Symposium

So the last two days I've been out of the office to attend a symposium on suicide prevention that was hosted by Mental Health America of Texas. Really rough subject matter, obviously, but I came out of it with a lot of statistical knowledge that I had definitely lacked before-hand. Here's some facts - (about both mental illness and suicide)

Men are twice as likely to take their lives as women
Veteran men are twice as likely to take their lives as civilian men
1 in 4 people will have a mental illness at some point in their lives
90% of those who take their lives have a mental illness

Kind of terrifying, isn't it? How about the fact that the number of people who have mental illness is more than those who have cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined? All of this information was provided in hand-outs from the Center for Disease Control and the US Department of Health.

You know what's super cool though? Maybe you've heard of this band, (especially if you're from Austin) called Alpha Rev. I had the opportunity to meet with the lead singer, Casey McPherson, at the Symposium. He himself has been affected by suicide, having lost two people close to him. The man is on a mission: he was there to recruit people to participate in filming videos with messages of hope about suicide. He was seeking people to tell how suicide had affected their lives, how to help those in despair, and to reach people feeling suicidal by turning their testimonials into you tube videos. Isn't that incredible? This guy was just signed to Hollywood Records and has been touring this last year and this is how he's choosing to spend his down time! He's in talks with MTV to have them pick up this project, too, which is clearly awesome.

The sad truth: when people first start thinking of suicide, they tend to google ways to end their life

Casey's goal: to tag these videos in so many different ways, that when people look up information about suicide, specifically ways to end their lives, that instead they'll find these video messages imploring them change their mind, and giving them a means to end or at least reconsider their hopelessness.

I'm truly in awe of Casey and his dedication to this project. I can't wait to give you readers an update when it has been finished! I hope and pray that it will make a difference in the lives of people who are contemplating suicide, or those who have a friend that has disclosed to them their suicidal thoughts. At the end of my video, here's what I said (paraphrasing) - I know if my mom had thought about all the things she would miss, if she had TRULY understood what she would be depriving herself of, that she would be here. That's what everyone should know when they are thinking that suicide is the only way. I know she wouldn't have missed my wedding or the birth of her granddaughter for anything. So if you are considering suicide, please - just find something positive, anything positive, and cling onto it for dear life. Because I swear to you - no matter how bleak everything must seem, there are things down the road in your life that you will not want to miss.

On another not-quite-so-sad note, I have a story that might entertain you. I sit down for the final break-out session of the conference, and I end up sitting next to a interesting specemin of humanity. She's bigger, sixties, dressed in every color that can be considered in the green spectrum, hair looks like she's just touched an electrical socket, and is reading a book....with a familiar font...and a familiar book jacket. Before I can stop myself, I say "Is that a Stephanie Meyer book?" (by the way I totally love Twilight). It's like the hand of God has just touched her. She looks at me with wide, frantic eyes. "YES! IT IS! I'VE READ ALL OF THEM....TWICE! I CAN'T PUT THEM DOWN!" She's reading what is apparently a mini-story sprung off of the Eclipse book, written in the perspective of another character. She tells me all about it. She recommends other vampire/werewolf literature. Then she pauses. Takes a breath, slowly turns to me and says "vampires. and werewolves. are REAL. (small whisper voice) they. are." Luckily the speaker started right then, and I began to remember why I'd been apprehensive to read the Twilight series to begin with....