I read a speech Wil Wheaton gave concerning his dealings with Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety. More importantly, it was about how he is not ashamed of admitting that he lives with those diagnoses. What troubled me though was he only focused on a couple of particular types of mental illness. Like cancer, there are many types of mental illness, but we seem to focus on a few of them. I have … Read more...
The Ten Psychiatric Ward Stays in Fourteen Years
shared by guest author, Kevin Hines
An excerpt from CHAPTER 6 of Kevin Hines’ NEW book:
THE ART OF BEING BROKEN, HOW STORYTELLING SAVES LIVES
My first three psychiatric hospital stays were involuntary.
I was forced in against my will. However, the last seven stays up until 2019 were voluntary. I walked into the emergency rooms, head held high, turned to the intake nurse (with a loved one present) and said, “I need to be here, or I won’t be here. I am thinking of suicide.” Each stay was vastly different while simultaneously feeling the same. The difference festered … Read more...
Best of the Emotionally Naked Blog: Find what you need
This website is part of MentalHealthAwarenessEducation.com and was started in 2016 as a blog of over 2k blog posts of my grief journey after losing my son, Charles, to suicide.
This page is a guide for those who want to find specific information for themselves, a friend, or a loved one since there is so much here and hard to find.
Use this menu to jump to the right section:
Suicide | Grief | Addiction | Mental Health | Charles
Mercy was my support dog for recovery and two losses by suicide
by Andrea Giannini
My name is Andrea and I am an addict in recovery. My addictions were speed, narcotics, and alcohol. Because of my addictions, I’ve lost friends, significant others, housing, and my dignity. But since getting clean and sober, I have gained family, home, companions, and Mercy.
My mother gave me this rescue pitbull puppy which was named Angel. After realizing that the rescue dog rescued me, I renamed her Mercy.
Mercy came to me just 2 days after I became free from addiction
My clean/sober date is January 29, 2014, and I received Mercy on … Read more...
Charles’s 28th Birthday, April 26, 2023. Year 8 since his death.
Late last year, I spoke to a class of high school students locally. The teacher said she had been a friend of Charles’s which shocked me. How did she get to be the teacher? Wasn’t she too young? I couldn’t speak for a few seconds. The teacher even shared old pictures I had not seen.
You see I have Charles frozen at age 20.
All those who went to school with him are kind of frozen in my mind, too. I do see his friends, I get that they’ve graduated from college, some have married and his best friend had … Read more...
The day my naïveté left me stranded
Almost everyone can mark the day their innocence walked out the door and harsh reality took its place. It’s that day when your vision of what the world is, where it’s going, and how you are moving through it changes course. Can you remember yours?
Awareness had been stalking me for weeks but had successfully been shoved out of the spotlight by denial, leaving it panting at the periphery of my conscience, anxious to break in and give me news I didn’t want to hear.
My naive mind didn’t want the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place but … Read more...
Podcast: You’re Living to Prevent Suicide, What Now?” with Anne Moss Rogers
In this episode, Marci Nettles and Anne Moss Rogers have a conversation about Suicide, losing a loved one to suicide, and HOW to travel through the grief with the pain.
Anne Moss shares her personal story of losing her younger son, Charles, to suicide and the aftermath for herself and her family… How she turned this Tragedy into a Triumphant Purpose in Living to Prevent Suicide. Other mental health podcasts Anne Moss has been on for grief, addiction, mental health, coping are here.
Find this podcast on:
My child has been suicidal. What do I do now?
A what to do, what to say guide for caregivers.
Click here for the eBook: My Child Has Been Suicidal. What do I do Now?
This free 20-page eBook is for a parent, guardian, foster parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc. It focuses on how you manage the conversations and turmoil of emotions you are experiencing after a child you love has confessed he is suicidal, has attempted suicide, or is coming home after an inpatient hospital stay for suicide risk or attempt. How you react and support does help. Find … Read more...
Talk About Suicide with Your Family to Save Lives
Explore Two Important Questions for Suicide Prevention
Let’s face it, when it comes to communicating with your kids, you’d probably rather talk about sex than suicide. But as a mom who lost a son to suicide in 2015, it’s a conversation you need to have with a young person – even if everything looks okay on the outside.
My son Charles was the funniest, most popular kid in school and the last person you’d ever expect to take his life. When I looked back later after learning more, I saw obvious signs … Read more...
I Quit! I’m done….
There are many times I feel insignificant. Like I just don’t matter or no one hears me or sees me. Have you felt that way?
I’ve recognized that the digital world seems to foster that feeling more often so I’ve learned how to manage it and what to do.
This YouTube short is all of 39 seconds. My YouTube #shorts channel.
Let me know what you think. 🙂
Depression has many faces. What are the signs?
We are often conditioned to look for the sad person when we think of depression. The above picture is what I saw, a happy-go-lucky kid with a revolving door of friends. When we finally got a depression diagnosis for Charles after a psychological evaluation I was shocked. I had thought about it but he did not seem to fit the criteria I had been reading. People rarely do.
Charles would live with untreated depression, become addicted to heroin and die by suicide.
Men who live with depression are often irritable and angry during a depressive … Read more...
Lisa’s story. You really can stop suicide with your ears.
I told the story about Leo. Now it’s Lisa’s turn.
This one has a whole different outcome, one that still has me in deep reflection months later. It wasn’t without twists and turns. It would be my stomach and my heart that took that journey.
… Read more...Lisa: “Hey, im a 16 year old girl, im done living it’s too hard, and I don’t just want the pain to end i wanna die im so tired of being here. im planning on doing it this week. before you tell something ive already heard like ” it will get better ”
Loving Someone With Suicidal Thoughts Webinar
If you or someone you love is in crisis, call the suicide prevention lifeline at 988 or text the crisis text line at 741-741.
Anne Moss Rogers interviews Stacey Freedenthal PhD, LCSW in this webinar Q&A style. At the end, we answered audience questions.
If you want to see the questions and pick and choose which parts you want to hear, go to go to YouTube and the “chapters” are laid out.
- Visit the video here
- Click the description and you’ll see the time stamps next to the questions
- Click the time stamps (the numbers like 28:30) and it will
Leo, the French kid
When I first messaged Leo, he revealed only an “L.” He first landed on this blog from a google search on how to kill himself. He was filled with despair and claimed he needed to get on the bus.
I had not ever heard anyone put it that way. I wonder now if it’s a French saying. In short, Leo was suicidal. For the record, my blog has never offered instructions on how to die but I do offer a listening ear and resources for those who want them.
It was a couple of weeks before I would figure … Read more...