Understanding Mental Health
Understanding the Problem of Suicide
Caring for Your Mental Health
How to Get or Give Help
Grieving After Suicide
Understanding Mental Health
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), about one in four adults in the United States experience a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. This translates to 57.7 million people and doesn’t include the number of children and young persons under age 18 with mental disorders. Everyone likely knows someone who has a mental disorder. Severe mental disorders only make up about 6 percent or 1 in 17 Americans.
All physical disorders need and deserve early detection and treatment. However, there is a real stigma associated with mental health, which creates barriers to getting help. Barriers include the stigma itself, insurance coverage or lack there of, access to care, shortage of psychiatrists, etc.
The news that needs to be shared is that mental disorders are highly treatable-often times with better outcomes than for other disease states. A combination of talk therapy and medication has been shown to get the best results.
Understanding the Problem of SuicideEach year in the United States over 32,000 people die from suicide. The latest data indicates that 32,637 Americans took their own lives in 2005. More people die each year in the U.S. by suicide than by homicide, and almost twice the number from HIV/Aids. Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death for adults age 18 to 65, the 3rd leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds, and the 2nd leading cause of death for college students. About 90% of people who die by suicide had a diagnosable mental disorder.
Even harder to measure are the number of suicide attempts made each year. It is estimated that there are over 1 million attempts each year—about one every minute.
Suicide and suicidal behavior take an enormous toll on families, friends, classmates, co-workers and communities. For each person who dies by suicide at least an additional six people are intimately affected. People who have lost someone to suicide are often referred to as “survivors” and benefit from grief counseling specific to their suicide loss.
60% of the population will know someone who dies by suicide. 20% will experience this in our immediate family. Everyone is at risk—suicide crosses all races, creeds, financial status, etc. No one is immune.
Important to note is that prevention may just be a caring person being available at the right time and place.
Risk Factors:- Desperation
- Hopelessness
- Anxiety
- Aggressiveness or Impulsiveness
- Has a plan
- Recent hospitalization for depression
- Major physical illness
- Chronic physical pain
- Family history of death by suicide
- History of trauma or abuse
- Drinking or drug use
- Male
- Being over 65
- White
- Separated
- Living alone
- Unemployed or retired
- Health occupations are higher
Things to look for:
- Low mood
- Pessimism
- Hopelessness
- Desperation
- Anxiety
- Withdrawal
- Sleep problems
- Increased Alcohol or drug use
- Recent impulsiveness or taking unnecessary risks
- Talk of suicide or wish to die
- Making a plan
Caring for Your Mental Health
An important part of caring for your mental health is being aware of your overall health. Pay attention to any and all symptoms you are feeling. It is best to see your primary care physician if you think you might be having any type of physical problem.
Stress certainly plays a role in caring for your mental health. High levels of stress weaken your immune system, can change the chemical make up of the brain, and create a variety of other physical symptoms. One of the first ways to conquer stress is to recognize it is there! Once you know it is there you can begin to find alternative solutions leaving you a healthier you. Mental Health America suggests setting manageable goals, being efficient with your time, asking and creating flexibility, turning off PDA’s and cell phones, allowing yourself breaks, etc.
Eating right and getting enough rest help you to face the challenges of daily life. If you find that you are eating to cope with stress or that your sleeping schedule is not what is recommended, those are both key indicators that something needs to be adjusted. Sometimes it is difficult to make adjustments on your own, so a physician or therapist might be needed.
Exercise helps change the endorphins being released from the brain. Getting active can include anything from riding a bike to taking a walk. Just getting up and moving can sometimes be a challenge but you’ll quickly find it has numerous benefits.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. You wouldn’t be afraid to ask for help if you had heart disease, would you?
How to Get or Give HelpIf you need immediate help, call the national lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK. A trained professional will be able to assist you whether you need help or you are trying to help someone else.
3 Steps to Helping:- Show you care- take all talk of suicide seriously
- Ask about suicide-be direct but non-confrontational- be genuine-talk about feelings
- Get help
1-800-273 TALK (National Lifeline)
Attend support groups for you or for your loved one. There are many groups that cost absolutely nothing and are right in your community. A comprehensive of groups in the local community can be found at www.mentalhealthassn.org. Groups specific to suicide can be found at www.afsp.org.
Grieving After SuicideGrieving after suicide is unlike any other form of grief—the unanswered questions, the shock, and a wide variety of other feelings take control. The first weeks and months people often operate in “survival mode” and just do what they need to in order to make it through each day. Eventually the grief surfaces at the point where you are forced to work with it and through it.
Grief works differently for everyone. It is important to understand and acknowledge that people will manage their grief in different ways and on different time schedules. Learning more about the grief process may provide insight on how get through it.
The grief cycle, as identified in the chart below, can look much like a roller coaster or the waves crashing in on a beach.
The grief cycle comes from the work of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross, a physician who studied death and dying and authored the book On Death and Dying. She taught about the different phases people experience related to death or significant loss and about how it was possible to get stuck, move backward, or spend years on just one part. Further explanation of each stage is noted below:
Shock- initial feelings at hearing the news
Denial- trying to avoid the unavoidable
Anger- Frustrated outpouring of bottled up emotion
Bargaining-seeking in vain for a way out
Depression- final realization of the unavoidable
Acceptance- finally finding the way forward
There are many supports that survivors can utilize to get through this process. Many survivors report feeling better equipped to manage their grief by attending support groups. Others seek individual counseling or a combination of group work and individual counseling. Others seek no outside support and may turn to collecting data on the Internet to help sort things out. There is no right or wrong way to manage, however, there survivors should surround themselves with as many supports as possible.