Category: Suicide

Charlottesville, VA: Proven system to help with PTSD

For military, veterans, and first responders and other sufferers of PTSD

This is Cynthia, founder of Mitchell Hash Foundation for suicide awareness. Started in honor of my son who served in the military and died by suicide.

Please join us for REBOOT Recovery, starting Aug 2nd for a weekly 6pm-8pm class for 12 weeks at Stony Point Ruritan Club, 2835 Watts Passage, Charlottesville VA 22911.

REBOOT Recovery is a 12-week, faith-based combat trauma healing course designed to address the spiritual and moral wounds of war, helping service members and their families rebuild character, community, and leadership.

Reboot Recovery has 100 … Read more...

Did stigma have anything to do with Charles’ suicide?

When Charles first realized he suffered from depression, stigma drove his decision to never take an antidepressant.

From the beginning, we were pill shamed and later he was shamed for his drug use. Both of us were.

He was punished for having a panic attack with suspension. Then he was punished with a week in detention for using his iPod at lunch one foot past the line that was designated iPod area to manage his anxiety and prevent a panic attack.

It jaded him against the system and drove him towards drug use to manage the feelings. He lost faith … Read more...

Real Life Podcast. Grief from a stigmatized death

This 15 minute podcast focuses on the stigma of Substance Use Disorder and grief over a child lost to this disease.

Or follow this link

The REAL Life Program in Richmond, Virginia was founded in 2016 by Dr. Sarah Scarbrough in response to the growing number of challenges faced by men and women exiting incarceration. Read more on their mission here.

To build awareness of the issues in the Recovery community, they’ve started a podcast and I was honored to be their first guest. This one is hosted by Tim Alexander, a person in recovery and one of … Read more...

Recommended Grief Books for loss by suicide, loss of a child, general grieving books

Updated 6/27/2021-These grief books have been recommended by my tribe here on Emotionally Naked– both men and women. I’ve tried to organize them as best I can.

This email contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, the blog gets a few cents at no extra cost to you. At $5 per month, it’s hardly funding my passion for yachting. 

Table of contents: Click to go to that section.

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Does this look like someone who would kill himself?

58 second video

Link to the video in case it’s not showing up for you. 

On YouTube here. 

We think we can tell. From the outside. The truth is, teenagers are masters at hiding their depression. And their thoughts of suicide.

Nobody was funnier and more engaging. Charles always looked like he was having the time of his life. Yet inside, was another story. Inside he was eaten up with thoughts of suicide from middle school on.

I know because I have some of his rap lyrics that I call his rap diaries. They tell me things I didn’t … Read more...

I’ve never written anything like this

By Shannon G. 


I saw a friend “like” one the blog posts here on addiction and I ended
Your “How To Hang Yourself” post had my heart racing.

I decided I was going to chime in.

I’ve been a mental illness/suicide advocate for a few years now, but I’ve never written anything like this. I just went with it.

Strength is hard to find within yourself when you’ve been depleted of it for so long.  And the sad thing is, you’re the only one who can refill your strength. When you’re so deflated, how are you ever supposed … Read more...

Tom Love tells the story of his sister’s suicide

Close Captioning available when you click the talk bubble button on bottom right. 

Tom Love talks about his family history that included a custody battle after a bitter divorce, his sister who suffered sexual abuse, later used drugs to numb the pain and died by suicide and  his own struggles with depression and his suicide attempts.

When a child suffers trauma like Tom experienced during the years when the brain was still developing, it can have serious repercussions. Tom’s story illustrates how complex family issues and making kids pawns in divorce causes trauma that can often lead to depression, struggles with … Read more...

Evolution of my grief after Charles’ suicide

At first, following anything with more than two steps was impossible.

The grief would surround me and literally take me to the floor where I would try to escape it. Like I could squeeze out of its way or hide from it. The emotional pain was so intense, it hurt physically.

I was not a great driver. I came way too close to having a major accident or causing one. Very close. I did back into a post in a parking lot.

I got lost going to the drug store and had to use the GPS for every single destination … Read more...

On being angry over my dad’s suicide

by Jon Farrow

I woke up at 3:30 AM one night recently from a dream of me standing over my Dad’s casket. It seemed like it was a repeat of my Dad’s final viewing, except this time I was completely alone. The only living person that existed in this scenario was me, my dad’s body, and the room.

When I woke up, I had this feeling I couldn’t really describe. That feeling stuck with me the entire day after. The more I thought about that feeling the more I realized what it actually was.

The feeling I felt was anger

… Read more...

I don’t want to write

It’s good for me. That’s why I do it.

But today, I’m feeling drained and spent since I’ve been working obsessively on my book. I’m trying to decide which quotes fit which chapters and I’m wrestling with which songs to include and which ones to leave out. I think I got it figured out. It’s so hard to decide what to leave out.

But I’m liking the flow of it now. That’s a big one.  My goal is to finish it to the point I feel good about sending it to my first reader this month.

Almost there.

I think … Read more...

Someone found the post I wrote when they needed it

I have noticed that my article on The Mighty,

For the Teen Contemplating Suicide and Looking for the Strength to Reach Out

has gotten ranked on Google for certain search terms related to suicide. And Sam left a comment above.

Sometimes they come to my site and that’s linked to that Mighty article and I imagine many go to the article directly from Google. So in other words, they plug in the words in Google and sometimes land on this article which I linked to The Mighty article.

I like leaving breadcrumbs in the form of links to give … Read more...

Send your selfies!

Model your Emotionally Naked T-shirt so I can add it to my gallery. I want to make some quick videos with the tribe! Like the one below.

Seventeen seconds.

I didn’t get all of you in this round. But I will be making more of these! I’ve been playing with this new toy, Adobe Spark.

Charles and I share this lack of a gift for editing video. Richard got all of it. Randy has never attempted it. (And that’s a good thing.)

Spread the word! Get the conversation going by having the guts to show you are emotionally … Read more...

Richmond Family Magazine: Talk to your kids about suicide

My latest article in Richmond Family Magazine.  Includes recommendations on Season Two of 13 Reasons Why. Please Share!

Richmond Family Magazine

Talking about suicide saves lives. Comprehensive studies by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health have been conducted addressing that point alone. The results are irrefutable and worth repeating: Thoughtful conversation about suicide saves lives.

Although it’s a topic that makes most people uncomfortable, it’s important to understand that talking about suicide does not give someone the idea to attempt it. However, it is widely believed by suicide prevention advocates and experts that romanticizing suicide….

Read and
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How many are googling ways to die after two high profile suicides?

SUICIDE HOTLINE 1-800-273-8255. Text hotline- Text ‘help’ to 741-741.  Virginia crisis resources.
  • June 4 –   68 visitors
  • June 5 –  280 visitors (Kate Spade dies by suicide. Charles’ died on this date, too. 4 times more than the previous day.)
  • June 6 –  412 visitors
  • June 7 –  187 visitors
  • June 8 –  510 visitors (Anthony Bourdain dies by suicide. 7.5 times more than the June 4 numbers.)
  • June 9 –  647 visitors (All time high)
  • June 10 – 433 visitors
  • June 11 – 310 visitors

These are the statistics from when Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain … Read more...

Charles was the coolest and most unique person I have ever met

by Kevin Consolazio

Kevin Consolazio

I remember my first night at the Family School, a therapeutic boarding school I attended in upstate New York and where I first met Charles.  I was very uncomfortable on how I was sent there. My mother had just died and my dad didn’t know what to do with me.

I was skipping school and smoking weed everyday. Fortunately, I heave never used any hard drugs in my life. Charles was in my dorm and made me feel at home. He had a notebook and so did I and he asked if I wrote music … Read more...