Search results for: "suicide"

What Does It Mean to Be a Mental Health Advocate?

[…] as a single parent. Your grades will drop. You will actually get into academic probation. You will get very depressed and start doing drugs. You will attempt suicide a few times, but this will to receiving help. You start to see a therapist. You stop doing drugs. You start to get your grades back […]

Embracing the Diversity Within Us

[…] One Piece “We cannot separate the importance of a sense of belonging from our physical and mental health.” Lacking a sense of belonging can lead to depression, anxiety and suicide. One study of people living with schizophrenia found that a sense of belonging was vital, yet they more frequently felt isolated and/or like they didn’t belong. Even the smallest social […]

The Importance of LGBTQ Inner-Equality

[…] problems.” The article specifically highlights how the shame associated with social stigma is directly connected to the LGBT community’s “higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance use and suicide than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts.”   It doesn’t matter how “out” an LGBTQ person is, internalized shame can still affect someone if they don’t keep […]

How Students Changed the Law to Allow Mental Health Days

[…] formed Students for a Healthy Oregon. Together, we wrote our first bill concept, HB 2191, or “Chloe’s Law,” in memory of an Oregon student who died by suicide (also referred to as the “Student Mental Health Days Bill”). After creating the bill, our group appeared before the House Education Committee at the Oregon State […]

The Importance of Accepting Help

[…] leave it in a different room. I took my drinks everywhere I went.   At one point I had been brought to the hospital after I attempted suicide. I didn’t trust the doctors that were treating me. I just wanted to get out of the hospital and said whatever it took to make that […]

What People with Mental Illness Want You to Know

[…] lucky enough to find peace with their disorder, potentially including a medication regimen that works for them. Others never find solace, and many are unfortunately lost to suicide. But I feel there is always hope, especially when communities understand what the world is like when you have mental illness. My own world changed drastically […]

Four Reasons Why I Vote for Mental Health

[…] lives of others. Here are four reasons why I #Vote4MentalHealth.   1. It’s Personal My son, Gabriel, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age nineteen and died by suicide just before his thirty-ninth birthday. His life would undoubtedly have been much shorter and less productive without government and organizational support. With the help of Social […]

Impacting Mental Health Resources with Your Vote

[…] that improve Medicaid and Medicare eligibility and coverage, decrease medication costs and increase the availability of mental health services. They can represent your voice on issues like suicide prevention, crisis response, long term care, scientific research and access to inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment. You can influence what services are available for those […]

Why We Need Responsible Representation in the Film Industry

[…] psychotic ex-boyfriends I should know about?” Of course, this isn’t the only time that “psychotic” is used as a casual insult in films. In the movie “ Suicide Squad,” a crew of dangerous criminals is scathingly referred to as “psychotic, anti-social freaks.” In “Batman Vs. Superman,” Lois Lane tells villain Lex Luthor, “you’re psychotic,” […]

Why I Embrace 12-Step Principles as a Therapist

[…] journey. The Steps provide a roadmap and direction, but the spiritual principles give that journey a soul.   Randy Withers, MA, NCC, LCMHC, is a therapist and author of Therapists Share Their Thoughts on Suicide. He earned his Master’s degree in Counseling from Lenoir-Rhyne University and is the Founder of Blunt Therapy, a blog about mental health.