Latest / Millennial Mental Health Channel / September is Suicide Prevention Month

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September is Suicide Prevention Month · Millennial Mental Health Channel

0:00
There is a new National Suicide hotline. Used to be this long number that
0:05
like logic the rapper like had in a song and then like people kind of
0:09
said the song was corny, which is beside the fact I just wanted to
0:13
mention it. But now it's a quick three digit number, just like nine
0:16
on one. It's nine to eight eight. Please like, if you ever
0:19
experienced thoughts of suicide, feel like you maybe having safety concerns. Paul nine
0:23
eight eight. This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano,
0:28
a Child and Adolescent psychiatry fellow, and I'm Eddie Creo, a licensed clinical
0:32
therapist. Our podcast is here because we wanted to start a much needed conversation
0:36
about mental health. Our goal is to teach you as much as we can
0:40
by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in the mental health field. We
0:44
will discuss topics like mood disorders, psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders,
0:49
and many more. Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We
0:53
hope you enjoyed today's episode. M MHC is a production of Spreaker from iHeartMedia
1:00
Area. They'll come back to a Millennial Mental Health Channel. We are here
1:07
to talk about the mental health and here's your co host, is the Bavarian
1:11
Burrito himself, mister Eddie Carrillo. What the fuck is Bavarian? Yeah,
1:18
it's a it's a part of Germany. Okay, yeah, sorry, that
1:25
was That was one of my more obscure accents. You know, I don't
1:30
know a lot of things, so like to throw out something like that.
1:32
I'm just like, what is happening. I like to throw you off guard,
1:37
you know, because it's fun. It's funny to get a laugh adio
1:38
and start off on a weird foot. I'll take that. H Well,
1:45
we're back. We got another episode. I was thinking on the car ride
1:48
home from work that, like, it sounds weird to say, I'll just
1:52
say the topic for today, September, if you don't know, is National
1:57
Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. And as I was driving home, I thought,
2:00
I'm like, you know, I think I'm excited for today's episode, and
2:04
not because it's like a Joe Fuel like we're gonna crack a bunch of jokes
2:07
like type episode. I think it's I'm just I'm looking forward and excited to
2:12
just kind of talk about it and hopefully make it less like scary to talk
2:15
about it, or even just a little bit less scary to talk about because
2:17
I think a lot of people. For me, for a long time,
2:20
even when I was like on the crisis team talking with people who were like
2:24
experiencing suicide ideation, the words suicide would almost make like the hairs on the
2:29
back of my next stand up or like the just cringe a little bit because
2:31
it's like the like the scary words, the big scary words. So I'm
2:35
looking forward to talking about it today just to kind of add some more information
2:38
out there. We'll give our whole spiel here in a little bit. But
2:42
I'm glad we're here. I'm glad we can talk about it. I'm glad
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we have this opportunity, this platform where we can talk about this kind of
2:46
stuff. So I'm excited for it today. Me too, Yeah, I
2:52
feel you. When I first started medical school and I was on my psychiatry
2:54
rotation, like, I remember even having a hard time saying the word suicide,
2:59
especially in front of a patient too. And now as mental health providers,
3:05
we both deal with this so often. It is second nature to us
3:08
now. So I'm hoping that by the end of this, we all feel
3:13
a little bit more comfortable thinking about it, talking about it, because ignoring
3:15
it and avoiding it doesn't really help and doesn't really address any of the problems.
3:22
It's important to be able to speak about it, talk about it,
3:23
figure it out a little bit. So that's why we're here today. Yeah,
3:27
I'll even be a little vulnerable here. At the beginning of my career
3:30
talking about it. I would do like the screenings and I would just be
3:32
like, so are you having like concerning thoughts, Like I would just like
3:38
dance around it because I'm like, I don't. This feels so uncomfortable.
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And you know, in the beginning, it's like if I say the word,
3:46
which we'll probably talk about at some point, but I thought if I
3:47
say the word, just gonna make things worse. Really for a lot of
3:52
people, I think I can just speak like anecdote anecdotally or even like there's
3:55
evidence behind it. But for some people it's almost like a relief when you
3:59
bring it up, like oh, thank God, like somebody somebody else can
4:02
say, because if I say it myself, like that's just too hard.
4:04
So to normalize it a little bit. Even for people who do this for
4:09
a living, Justin and I still at some point it was pretty hard to
4:13
just say the word, say the phrase yeah. Overall, it is still
4:16
a very stigmatized word. I think a big example of this is back when
4:20
I was making TikTok videos. You can't you can't actually say the word suicide
4:25
in TikTok like you have to, especially in the captions. Like people when
4:30
talking about mental health, they had to say sewer slide instead of suicide to
4:35
try and beat the whatever walls there were to prevent those that from But that
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just goes to show you how people aren't allowed to talk about it a lot
4:45
of times in society, which is so interesting. You got any shout outs
4:48
for us today, Justin? You know, I mean, this is kind
4:50
of a more serious topic, but I really wanted to shout out Squirt Cola
4:55
or Squirt soda. Eddie and I were talking about this before we started recording.
5:00
I had no idea that Mexicans love squirt. This was news to me.
5:10
But I'm wait, I'm way into it. I'm gonna get I'm gonna
5:14
go buy a pack up Squirt because the more you know, the more you
5:16
know, knowledge is power, and that is some powerful knowledge. I'm gonna
5:21
have like a family member that's gonna listen to this episode and they'll be like,
5:25
yeah, we do like Squirt lifelong fans forever since we shouted out squirt
5:34
Squirt cola product. You know, I thought, I think it actually might
5:39
be its own thing. I don't know, Oh, this might have to
5:41
be a Google search. Who sorry, doctor Pepper Snapple group. Oh there
5:48
you go, left Field. More you know again, the more you know,
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well, we hope that that tidbit of knowledge is helpful. We hope
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the rest of the episode is helpful. I'll start this off. I was
6:02
as I was writing the notes for today, I was like, man,
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we haven't talked about this in a long time. And actually when I go
6:08
when I went back and looked at our extensive catalog of episodes, which actually
6:13
is going to hit a hundred here in the next month or so, less
6:15
than a month. We talked about suicide three years ago this week, and
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I think we did it to coincide with like National Suicide Awareness Day with the
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whole month. So it's been a long time. We've done basically like redo
6:29
episodes recently, so we just thought this is a good, good opportunity to
6:32
do it. We're coming up on four years, we're coming up on a
6:34
hundred episodes. Why not so from SAMSA, we'll give you a little bit
6:41
of information from the specific mental health and substance used bodies that helped spread correct
6:47
information. Sam says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They defined
6:54
Suicide Prevention Month as a month to remember the lives lost to suicide, the
6:58
millions of people who have struggled suicidal ideation, and to acknowledge the individuals,
7:01
families, and communities that have been impacted. And if if you learn anything
7:05
from us with the show or just sharing about our career, a lot of
7:10
people have been impacted by suicide. We talked about as Cloud recently potentially passing
7:15
away from suicide, so it's something that comes up quite often. It's also
7:20
time to raise awareness about suicide prevention and share messages of hope suicide suicide ideation.
7:27
They don't discriminate anyone can struggle with this, but it's also really important
7:30
to remember that anyone can support those who struggle, like we all have an
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opportunity to be a support person. We don't necessarily need to be an expert.
7:38
You know, research has shown that people who are having thoughts of suicide
7:41
actually feel relief when someone asked them about their thoughts and carrying away. And
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actually, I think I've mentioned it on the show before, Justin, but
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I did this training for mental health first aid and specifically youth mental health first
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Aid. And really, if I were to sum it up and as quickly
7:56
as possible, because it is a six and a half hour long train,
7:59
it is long. If I can sum it up as quickly as possible,
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it's It's basically the training is to teach those who come in contact with youth,
8:07
whether you're a teacher, a school staff, you work in a mall,
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you are I'm having a hard time thinking of jobs where you come in
8:15
contact with the team, but you come in contact with the team. It's
8:18
basically a training to help give you the skills and knowledge to know like how
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can I help someone who's struggling, how can I help somebody who feels like
8:26
they might be a danger to themselves, and how can I get them connected
8:30
to the right resources right away? So really, it's just important that we
8:33
share this information as much as possible. Our hope is, you know,
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maybe you never have to use some of this knowledge. Maybe you go through
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the rest of your life not having to, but if you do, if
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in the chance that you do have to step in and help somebody, we
8:45
just hope that you feel at least a little bit better equipped. A lot
8:48
of people have suicide of thoughts. It's not a rare thing, but because
8:52
there is so much societal stigma around it, people are really afraid to open
8:56
up about it, talk about it. And it's one I tell people I
9:01
tell my patients all the time, like, in a way, it's totally
9:03
normal to have these thoughts. You're under a lot of stress, you're depressed.
9:09
It's sometimes can seem like a legitimate option to end your pain and suffering.
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I think a lot of people in your position would have those same thoughts.
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It's something we don't want to happen. In a way, it's very
9:20
normal. It's like lots of people have suicidal thoughts because shouldn't feel like bad
9:26
or shouldn't feel like, oh, I shouldn't be having these thoughts, like
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it's a normal thing. So as we move through this episode, there's something
9:33
that we want to mention and something that we mentioned the last time we covered
9:35
this topic, it's very critical that we remember the importance of knowing when to
9:39
leave something to the professionals. I see this a lot of the time people
9:43
on social media being like, hey, my dms are open, or I
9:48
would rather hear your story than be at your funeral, and other things like
9:50
that, And as a mental health professional, I really do appreciate it.
9:54
To me, it helps me to normalize and destigmatize mental health, and something
9:58
that they see generation is doing a really great job of is destigmatizing. But
10:05
I talk to a lot of young people and when I'm talking suicide safety plan
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and I say, hey, if you're having suicide of thoughts, like who
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would you go to, They're like, oh, my best friend Ricky.
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And I'm like, don't go to Ricky. Ricky is not a trusted adult.
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I don't trust Ricky. You should go to someone who's more responsible and
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like, so like, yes, I'm glad that we're talking about this.
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And so many young people that I talk to, their friends are the biggest
10:26
support system. But it's important to leave things to professionals and maybe even trusted
10:33
adults. Yeah, even when we do, like at work, we'll do
10:35
like safety screenings and we'll come up with like a support plan for students on
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it. The three first questions for the support planner who's an adult at home
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that you can talk to if you're starting to feel unsafe. The next one
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is who's an adult at school that you can talk to? And then the
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third one is like, who's a friend that you can talk to? So
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it is important, like you're saying, it is important to have those friends
10:54
you can talk to, but it's also very important to know, like you
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should talk to a trust an adult and someone that can maybe has more of
11:03
an ability to help. I think too, more to your point, justin
11:07
of like knowing when to leave stuff to the professional. It's also just really
11:11
hard to talk about suicide and suicidal ideation. When I was on the crisis
11:15
team in my first job, like there'd be days I would get home and
11:18
my brain felt like mush, Like I just like could not think, couldn't
11:24
put together a sentence, Like it was tough. It is hard, And
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that's me like having years of training and experience, so like for people who
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are not used to it, like it's just important to know it's really hard.
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It can be really tough. You don't want to have that extra added
11:37
pressure if you don't need to. I think we can acknowledge that there might
11:39
be a situation at some point where like you're really like in the thick of
11:43
it, maybe helping somebody out. But just know, like if there's ever
11:46
an opportunity to get a professional involved, an adult involved, like please try
11:52
to lean towards that. We'll have some stuff later in the episode and in
11:54
the show notes as far as like resources places you can turn to, But
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really it's just important to know, like thank you for all you're doing listeners
12:03
who are trying to make suicide suicidal adation feel more normalized, because like Justin
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said, it is it basically is normal to have these thoughts and it's something
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that comes up a lot. But also just to know like when and where
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to get a professional or just an adult to come in and step in and
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help out. I know we did shout outs at the beginning, but shout
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out to all the healthcare providers and anyone out there who's working in mental health
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because you are helping, you are trying to reduce this, reduce the stigma.
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And a big shout out to Lindsay Simono, who is our friend of
12:35
the show has been on the show a couple of times who actually did a
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lot of lobbying and political work to get the nine eight eight suicide hotline funded
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in Wyoming. So there's a lot of people doing a lot of good work.
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Yeah, I know, imagine zero. I just moved to Weld County,
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Colorado, and they're a whole organization down here that is trying to reduce
12:58
and end suicide. And so there's there's people trying to get this moving because
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it's it's a big problem. Yeah. I'm actually on one of the county
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like committees for like the Suicide Prevention Council, and we get to hear about
13:11
different community stakeholders that are working on different projects to try to help out,
13:16
which I think is really cool. One project that I heard about that I
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thought was super cool as a county that trying to make information more readily available.
13:22
So they made a bunch of hot coffee sleeves that had like words of
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encouragement and then like nine to eighty eight on the back, so like coffee
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shops could just use them like normal something you'd pick up any way if you
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went to Starbucks or whatever it was, and now you're spending some information of
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people, and I'll took my own horn. Maybe not my own horn,
13:41
but like our school's own horn. But our mental health club right now is
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working on a project where we're gonna have like a mental health corner that has
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resources in the school. I think we're gonna lean towards like QR codes and
13:52
stuff where kids can just walk by get any kind of information the need.
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And because the school's brand new, add a little bit of character to the
13:58
school. But I'm about it. I mean, anytime you can spread information
14:01
make it more accessible for people, I think you just have a better chance
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of people getting help when they normally wouldn't. I like it. I like
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all that information for the students there too. That's a great program. Yeah,
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well, let's jump into some stats. In facts. So recently,
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suicide has been anywhere from the tenth to twelfth leading cause of death in the
14:20
United States according to the CDC. The twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three
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data we have so far is still provisional, but about globally about a million
14:30
people die per year by suicide, you know, remembering that the data in
14:33
twenty twenty two is still provisional. Right now, the data is showing that
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overall, the number of deaths by suicide has increased by about two point six
14:41
percent from twenty twenty one two twenty twenty two. But something interesting that one
14:45
of the website wanted us to note was just that it's also decreased among American,
14:48
Indian and Alaska Native people in youth. So something to consider. I
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think I was looking at the charts and there's a couple groups where I can't
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remember it off the top of my head, where it actually was decreasing,
15:01
like the numbers were lower. There could be a number of things why that's
15:07
happening. Statistics can be manipulated, but I think just something important to know
15:11
that we don't want it to be all doom and gloom. There are things
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that are improving. I would even be willing to say that over the next
15:16
few years there's an opportunity for the way our kids and teens are that they're
15:22
going to help to reduce numbers even more, just because of how supportive I
15:24
think this next generation is, how well informed they are, how willing they
15:28
are to seek help. I think us as millennials, they started to kind
15:33
of get help and therapy and support as much as possible, and I really
15:35
think that's been starting to pass down to the next generation. So I think
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we have an opportunity to once the impacts of COVID have kind of it's still
15:45
a thing, but once it's we've started to get back into like a normal
15:46
swing of things for kids or development is starting to go back in the correct
15:50
direction. I think there's an opportunity for things to improve even more. I
15:54
hope so, because we definitely are in that mental health crisis post COVID,
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and yeah, the numbers are unfortunately going up, especially in young women too,
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is what we're seeing a lot of suicide was the second leading cause of
16:07
death among individuals between the ages of ten and fourteen and twenty five to thirty
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four, the third leading cause of death among individuals between ages fifteen and twenty
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four, and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between thirty five and
16:19
forty four. And although more women than men attempt to die by suicide,
16:26
more men, actually men are four times more likely to die by suicide,
16:30
and that's typically because men use more lethal means, and by lethal we mean
16:34
something that is more likely to take your life. I've heard of instances where
16:38
we'll teams will say they're like they'll cut themselves where they do certain things that
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there's a potential that something dangerous can happen, but it's far less likely than
16:47
using something like a firearm, I think, is what a lot of statistics
16:51
are showing. Another risk factor for suicide and suicidal ideation is childhood trauma.
16:57
We've talked about the aces before, so the adverse childhood experiences trauma is like
17:03
the thing. I think at some point there's going to be a DSM that
17:07
just as like it's just gonna say the word trauma and then it'll just have
17:11
like every single disorder right after. Because I think a lot of people are
17:15
willing to make that statement that trauma basically causes a number of our mental health
17:18
disorders, or it's a cause for not the only cause, but it's part
17:22
of it. Sexual trauma has the highest increase of someone's potential or risk factor
17:29
that they die by suicide, and then other forms of trauma tend to raise
17:32
anxiety, which also increases the risk for suicide. And this is according to
17:36
back at All in twenty seventeen, well on topic that is very near and
17:40
dear to my heart as I work with a lot of transgender young people.
17:44
Is that transgender adults are nine times more likely to attempt suicide at some point
17:48
in their life compared to the general population. And what we know is that
17:52
having social support is a big protective factor protects against suicide, and for young
17:57
trance kids, having a support of it don't reduces their risk of suicide.
18:02
And so we like to bring that up just to say, and I don't
18:07
think our audience is necessarily a part of this part of society, but there
18:11
is so much hate and focused hate against transgender people and that really does lead
18:18
to people trying to commit or trying to die by suicide. I caught myself
18:22
because I learned from Eddie. You're not supposed to say commit suicide, it's
18:26
die by suicide, which is a good learning point too. That's something that
18:30
I'm glad I learned from Eddie. But I hope people understand that when they
18:34
openly actively hate against transgender people, that causes people to die by suicide,
18:41
increases the rates. So this is not just some political ploy. This is
18:47
people's lives. These are people and something that's important to keep in mind even
18:52
things. That's why I think I've get such a like emotional and like even
18:57
like physical reaction. When people will open the parents caregivers will openly be like,
19:03
oh, I'm not calling them that name or that's my son. When
19:06
they identify as a feel like things like that, it's like you are taking
19:10
the steps, whether you know it or not, or whether you care or
19:12
not. You these people are literally taking the steps for their child to potentially
19:17
die at some point because they are making the choice that they are not being
19:21
supportive of whatever makes them feel comfortable, it makes them feel happy, and
19:25
that part will never make sense to me. I don't get it. Yeah,
19:27
it upsets me. And we're going to keep moving forward with the information
19:33
because if not, I'm gonna say something about Ted Crews and I don't want
19:36
to that always devolves into Ted Crews somehow, somehow. These are the things
19:41
that increase your risk for suicide, Like if you've had previous attempts or other
19:45
suicide attempts, you're more likely to have another one. A history of mental
19:48
illness, especially things like depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, A
19:52
serious illness such as chronic pain of it. A lot of people who have
19:56
chronic pain issues and they just tell me like I wish i would just pass
20:00
away in my sleep because I'm so tired of being in this pain all the
20:03
time. Having legal issues and just big stressors is a big risk factor for
20:08
suicide too. I think that it makes a lot of logical sense, similar
20:11
to financial problems. If you're really in over your head financially and you feel
20:17
like there's no way out, some people think that suicide is a way out.
20:22
Substance use, addiction, being bullied, lots of relationships, social isolation,
20:30
and lack to access mental health care. Some protective factors, So things
20:42
that will potentially help somebody not develop thoughts of suicide not want to act on
20:48
their thoughts, things like effective coping skills, being able to identify, like,
20:52
Okay, I'm not doing well. I need to do something, whether
20:56
that's engaging in self care, whether that's talking to a trusted adult, whether
20:59
that's exercising, whatever it is. Knowing that there's things that you can do
21:03
that make you feel better to deal with whatever is company in your way.
21:07
Another protective actors having reasons for living. Sometimes that'll be asked to people who
21:11
are feeling suicidal of like, you know, what are the things that are
21:12
important to them? Who who are the people? Who are the animals,
21:15
the pets that are kind of counting on them. A strong sense of culture
21:21
identity has also been something that's included as a protective factor feeling connected to social
21:26
institutions. This one, I want to make a comment. I've probably already
21:29
mentioned it like six times, but there's a CDC report that talked about the
21:33
youth mental health crisis, and one of the top things to help I don't
21:37
want to say reverse, but to help aid in helping our teens and our
21:41
children who are struggling mentally is school connectedness. So if you feel connected to
21:45
school, you're more likely to show up, You're more likely to show up,
21:48
you're more likely to engage in hopefully positive relationships. You have those positive
21:52
relationships, you know where to get help, all these all these good things.
21:53
So if you're if you feel some type of connection, whether it's work,
21:56
whether it's school, church. We'll talk about religiousness a little bit,
22:00
but like these things can be helpful and giving you reasons to continue living or
22:04
feeling like you can take on anything that might be considered a stressor you mentioned
22:10
it as a risk factor. So the opposite is availability of healthcare is a
22:14
protective factor. That's very important. I think that's why for me it's so
22:17
important when I'm trying to help a student and a family find care, I'm
22:21
looking all over because I know, like just getting connected is super important,
22:25
it could be super helpful and their last piece of religiousness. I think that
22:27
goes back to the social institution, a spiritual institution. Feeling connected to a
22:33
higher power has been shown to be really helpful for a lot of people.
22:36
And to build on that point of social isolation, we have a society that
22:41
really values social isolation. Our country over these past few decades has moved away
22:49
from public gatherings, moved away from social events like churches, social clubs like
22:55
Elks, Kawana's, like people don't, especially this younger generation. They would
23:00
rather sit in their house and be by themselves. And it's easier that way,
23:06
it's more comfortable that way. You don't have to force yourself, you
23:08
don't have to go out. So we're seeing a rise in social anxiety and
23:12
young people, we're seeing a rise in social isolation, and I think that
23:17
is one of the biggest factors, one of the driving factors as to why
23:21
we're having such a bad mental health crisis. Why things have been getting worse
23:25
since the start of the smartphone. I think so the smartphone in and of
23:27
itself, it doesn't foster close connections. It fosters superficial, detached connections.
23:36
I know that those a juxtaposition of words there, but I think people are
23:40
less connected to society, to other people than ever. And if you could
23:45
boil it down to one factor as to why we're struggling so much with mental
23:49
health as a country, it's that we're isolating ourselves. We're not connected anymore.
23:55
You beat me to it. I watched this guy's Ted X talk about
23:57
the smartphone and social media addiction and internet addiction, and was it TEDx?
24:03
Omaha, how'd you know sounded familiar? Yeah, I mean like you've talked
24:11
about like you've taught the world, which, Okay, we're gonna stop real
24:15
quick. Justin's viewa has a ship ton of yous, so please feel free
24:18
to go check it out. It's pretty dope to see how many thousands of
24:22
views he has. But yeah, to Justin's point, like, why should
24:26
I leave the house to go talk to my friends or talk to people when
24:30
I can sit here on my phone and connect with people that way. I
24:33
will say, though, it is easier to stay home and do so.
24:36
But take out, oh yeah, like oh, man, like eating in
24:42
a restaurant's fine, But doing takeout and coming back home like that's that's pretty
24:48
nice. Yeah, let's acknowledge that. That's the thing. I mean,
24:52
our our society is making good so that we can do more and more things
24:56
at home. We can work at home, we can eat at home,
24:59
we can g food delivered because we have our groceries delivered. We have everything
25:03
at home. I've even met a kind of a slew of kids lately who
25:07
have been doing online school for the past couple of years, and they maybe
25:11
leave the house once a week to go like shopping, and they don't really
25:14
interact with anyone, and their social anxiety is through the roof. Because how
25:18
you treat anxiety is forcing yourself to be exposed to the things that make you
25:23
anxious and won't hurt you. And so many young people are just learning,
25:27
oh, I can just be at home, But man, there are so
25:30
many skills involved with being in public that a lot of young people are losing.
25:36
We also want to remind you all justin mentioned it earlier, but there
25:38
is a new National Suicide Hotline and National Suicide had Safety hot Line used to
25:45
be this long number that like logic the rapper like had in a song and
25:49
then like people kind of said the song was corny, which is beside the
25:53
fact I just wanted to mention it. But now it's it's a quick three
25:56
digit number, just like nine on one. It's nine eight eight. Please,
26:00
like, if you ever experienced thoughts of suicide, feel like you maybe
26:03
having safety concerns, either call nine eight eight, go to the nearest emergency
26:07
department. I think the way nine to eight eight works, which is probably
26:11
how nine one one works, is it directs you to like the closest county
26:15
small governmental resources there and tries to get you connected with people and places that
26:19
are near you and hopefully not too much of a barrier to get to.
26:22
It's a pretty cool resource. Also, I know we talked a little bit
26:26
about how our society is a little bit sick, like the things that we
26:30
value. We value capitalism, we value money, we value items. We're
26:34
not necessarily valuing connection people, family, and so the CDC as a few
26:41
recommendations to prevent suicide on a societal level that I thought was kind of interesting.
26:45
So improving financial security was a big one, which is tough in the
26:49
United States as wealth inequality has exploded and a lot of people what Bernie Sanders
26:56
gives the statistic all the time of eighty percent of Americans can't afford a five
27:00
hundred dollar payment a surprise five hundred dollar payment, So that is stressful in
27:04
and of itself. Financial insecurity can increase your cortisol levels and increase that stress
27:11
make you more likely to develop mental health problems and increase your risk for suicide.
27:15
So I think, as if we want to fix this, we have
27:18
to fix it at a societal level. Other things that you can do are
27:22
reducing access to lethal means. We live in the country with the most guns
27:26
per capita, and I know that guns don't kill people. People kill people,
27:30
but when you have guns everywhere and it's so easy to get your hands
27:36
on them, that does increase the risk of people dying by suicide. Governmental
27:41
policies to improve access to care and increase the number of providers. Those are
27:45
some other factors that can help reduce suicide. And teaching coping mechanisms and problem
27:52
solving in skills, which are kids taught that these days in school or at
27:56
least in Oregon for someone who's not in the public education like field. Right,
28:00
there's this thing that's been pushed over the last few years called like social
28:03
emotional learning, and I think that the core of that is to be better
28:10
and tuned with like your emotions and like the people around you, and like
28:12
how to function. I think there is like a push to teach more coping
28:17
skills and to talk about that kind of thing. I for one, go
28:19
to all the health classes and give a talk about like self care, and
28:23
then I also talk about the internet and social media use. I think what
28:26
I've seen over and I'm only talking about my school, but over the last
28:30
few years, just like different organization organizations on campus or clubs wanting to promote
28:36
certain like wellness things, wellness topics. So I think there is at least
28:38
a little bit of a push from like a Department of education thing. It
28:42
probably very state to state, but I think the I mean, if there's
28:47
one thing that I will say, there's there's a specific group of people who
28:49
like freak out about certain topics in schools. One of them, recently,
28:53
there's been an attack on social emotional learning. So my guess is it is
28:57
a nationwide thing that they're trying to bring to schools. Good needs to happen,
29:02
And yeah, I think that's a little bit more important than calculus.
29:06
But that's just me as as a psychiatrist. Some discussion questions. I know,
29:11
we talked a little bit about how you shouldn't use the phrase committing suicide
29:15
because I mean, if you think about it, like, yeah, it's
29:18
using a legal term to describe like a mental health tragedy, but what other
29:23
language, like how should we talk about this any other things that you would
29:26
avoid saying what do you think Eddie? Describing a situation where someone has passed
29:32
away, fallen an attempt, you can describe it has died by suicide.
29:36
I noticed on the news that they've started to do that more, like they
29:38
say, like this person died by suicide instead of like commit So I think
29:41
that's really helpful and I guess cool, I guess I think that's okay to
29:47
say when talking about suicide with people saying directly like are you thinking about suicide?
29:52
Are you having suicidal thoughts? You can also say things like this is
29:56
a little more not as direct, but are you having safety concerns that can
30:00
up opened the door to if someone says, yes, tell me about them.
30:03
Are they Are you having suicidal thoughts? Are you having plans like that
30:07
kind of thing. I think the more direct the better. Like we've talked
30:11
about, I think people who are struggling, people who are hurting sometimes don't
30:15
know the way to bring it up or how to say it directly. So
30:18
if we can take the directness part and do it ourselves, I think that
30:22
helps people a ton. What is your experience with working with those who struggling
30:26
with suicidal thoughts? Like what's as someone who works in healthcare mental health?
30:33
Like what do you think, Like, what's what's the hardest part? I
30:34
think the hard part is having one teens who have never said anything to their
30:40
parents, So like now, like what do you mean, Like do you
30:41
have to tell my parents? Like yeah, Like my biggest thing is I
30:45
just want to make sure you're okay, Like I need somebody. I need
30:48
an adult to know, especially someone that's going to look after you. People
30:51
worry that they're gonna be I guess we just said not to use the word,
30:53
but it is illegal word. So committed to like a hospital committed to,
30:57
you know, involuntarily held. They worry about that, and I think
31:03
I can never guarantee that that will never happen to someone who's having suicidal thoughts.
31:08
I will say there's a lot of steps to get to that point.
31:11
So I think the more that someone is able to try to get help and
31:15
be open and recepted to help, that can hopefully help avoid that kind of
31:18
situation. But I think people would just end up being really scared to say
31:22
something because they don't want to feel like something's wrong with them or like they
31:25
did something wrong. They don't want to feel like they're disappointing people like oh,
31:27
please don't tell my parents, like I don't want them to be upset
31:30
or worried. Like I think we're working with a group of kids now who
31:34
would rather take the brunt of everything than to pass it on to other people.
31:38
So they're more willing to keep things to themselves to not worry others.
31:41
And I think that's one thing we definitely need to move away from. But
31:45
what's your experience been, Like, Yeah, I gotta say the hardest thing
31:48
for me is I've had to send kids to the emergency room. Usually if
31:52
you see someone in an outpatient clinic and they're having suicidal thoughts and they don't
31:57
want to go into the hospitpital. You have to send it to the emergency
32:00
room first. And I hate our process because I wish I could just get
32:07
them right into the psych hospital. But oftentimes the psych hospitals are full.
32:12
So there's been cases where I've sent kids to the emergency room and they sit
32:15
in there for days, days, waiting to get into a psych hospital.
32:19
Here I am telling this kid, I think this is what's best for you,
32:22
and then they sit in the emergency room for three days and it's like,
32:27
Okay, I feel like I lied to them, because sitting in the
32:30
ED is not good for anyone. And so our process just kind of sucks
32:36
in this country, and a lot of kids end up. I see kids
32:39
spend a week in the emergency room just waiting to get into a psych hospital,
32:44
waiting for a bed to open up. So that's the thing that bothers
32:47
me the most as a psychiatrist. I wish there were more resources. I
32:52
wish we could get kids into psych hospitals sooner. I wish we didn't have
32:54
to send them to a standard emergency room because I've even sent young people who
33:00
are actively suicidal to the emergency room and then they go in there and they
33:04
tell the ED dog like oh yeah, like I'm totally fine, I'm not
33:07
having suicidal thoughts. And then they get discharged from the ED and then I
33:10
call and I'm like, hey, where's that patient. They're like, oh,
33:13
we let them go. They were cool, cool guy. And it's
33:15
just like, oh, come on, I sent you them specifically, I
33:19
sent you notes. I've talked to the charge ners. So sorry. This
33:22
is my frustration coming out with the system where it just it doesn't work great,
33:27
and every hospital is different in terms of their process for getting kids into
33:30
the hospital, and it's never that good. There's been times when I was
33:32
in the crisis team where like I'd be in the emergency department and like just
33:37
seeing like all the phones ringing, like people coming in, like firefighters,
33:40
EMTs, paramedics, Like there's just chaos the whole time. So it's like,
33:46
you know, we wish they'd be able to keep track of you know,
33:49
patients we send or notes we send and things like that, but then
33:52
it's like how are they supposed to do with all this stuff going on?
33:53
Like you're right, Like, it's just it's wild as it's a mess.
33:57
Unfortunately the ED has to just like pick up the slack for all the other
34:00
failing social services in this country. Yeah. Absolutely, What about when talking
34:07
to Appear I've already mentioned like it can be hard and it can be difficult,
34:10
but like if you're able to support somebody, like please do you know,
34:14
to the best of your abilities, but like what can we do?
34:17
What can someone who's listening do to help Appear who's struggling? Use open questions,
34:22
start off with like what's going on? What are you struggling with?
34:25
Tell me, tell me what you're dealing with. Like I want to help.
34:30
I want to listen and then listen as much as you can talk the
34:34
least amount possible, don't interrupt them. I think as a whole man,
34:38
I'm really negative on our society tonight. I'm a very optimistic person, but
34:43
our society doesn't do a very good job of listening. Like, if you
34:45
listen to most conversations, people are constantly interrupting with each other, talking over
34:50
each other. If someone is feeling suicidal and someone butts in and goes,
34:53
oh, well, your life isn't that bad? Like, you're you're not
34:55
doing that bad, You're not feeling suicidal. Right, what are they going
34:59
to do? What's their re Actually, they're gonna shut down. They're not
35:00
going to open up to that person. They're gonna keep it all inside and
35:04
bottle it all up. So listen, be direct, be empathetic, don't
35:08
interrupt, and just try and be there for that person. There's a lot
35:12
of listening to just give a quick answer and not so much to listen to
35:15
support and like express empathy and like, yeah, any other tips on helping
35:22
people help peers. I think, like we've talked about already, just being
35:24
direct, letting them know that you're there for them. I think sometimes people
35:28
just will assume that they're by themselves, they don't have other people there to
35:32
support them. So I know it could be really helpful for someone to here
35:37
directly from their support people like I'm not upset, I'm just here for you,
35:40
Like let's talk this out. Yeah, that's a big one because I
35:44
think people have the expectation because even going back to the phrase committing suicide,
35:51
it's a double whammy. You're not only breaking the law, you're doing something
35:54
like there's so much wrapped up in this and I think people feel that they
35:59
shouldn't have these thoughts, they need to hide these thoughts. So just being
36:02
open and supportive and saying like how can they have to focus the intent of
36:07
how can we get you help instead of like, how can we invalidate your
36:10
feelings and tell you that you're fine? Yeah? How can we exactly?
36:13
Yeah? How can we? How can we see you see the help,
36:16
you see the bright side? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, this is the
36:20
point, this is the mark. Yeah yeah. Well, thank you everyone
36:23
for listening to this newest episode. Thank you all for rocking with us this
36:28
long. We're hitting an episode one hundred with our next one. We hope
36:31
this was helpful, whether for you or somebody you know. We just want
36:36
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36:40
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36:44
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37:15
all for listening and as always, take care of your mentals.