wow.

I found this on my friends blog.


 According to a coroners report In 2008 in my small rural county.




Heart failure, the leading cause of death in the United States, took 93.



Only 1 was homicide.



There were 24 traffic deaths



and there were 35 suicides.

How many times have you tried to protect the ones you love?
Have you ever gone to the doctors with them. Supported them in weight loss so they could save themselves from premature death?
How many times have I heard people exclaim "If he comes after her I'll...". Would you protect your loved one from a murderer? From her estranged boyfriend? Would you stand behind you're brother if he got in a fight so he wouldn't get hurt?
Would you discourage you're loved from going down the highway at 110 mph wearing no seat belt?
But yet people claim all the time to not know their loved ones were suicidal. And so we have numbers like 35 suicides. Why is this? There are two very important reasons for this.
Number one is that underneath the surface of mental health, lies inner shame. They don't reach out. Shame that one struggles with something that cannot be fixed to them. That makes a person feel so low and so unworthy of peoples help.

Number two is that people do not reach in. You sit at home and worry that your loved ones have been attacked when they don't return home on time. But there is a 35 times more chance they've killed themselves instead. You worry they were in a car accident. But it's more likely they've decided to kill themselves. You say "O no, not my son, not my brother, not my wife". But nobody ever knows. It's a silent killer at times. Sneaks up from behind.
You say you love your loved ones, but do you really love them? Would you think outside the box for them? Would you feel uncomfortable for them? Would you talk about the uncomfortable stuff, even if they say they're fine? Would you prod anyway? Because prodding is better then standing at a funeral wondering what you could have done differently.
Suicide doesn't have to have a stigma. There shouldn't be one. People shouldn't be embarrassed to walk up to somebody and admit how a loved one died. People shouldn't be ashamed to walk up to a loved one and ask for help so that they don't land an early death. Isn't it okay to ask for emotional support when you have cancer or lupus?
When the question is life or death why do we stubbornly cross our arms in front of us and come up with every excuse in the book not to talk about it.



"They have nothing to be depressed about."

"They're just looking for attention."

"Anyone who thinks about suicide is crazy."

"Depression makes them weak".
None of them are true.
NONE of them are true.
Mental illnesses are medical conditions, caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Everything in the world could be going right and the person still suffers severe and crippling emotional difficulties.

The truth of the whole matter is, is that it's an uncomfortable subject that nobody wants to approach. And you can ask anyone who's ever lost an immediate member of the family to suicide. They'd wished they'd approached it before.
35 people died to suicide in 2008 in this small county I live in and I don't remember hearing about one of them in the newspaper. They all deserved to have their lives remembered too. They were mothers and sisters. Friends. They had hearts and voices that might had been heard. Maybe not, but maybe. We never know.
Fatal car accidents make front page. "Tractor Trailer overturns on I- 81. Fatality Involved". How sad is this? It gains popularity. Nobody wants to read about the man who hung himself in a park. But where was his voice? Who honored his death? His pain? ALL of his pain. One can only imagine the inner turmoil that somebody goes through, that drives them to want to end their own lives.
Stop making it worse for them.
For every 1 female suicide there is 4 male suicides. For every 1 success there is 20 attempts. Watch your loved ones. Nobody can watch them closer then the people closest to them. And for gosh sakes get over your own discomfort and ignorance to save a life. Learn the signs, always watch and most importantly...

listen.