AMERICA IS ON MY COUCH AND NEEDS YOUR HELP

 

I wonder if you will read past the next few sentences.

According to Gallup, depression and suicide rates among American adults are at an all time high.

That’s not good

What do you think about that?

I can give you many different responses:

“I’m not surprised.”

“Something needs to be done about it.”

“I have my own problems to deal with.”

“I can’t hear this-It’s triggering me.”

“Nobody cares.”

“Oh boo-hoo! Things are going ok.”

“Fake news again.”

“The numbers are made up.”

“I know someone who committed suicide.”

“It was God’s will. They’re in a better place now.”

“Pass the Prozac.

(Nothing, turn the page.)

I am all too familiar with depression and suicide. I treat it everyday. I have had patients die by suicide. I have talked people down in the middle of the night. I have been on countless calls trying to get my people hospitalized and into rehab facilities. I have spent hundreds of hours with prior authorizations for medications and/or advanced treatment. I have been a mental health provider for 35 years.

I have had fourteen years of my own treatment for anxiety and depression that saved my life.

At age 15, I was suicidal and should have been hospitalized because I had a workable plan to end it all.

What does a person who is suicidal feel? A crushing, soul emptying dark void of futility, hopelessness and indescribable emptiness. And at the same time, the pain is numbing beyond words, beyond time or any meaningful dimension.

Nothing comforts you as you don’t deserve it. You are not worthy of love, food, water or even air. You are a waste. You scare people by your vacant look.

For others, it is almost the opposite. The mind is attacked by a myriad of horrible self-condemning thoughts. Every negative memory is conjured by an unforgiving self.

Every neuron burns in a five-alarm fire that can’t be extinguished leaving one agitated and without rest.

In either situation, you just want out.

You could leave clues of your intention. In the nick of time,you would be taken to a hospital. Maybe you’ll get compassionate, effective treatment. Other times, you’ll be patched up and sent away with a referral to a mental health clinician, outpatient program or perhaps worse, nothing.

You return once again to your personal Awful-Land and want to die to end this torture.

Still reading?  Thank you!

The solution to our mental crisis is not going to come from above to us, in my opinion. It comes from within us. You and me. In small ways that adds up. Practiced everyday.

Every one of us has to affirm that we are all worthy. We all are born with a cornerstone of worth. I am, therefore, I am worthy. By extension, so are you. So are all of us.

We have to believe and affirm that we all want collectively the same good things. If we hold that belief, we are not alone. We elevate each other by helping each other. To listen with intent and purpose to each other. To be present and not distracted.

We have to promote value and kindness. Cruelty, division, mockery, violence and hatred are America’s collective cancerous mental illness. Give. Be generous. Look beyond yourself.

The statistics of depression and suicide are harbingers- the canary in the coal mine. America is mentally ill and broken. These numbers can easily double in the next two years.

Just in talk therapy, the responsibility for positive growth and change lies within the individual.  Chances are great that you would want your aspirations to be the same as your fellow American brothers and sisters

Those are no longer lofty words but a necessary prescription for the 335 million American citizens/patients who need to actively fix this mess. Both individually and collectively we must keep this commonwealth from dying.

It is that bad.

Go fix it now!