Category: Suicide

Shirley Ramsey tells her story

My dear friend and co-facilitator for RVA Survivors of Suicide Loss Group tell her story on this podcast. Shirley started the Virginia chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. She has stepped down from that role although she is still on the board and serves as head of Loss & Healing.

She lost a son to suicide, Jackson at 15, her mother, her uncle, her nephew, and her grandmother. And yet she has found a way to move forward, give back, and be at the forefront of this conversation. It will be worth your time.

Imagine living with a
… Read more...

In April 2020, my life almost came to a halt

by Jessica Donovan Amend

Sitting in my bathroom, with my then fiancé asleep in our bedroom just a few feet away, I sat with tears streaming down my face. I literally fell to my knees praying that God would help me figure this out, help me through this agony that I felt so deeply in my soul.

Now I’m not going to say that YOU need to believe in God and I’m also not going to say that I know anything for certain, but what I do know is that this night, God showed up for me. That night I … Read more...

Book number two manuscript sent

The first draft is done and sent to the publisher, Jossey Bass, a division of Wiley Publishing. And it’s now with the editor and will be sent out for peer review. I’ll get it back some time in January and have one more edit. I’m not sure what to expect. Will I be the one to merge all the comments from the reviewers?

Kim O’Brien Ph.D. and I interviewed over thirty experts, school counselors, teachers, students, and principals. And we included data from Kim’s studies and comments from mine. I didn’t realize I had so much data on this blog, … Read more...

You’ve helped me give away 63 books

It all started with Ryan. He is a young man, a student, studying in the funeral director’s track and had lost his dad. While I have donated books, it’s usually in person at events and I can’t afford to lose money on it. Buying my own books and then shipping them gets costly. But it got me to thinking.

How many who were not able to afford it right now, want it? I figured no one would be interested in gifting someone else a book or getting one. I don’t know why. And I feel awful for underestimating your generosity … Read more...

How do you help someone who doesn’t want help?

We want our loved ones to go to therapy, rehab, take their medication or do their follow-up. But many times, those who struggle with behavioral health, whether mental illness, addiction, or both, don’t always want to comply with treatment.

What’s more, teens doing drugs want even less to do with healthcare because they have “all-natural” solutions to the pain they are enduring. Never mind that they often move to synthetic or “unnatural” remedies along the way.

The point is, they don’t want to listen to you. And you may not have the relationship now to get them to accept treatment … Read more...

Christian Suicide Prevention Summit

Cyber Monday!

Monday, November 30, 2020

This starts at 9am PST/12pm EST

I speak at 1:20 pm on the subject of, “How can I help a loved one who doesn’t want help?” All talks are thirty minutes each.

No cost

Speakers: Tom Ziglar, Tracey Mitchell, Brian Bogert, Heather Peidrahita, Anne Moss Rogers (me).

REGISTER
What to look for in a mental health speaker
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Dining Room Table

by Jon Farrow

I’m sitting across from my Dad at his dining room table. It’s a cheap knock off table. The kind made to look like wood. My Dad sipping on his fifth or sixth beer. At this point, I’ve lost count. I had just explained to him all the things I’ve done to survive to reach this moment. I sit there staring into his glassy bloodshot eyes. A small look of disgust resting on his face. He says to me, “Why did you do all of that?” The only reply I had to give was, “I didn’t have a … Read more...

Won Finalist in the 2020 Best Book Awards

Diary of a Broken Mind is an Award-Winning Finalist in the Health: Addiction & Recovery category of the 2020 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest.

The book listing is live on AmericanBookFest.com and will remain active for an additional ten months.

Thank all of you for buying the book, for leaving reviews at Good Reads, Barnes& Nobles, and Amazon. They mean a lot. If you know someone who has lost a child to addiction or suicide, someone who has a child who is currently suffering from those, or a young adult who would like to see the perspective … Read more...

Is suicide a choice?

At first, I thought it was a choice. Those who do see it as a choice, take it personally when someone suicides. And when you look at it from that simplistic point of view, that can seem like a betrayal of our love.

Part of my grief meant educating myself about suicide. To take it apart piece by piece, throw away the myths, and really understand it. In that journey, I also needed to understand depression and addiction and how all of it fit together. As I read my son’s lyrics, I saw page after page about how much he … Read more...

I lost my brother Matt to suicide ten years ago

by Shannon Geary Weisleder

Strong emotional content and suicide method referenced. If you are in crisis, text “help” to 741-741 or call 988

Ten years seems like a long time – a decade – but at the same time just yesterday, too. Ten years ago January 12, I lost my big brother to suicide. He was 41. I was 38. I had three young boys and he had five children – four boys and a girl.

It was a Sunday morning and I was eating breakfast and reading the paper

My mom called and was worried she couldn’t reach Matt. … Read more...

EP39: RESCUE RUN (P3): Erin Ivie – Executive Director of SpeakUp ReachOut

I was in Colorado in late August as the keynote speaker for SpeakUp Reach Out for their annual walk and butterfly launch. It was an incredible event and a beautiful day and I met Alex Minting there who was very dedicated to the cause of suicide prevention.

He has just started a podcast called the Builder’s Journey. In this episode, the executive director, Erin Ivie talks about how she started as executive director and what the organization is doing locally. The ladder metaphor is incredible. And they do talk about my book and I appreciate Alex mentioning that and … Read more...

Transitions that challenge student mental health

Whether it’s spring break, back to school, or the holiday break, I just wanted parents and teachers to know that transitions are moments of intense stress for students and can be danger zones for suicide risk. And that mini-transition from school to home for the holidays can be a period of distress.

You might not be aware that your child is vulnerable. I didn’t. Most don’t until it happens. In writing my second book, Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Suicide Prevention and Recognizing Students at Risk, we interviewed Dr. Victor Schwartz, Former CMO of The Jed Foundation, who … Read more...

Finding hope after losing loved ones to suicide

by Joyce

finding hope
Finding hope after a suicide loss

In 2015, I lost my brother, Doug to suicide. 

It was a very complicated relationship.  He was verbally and physically abusive to me when we were growing up.  He needed help so badly but he didn’t ask for it and “handled things on his own.” I felt so much anger, maybe even rage at times.  I don’t know where all this anger came from.

Then, on June 23, 2018, I lost my husband to suicide as well.  I felt totally numb and in shock.  I know that there’s a lot of anger … Read more...

We need to get our kids back to school

Before you draw out your swords and muskets, hear me out. Starting in June, a record number of young people started posting comments on articles and reaching out to me. I used to reply to about 5-9 messages per week from youth struggling with thoughts of suicide. Since June of this year, it’s about five per day.

What are they looking up? They are searching for specific ways to die, how to write a suicide note, and how to tell someone they are thinking of suicide. So they are coming here to this website, on a video I have on … Read more...