World Suicide Prevention Day 2018

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2018, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide.

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To See A Light That Shines

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This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.

Did you sing this song as a child? I did.

Stigma Via Health Professionals

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I wasn’t expecting it from this source.  Actually I had seen this particular health professional about five times and had decided that she knew her stuff.  What’s more, I had decided that she was responding to what I was saying to the extent that I felt comfortable with her.  A big thing.

But I admit I had forgotten a brief moment in my first appointment with her when she responded to something I said with “you haven’t got a mental illness“.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2015

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2015, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide.

It’s Not Okay

The past 10 or so days have proved enormously instructive for me.  They’ve provided the kind of instruction I hear tell of from my parents’ days in Catholic school in the 50s and 60s, when one of the nuns would slap a student or turn from a sweet, soft-spoken angel of a teacher into the fires of hell epitomized, without raising anything but her voice.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

 This post contains discussion of chronic suicidal thinking. There are no actual suicides described or images.  Please read at your discretion.

 

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I was sitting in the office of my Pain Management Specialist.  Also in the office was a medical student.  I know most people don’t like medical students sitting in on appointments, but I don’t mind.  They have to learn about the patient’s perspective somehow, and because in New Zealand their exposure to mental health, as part of their training, is so small, I think it’s vital that they get all the exposure they can get.

Why I Disclosed My Mental Illness To My Employer

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It’s a difficult one.  To disclose or not to disclose?  There are plenty of articles around about the issue of whether to tell your employer that you have a mental illness.  I came across a recent one and it got me thinking.  I disclosed in the past but would I do it again?

The article, Deciding Whether to Disclose Mental Disorders to the Boss by Alina Tugend (for The New York Times) got me thinking.  Has my mind changed?

You see, in 2009 I chose to tell my prospective employer that I had a mental illness.

World Suicide Prevention Day

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2014, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide.