'It's Okay to Ask For Help!' - a Look at Suicide

First a post about leeches, now this. The Lemming really should lighten up.

First, though, there's this:

"'It's OK to ask for help!' School adopts suicide prevention program"
Carol Moorman Staff writer, Sauk Centre Herald (date unknown: after December 1997)

"It's OK to ask for help!

"This was the message Rachel Schott and Darren Reed left with Sauk Centre Junior High students Tuesday morning during a presentation on the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program, an outreach program of the Light for Life Foundation of MN. Students were given Yellow Ribbon Ask-4Help Cards which reminds the carrier it's OK to ask for help.

" 'This card will speak for you when you don't have the words,' said Schott.

"She explained the card is a tool pointing out three things a person who receives the card should do.

• Stay with the person. You are their lifeline
• Listen, really listen
• Take them seriously
• Get or call help immediately

The card also gives the recipient instructions on how to help and where to call. 24-hour toll free crisis lines include the Listening Ears at 1-800-854-9001; Central MN Crisis Line at 1-800-635-8008 and National Crisis Line at 1-800-SUICIDE...."

PLEASE NOTE: The crisis hot line numbers are from a central Minnesota newspaper article that's probably about 10 years old. The Lemming confirmed that the numbers are listed in county websites: but they are quite likely strictly regional. The national 800 number should still work - at least in the United States.

Another thing: Those numbers aren't the only places to find help.

Sadly, people do sometimes kill themselves. And it's not always someone else.

This is another serious post - the Lemming seems to be a tad grim today. That Sauk Centre Herald article came when the Lemming was doing research for a post in another blog. The advice seemed sensible, the phone numbers checked out: and the Lemming has a personal interest in suicide.

More about that after these related posts:

• "Looks Like Suicide Really isn't the Smart Choice"
  (June 4, 2010)
• "David Carradine 1936-2009: What if It's Suicide?"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (June 4, 2009)
• "The Catholic Church Won't Even Let People Kill Themselves"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (January 28, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Suicide and the Catholic Church
    • We're told
      • It's a bad idea
      • We shouldn't do it
  • Killing Myself Only Affects Me?
    • Not unless you're the last person left in the universe
      • Even then - but that's another topic
  • Catholic Teachings on Suicide Don't Take Today's Science Into Account?
    • Not true
      • If you assume that psychology is a science
• "Blue-Colored Streetlights Reduce Crime, Suicide?!"
  (December 17, 2008)

The Lemming writes that other blog, A Catholic Citizen in America. I'm a practicing Catholic - which gives me a somewhat counter-cultural view of suicide.

Responding to a comment made on the January 28, 2009 post. I replied, in part: "...I was diagnosed with major depression recently, and am no[w] on medication. Thank God, I was able to deal with suicidal impulses. I can understand, from the inside, how someone might not...."

Then there was the time a woman who meant a great deal to me killed herself. I sympathize with folks who feel like life isn't worth living. I also sympathize for folks caught in the backwash of suicide. Like the fellow said, we aren't islands. (No, Joan Baez didn't write that - it was a dude named John Donne, about four centuries back now.)

And since the Lemming seems to be on an autobiographical kick, here's more about medication and me:

• "Brilliant, Talented, and On Medication"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 30, 2010)
• "ADHD, an Apostolic Exhortation, Another Document, and V8"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 11, 2010)
• "Medication for Depression? Yeah: The Catholic Church is Okay With That"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (February 25, 2010)

As I see it, asort of bottom line, about what I've of Catholic teachings and life is: "we're called to holiness, not stupidity." (A Catholic Citizen in America (May 19, 2010)

---

About a close call for a hotline number:

• "FCC rescues 1-800-SUICIDE"
  Matthew Lasar, Telcom, ars technica (October 19, 2009)