Suicide - Not a Good Idea
By Mary Ellen Copeland
Experiencing psychiatric symptoms is horrible. Many people who try and live with these symptoms every day sometimes feel so discouraged they want to end their lives.
Suicide is never a good idea. Why not?
1. Psychiatric symptoms get better. Sometimes they get better even if you don't do anything about them. But there are many things you can do to help relieve these symptoms. To feel a little better right now, try the following:
Tell someone how you feel--someone you like and trust. Talk to them until you feel better. Then listen to them while they tell you what is going on in their life.
Do something you really enjoy--something you love to do--like go for a walk, read a good book, play with your pet, draw a picture or sing a song
Get some exercise--any kind of movement will help you feel better. It doesn't have to be strenuous.
Eat something healthy like a salad, some fruit, a tuna fish sandwich or a baked potato.
Develop and use a symptom monitoring and response plan (Wellness Recovery Action Plan™) to help yourself get well and stay well.
2. When you feel better, you will have many wonderful experiences--warm spring days, snowy winter days, laughs with friends, playing with children, good movies, tasty food, great music, seeing, hearing, feeling. You will miss all these things, and many more, if you are not alive.
3. Your family members and friends will be devastated if you end your life. They will never get over it. They will think about it and miss you every day for the rest of their lives. If you have a box of family photographs, choose some photos of the people you love and display them around your house to remind yourself that you never want to hurt these people.
When symptoms are very severe, you may have a hard time making good decisions for yourself. To make it hard to make a bad decision, like ending your life, make suicide hard for yourself by taking these preventive actions.
Get rid of all the old pills and any firearms you might have around your house.
Give away your car keys, credit cards and check books when you start to feel experience symptoms--before they get worse.
There are good people who can help you through these hard times. It may be your family members or friends. Set up a system with them so they will stay with you around the clock when your symptoms are severe. If you don't have family members or friends who could do this, call your local mental health emergency services and ask them what to do.
Other articles by Mary Ellen Copeland
Resource:
For years I heard stories about how WRAP, and the values and ethics that have evolved from it, have affected, transformed and even saved people’s lives. WRAP facilitators and administrators have reported how their agencies, mental health systems, and even their own lives, have been changed and improved by incorporating WRAP. This is a book of some of those stories. I gathered stories from people who are using WRAP, WRAP group facilitators, people who are using WRAP in their organizations and people who are using WRAP to change the mental health system. The stories in this book also show the transformative power of WRAP outside the United States, in countries and cultures with varied practices and beliefs about mental health.