At the International Conference on the Use of the Internet in Mental Health in Montreal earlier this month, I discussed how far we’ve come in 15 years of mental health online. But for all my discussion about social networking websites like PatientsLikeMe.com and Twitter, one of the slides sticks with me.
It’s the slide on “Suicide… Read this first,” a single, static webpage that’s been online since 1995 and written by Martha Ainsworth. Its purpose is singular yet deceptively simple — help people understand their thoughts and feelings about wanting to commit suicide, and hope they take enough away from it to make the choice to live another day. It has been read by nearly 8 million people during that time.
Yes, that’s right — 8 million people have read a single page about suicide. To put that into some perspective, just last November (2008), SAMHSA announced it had answered the 1 millionth phone call to its The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network since the hotline was launched on Jan. 1, 2005.
When Psych Central started hosting the service a few years ago, we added a one-question survey at the end of the page to gauge how “effective” the page was in helping people with their suicidal thoughts. It’s one thing to note how many people have read a page, but it’s another to say whether it’s an effective intervention that actually prevents suicide.

Can a single, very unsexy Web 1.0 static web page be effective in helping people change their minds about suicide?

• 29% - Yes, this helped me
• 24% - No, this did not help me
• 31% - Still not sure
• 14% - N/A

So for 29 percent of the people, a single web page has changed their mind about suicide. We don’t, however, know how long-lasting the intervention is (it could be that 2 days later, a person changes their mind back).
For 24 percent of people who’ve taken the survey, the page has not helped. And 31 percent of people are still not sure which way they’re going to go. That’s 55 percent of visitors to the page who either are still thinking of committing suicide, or are not sure if they’re going to, so a lot more work still needs to be done.
However, extrapolating the numbers out, that one web page has potentially helped 2,320,000 people choose not to commit suicide. That’s more than double the number of suicides prevented by the vast resources of the U.S. federal government.
All by one person and one page.
So I’m all for the Web 2.0 / Health 2.0 / Twitterverse / Facebook networks and websites helping people. But in terms of mass (as in “population wide”) mental health prevention, you can’t beat something as simple as a well-written webpage.
People sometimes ask me “Why do you do this?” This is why.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central and has been writing about mental health and psychology issues online since 1992.

Just when I think I don't have a single tear left in me.....

“Suicide is not chosen; it happens
when pain exceeds
resources for coping with pain.”

.........

3. "People often turn to suicide because they are seeking relief from pain. Remember that relief is a feeling. And you have to be alive to feel it. You will not feel the relief you so desperately seek, if you are dead."






((Alffe)) thank you for sharing the link The page was simple.. yet says it all....

"I suspect that a large part of the energy we spend in pondering the various possible scenarios of life after death is just the energy of grief needing a place to go. But since we are given to speculating - and since there is a persistent conviction found in many religions that there is life beyond human death - perhaps we could throw our hats into the ring of hope, and surmise that while we don't know what God is doing in creation, God knows, and will see us through."

Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman

Thanks to ((Alffe)) I also read Healing After Loss almost daily. Sometimes when I know I am to face a particularly hard day, I might skip ahead to that days meditations.

This week is a hard one for me. June 5th is my wedding anniversary. God I miss the man Alzheimer's has stolen . June 6th is the anniversary of when I lost my baby and June 7th... we buried Dad last year. Coupled with still reeling from Memorial Day, and Father's Day around the corner, I admit.. I'm a mess. But, I have learned it is ok to get lost on this road to healing. What is vital, is that I keep trying. That we all just keep trying!

Meditation for June 5th:

Lying awake at dawn, I remember them
With a love that is almost joy I remember them:
Lost, and all mine, all mine, forever.
~John Hail Wheelock

"It is a bittersweet joy, but real nonetheless-the way our lost loves are forever in our hearts and minds. They are, in fact, constant to our consciousness in a way they couldn't be when they were alive, because then we depended on their comings and goings-the highs and lows of their being with us, the vagaries of presence and convenience.

But now we can summon the memories of them at will and even when we’re not consciously thinking of them, they seem almost integral to our being as our skin or as a comfortable robe we wrap ourselves in at the end of a busy and tiring day. A loved one- a memory to be with, a quiet companion.

It is, again, not what we would have chosen. But it is its own blessing."

***********
June 6th

Learning to trust will be for all of us the means by which
the root system grows firm and nourishes the tree of life.
~Elaine M Prevallet

" All winter, in many parts of the country, the earth has lain brown and barren-or covered with chilling snow. But beneath that apparently lifeless earth the roots of plants have maintained themselves in a necessary hibernation. Then comes spring, year after year, the earth comes to life again, and blooms with beauty and nutrurance.

Maybe this can be a model of trust for us in these new-green months of early summer-that the season of depression and sorrow will, in time, give way to a renewed love of life and appreciation for its gifts. Including the gift of life and the legacy of the one we have loved."

***********

June 7th

We cannot re-create this world...We cannot even, truly, re-create ourselves.
Only our behavior can we re-create, or create anew. ~ Alice Walker

"How can we move ourselves out of the valley of despondency into which grief is apt to plunge us?

Not by changing the fact of loss. We know better than to hope for that. Not by some sweeping act of will that shifts our spirit from sadness into acceptance and eagerness to live again. We may have tried that but it doesn't work: at best , we achieve a momentary change of heart, but it will not last.

There is a classic line of thought in Christian spirituality that says the way to test the validity of faith is to act as though it is true, and see what happens.

In the same way, we can begin to act as though we have an investment in the future, as though we are rejoining our life's activities, and re-enjoying our life-our friends, our gardens, our music, our work-
and see what happens."

******************

Oh Nikki....just draw a line through the month of June. Would that you could! One more thing to have to grit your teeth and survive.
I can understand not wanting to...

Would that I could.....

((Alffe))

Hope.

I just wrote it yet again in a message. I realize I use that word a lot.
I decided to run a search in the forum here to see how many posts had the word hope in them. There's 20 full pages of threads/post in SOS with HOPE. I'm obviously not the only one who uses that word a lot.

____


(((thinking of you Nikki)))

Hope..........

I am learning so much about hope. Tragedy and heartache will happen to each and every one of us. How we come out "on the other side", is up to us, and us alone.

There have been times when I just couldn't "keep on swimming"... those were the times I grabbed onto the nearest "rope", (my family, my friends, my SOS family) and held on for dear life.

Most recently, I couldn't find a rope no matter how hard I tried to find one. I discovered, these are the times you have "no choice" but to "let go, let God" ((Alffe))

But more, these are the times when you must entwine all that you have left, to make your own "rope". As important as hope is, it is useless without the want, desire and drive, to reach for it.

We are here for you dear Nikki...you just need to hollar.

This seems like a good morning for some more Hope.