From Hopes Newsletter...
 

A MESSAGE OF HOPE AND BELIEF

It is often said that people who have lost friends or family members to suicide were touched by their loss. I want you to understand most of us were not touched but we were blasted with the pain and loss of suicide. I lost my brother 20 years ago and it still affects how I live and how my family interacts with others.

After my brothers death I realized that suicide was talked about in hushed voices if anyone talked about it at all. A suicide survivors support group offered me an opportunity to share my feelings and the thoughts that preoccupied my mind. It helped me realize that I had done all that I could at the time with what I knew. What haunted me was what I didn’t know. So I began to learn. I attended conferences throughout the United States. I went back to my life of family and work and did the healing that is important after a suicide. I attended the support group for so long they asked me to be a facilitator. I continued to learn.

Over the last 9 years there has been a survivors (they call people that have lost someone to suicide survivors) movement that includes so many people that are so passionate about making a difference in the world of suicide prevention and we have a dream. It is a vision that I believe you have also.

It is to have a world where people can talk openly about their feelings of suicide and we can get them the help that they need. People will understand that depression, bipolar illness and schizophrenia and substance abuse are illnesses that can be treated, just as we treat cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The warning signs of suicide will be posted in clinics, businesses and at community facilities just as the signs of heart disease were advertised in the past. People will seek treatment and get it. People will learn the signs and symptoms of suicide and will learn how to get people help, just as we learned CPR and are now saving lives each day with that simple technique. People with mental illnesses will be treated with the same respect and compassion as people with cancer receive today. They will have the latest treatments and they will be covered by health insurance. Mental Health Information Centers will become important support and information sources for families and persons who are experiencing a mental illness. Recovery will be understood and planned for.

For the last 2 years we have gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a National Awareness Event with our friends from SPAN (Suicide Prevention Action Network). We have our 6 quilts from WI joined with quilts from all over the country and we continue to read the names of the people that have died. We are moving in our mission but it doesn’t seem fast enough when I meet another sibling who has lost their brother or their sister. I know that they will loose part of their life for the next few years as they attempt to put their own life back together. It is not fast enough when I see a mother and father clinging to one another in grief over the loss of their child. It is not fast enough when I see a family member return to mourn the loss of another family member to suicide.

So we will continue to educate, advocate and believe that together we can make a difference. We will continue to recruit others to educate, advocate and believe that together we can make a difference. Why? Because so many peoples lives depend on it!

Susan Conlin Opheim, President of HOPES (Helping Others Prevent and Educate about Suicide) Hopes Wi

Alpho,

I wonder if the world(society) will ever not feel HUSHED to talk about suicide...just like we can openly talk about cancer.

it makes me wonder how the advocates of breast cancer awareness make it to the cereal boxes and what an accomplishment that is!

But I wonder if we'll be able to have an ad on TV about suicide or have an awareness of it on a cereal box?

Would we ever be able to see "Frosted Flakes" and then, "suicide awareness month" on the same box? Of course, it's a sensitive subject matter and I don't expect it to be in people's faces and I am not advocating to have it on the cereal boxes...but I do wonder at how the subject can be brought out in a more NONE conventional way...and that we don't have to be hushed or felt like we've said something wrong....

until then, I guess it'll be the last paragraph that will have to do...keep talking about it and educating about it....

and until even then, thank goodness there is an SOS forum for us to talk about IT... :)

:grouphug: for the room

((Alfee)) thank you for sharing this :hug:

((Moi)) your post made me remember when I was a young girl. My aunt had just died of breast cancer. I remember how the elders said not to say breast cancer, it was "taboo" to use such a word. Just say she died of cancer.

I have seen many changes in my short life time. Many illnesses are not as taboo as they once were. Where dementia is effecting my life, I am reading horror stories how these lost souls use to be locked away... the crazy old man in the attic, the families deep dark secret.

I see commercials on TV for suicide prevention all the time. There are posters in my doctors office, in the hospital. There are Out of the Darkness Walks being held all over the country. Things are changing. I want to be part of that change. I want to walk my talk, so I joined the coalition in my community. Every one of us is making a difference. Anything can change, it only takes people to get involved. Holding onto hope :hug:

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." -
Mahatma Gandhi

nik,

you're right, changes ARE coming and I hope they'll be for the good and that the big public changes will change people's mind and make them more at ease about talking about "IT"

(((BIG HUGS)))