Latest / Celeste The Therapist / EP 497 Understanding Suicide: Breaking the Silence and Offering Hope

Transcript

EP 497 Understanding Suicide: Breaking the Silence and Offering Hope · Celeste The Therapist

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You are now tuned in to Celeste, the therapist podcast. Hello,
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my name is Celeste. Thank you so much for giving me a try. If
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you are new here, I wanna say thank you so much for checking me
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out. What we do here is I talk about
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areas of our lives that we get stuck in. I
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talk about why we get stuck and I help you shift the way
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you think about it by giving you practical tools. I'm
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all about using what you have, starting where you can. And
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I think a lot of times people tend to give up because they
0:36
don't understand why they're feeling this things that they're
0:40
feeling or why things are happening. And I find that
0:43
the more educated we are about a topic, the
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better it is for us to create change in our
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life. If you are a longtime listener, thank you so much for
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sticking it out with me. I appreciate you. If
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you enjoy these episodes that I do, Do
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me a favor, share it with somebody that you love. If you want a
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topic discussed, all you got to do is email me info at
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Celeste, the therapist.com. If you want to follow me, you can
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follow me everywhere at Celeste, the therapist. Also,
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I have a whole wellness center that I created called
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shifting the way you think. And if you want to learn more about
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the wellness center, get involved, attend 1 of the classes. All
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you gotta do is go to dot com again.
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That's dot com.
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All right, let's get into this amazing episode.
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All right. Hello, hello, hello, beautiful people. So
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my name is Celeste and I'm a therapist. I
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just want to shout out to Michelle who
1:49
sent me the shirt, My Therapist is Black. I love
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the shirt. If you're new here, I talk
1:56
about things that we struggle with and then try to give you
2:00
some education and awareness and tips. Today's subject,
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we're talking about suicide, and
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it's such a taboo topic. It's a subject that people think, like,
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we don't want to talk about it, because if we talk about it, then it
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can encourage someone to do something, which is not true.
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Right. I'm all about putting everything out on the table,
2:22
being transparent. A lot of people are struggling with so many different
2:25
things, but I see that people struggle in
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silence. And this podcast was created in 2018 because
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I wanted people to have a free avenue to
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help them on their journey, on their healing journey, on their discovery of
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who they are and why they work the way they work,
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right? The more you understand yourself, the better it is. Like we
2:48
don't come with the manual, you know, you get instructions on
2:51
how to set something up. And sometimes people throw those instructions away
2:55
and they have to go back out the trash and be like, let me see
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what this, what it says. We don't come with a manual,
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but the more we understand and make space
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and time to pay attention to what's going on,
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we will start to understand ourselves better. And I promise you,
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understanding yourself better feels so good
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because now you're not feeling like everything is happening to you. So
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this episode is good for people that might be struggling with SI,
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IDH, suicidal. I'll say SI, but struggling
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with those kinds of thoughts. Or if you are a loved one
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trying to get support for someone in your life, I
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want this episode to be something that encourages and empowers you.
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I want you to take heed to the things that I'm saying and
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try to implement some things in your life that may stick out
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for you. All right, so let's just start with what
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is the definition of suicide. And it
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says it's the act of intentionally causing harm on
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one's death, which happens a lot. If
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we were to look at the stats, more than
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720,000 people died due to suicide every year. Suicide
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is the third leading cause of death amongst 15 to
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29-year-olds. And then
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73% of global suicides occur in low and middle income families. income
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countries, which is very interesting. So
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those are some stats that you may not be aware of. And
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I know I feel like the age is getting younger and younger, and where
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people are kind of losing hope. One thing about the
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mind that's important to remember is that it doesn't have concept of
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time. What I do know is a lot of people are struggling with
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feeling the stored pain or the stored trauma in their body, in
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their system. and their thoughts. And this podcast,
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like all of these episodes that you could find, over 400 episodes,
4:55
where I'm sharing a story or I'm talking about an issue. And
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these episodes will help you start to see a
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way out, right? I'm big on shifting the way you
5:06
think, because if you get stuck in your head, it's
5:09
so easy to feel hopeless and feel like nothing's going
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to change. And as somebody who understands
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how easy it is for these thoughts to get stuck in
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your head, which is why I do what I do, which is why I
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have this platform. I have this amazing
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passion to help people understand themselves,
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understand their journey. so that they can have hope, right?
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That's my main mission in life,
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right? I recognize this is my purpose because it comes easily.
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It's something I can do without getting paid is teaching people
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about mental health and about themselves. These are
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some common risk factors. And if you are listening to me on the audio,
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this podcast does stream on YouTube as well. And I
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have visuals for people that are more visually inclined,
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where I'm putting up information so that you can see it while
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I'm talking about it. So some common risk
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factors. If you're struggling with a mental disorder, if
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you're struggling with depression, anxiety, bipolar, that's
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people that are at high risk. If you have physical disorders
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or struggle with substance abuse, also high risk. With
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these physical ailments, dealing with pain a lot,
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it's easy for you to struggle with some kind of depression or
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feeling hopeless. Impulsive acts
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driven by financial issues, relationship problems, or
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bullying. People that are in high
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stressful situations, it's easy to make a
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permanent decision in the moment of dealing with high
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stress, right? Because in those moments, you feel like you can't see your
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way out. And then people who may have had a
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previous attempt of suicide are also at
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a higher risk for suicide. Now,
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these are some things I wanted you to understand what
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suicide is, kind of the stats and the risk factors, right?
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Now, the rest of this segment, we're going to talk about strategies, ways
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that you can think about working on
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creating a toolbox for yourself, right? If you're struggling, or
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if you are a loved one of somebody who struggles, I want
7:25
to help empower you. Like I think, so I'm a therapist, right? A
7:28
real therapist. People say, are you a real therapist? I'm a real therapist. And I
7:32
went to school for this. But I also have a lot of wisdom.
7:36
I read a lot. And so I don't want people to feel because
7:39
they are not a therapist that they can't help their loved
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one. I think if you equip yourself with enough information, I
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want you to be empowered. So I'm going
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to give you these 10 different things that you could think about and
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they are in no order. It's not like one supersedes the other. They
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just happen to be posted in the way that is posted. Um,
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so take what you can leave, what you can't write. So some prevention,
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um, one seeking professional help. Um, so as you
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can see on the screen, I have therapy, counseling, medication. Um,
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now I believe in therapy and I believe that therapy
8:16
can help, right? Therapy's helped me. I help people through
8:20
therapy. I also know that therapy can
8:23
be challenging to get, right? You see, I got my shirt. My therapist is
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Black. There's like 4% of people in America that are
8:30
Black. And if you are a Black person,
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a lot of times you want to talk to somebody that looks like you, and that can be
8:36
challenging. Or finances can prevent you from being able
8:40
to see someone, right? But If you
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are comfortable or have insurance or thinking about seeing a therapist, right?
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That could be something that can be helpful. I also have one
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here, medication. In some cases, medication may be necessary to manage
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underlining medical conditions like depression and anxiety. I
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am somebody who, I'm not a person that's
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like, oh, no medication, but I am somebody that thinks about
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like, let's look at other ways that we can work on ourselves. and
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let medication be a last resort, right? I've never had to
9:12
take medication, but I work with people who ended up
9:16
taking medication and finding some relief. And then they've
9:19
been able to work through some things and get off. And some people are still on
9:23
it and it helps them manage some of their symptoms, right? So
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that is one avenue that can help, especially when
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people are dealing with like deep anxiety
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that is hindering them from dealing with
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everyday life stuff. A lot of times with the medication, it
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can help people like take the edge off so that they can get
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to a place to work on themselves and work on the things that they
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need to work on. So that's one kind of intervention.
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Follow-up and check-ins. So regular check-ins, encouraging your
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friends and family to check in regularly with individuals who are struggling, and
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then monitoring progress. Encourage individuals to keep track
10:03
of their feelings and progress. and to communicate any
10:07
changes to their support network. This is important. If
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you are somebody who has a friend or a family member that's struggling, check
10:14
in with them. You don't have to understand what they're going
10:17
through. A lot of times we don't understand, so don't say
10:21
like, oh, I get it if you don't get it. But listening, sometimes
10:24
just listening is helpful. When it comes to monitoring progress,
10:29
I think being able to check in with yourself how you're feeling so
10:32
that you can see, you know what? Yesterday, between one and 10, I
10:36
was feeling like a four, but today I'm feeling like a six. My
10:39
mood is a lot higher. Being able to see your growth is important
10:44
because it allows you to be like, okay, I'm stepping
10:48
a step forward. I'm progressing. So
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monitoring your progress with your emotions. It's also
10:56
good to monitor your emotions and your progress and
10:59
pay attention to how you're feeling so that you can understand your
11:02
triggers. Sometimes there are things in our lives or people in
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our lives that are very triggering, but because they've always been
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around or because we've always done things a certain way, we always deal
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with family because we were taught family is important. We
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don't realize how they could be hindering us or triggering us, right?
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So the more you start to monitor the things that you're
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feeling and the ways that you find yourself affected, again,
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you'll be able to create that manual where you can start to understand what
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it is that ticks you off, what it is that motivates you, right?
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How could you understand yourself if you are not doing
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anything to monitor when you find yourself
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struggling? The next prevention thing
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I want you to think about is encouraging meaningful activities.
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So engagement in hobbies is important. Volunteering
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can be something that's important. When you are doing things
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that you love, I know a lot of creative people who find themselves
12:04
just working, working and not doing anything creative. And so we
12:07
work on a plan and talk about the importance of adding some creativity
12:11
to your life, no matter what that looks like, right? I'm
12:15
somebody who I started learning how to cook
12:18
out of necessity. Cooking for me is an outlet. Gardening
12:22
and my plants, they're an outlet for me, right? That's
12:25
something where I say it's a hobby. It's a hobby I learned. Actually, when
12:28
it came to cooking, if you don't follow me on social
12:32
media, you could follow me on Instagram, all social media. platform,
12:35
Snapchat, TikTok at Celeste, the therapist where I share a
12:39
lot of my life. But being able
12:42
to learn how to cook and garden and I have a really amazing
12:46
plants. I cook really well. I actually learned on YouTube and
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I always like to share that because it's a free place that you can get information
12:54
and it's an outlet for me. Right. So what are your
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outlets? What are the hobbies you're engaged in? Right. And
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if you're asking, like, what does this have to do with suicide? Being
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able to have a plan or create things in your
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life, I look at it as your toolkit for
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living, right? When it comes to surviving life, we know we gotta eat,
13:16
we know we gotta drink water, we know we need sleep, right? That's
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surviving. We know we gotta work to get paid. When it comes to
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living life, I feel like we don't have those tools, right?
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And so when you think about being able to engage in meaningful
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activities, that can bring you so much joy. And if
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you're saying to me, as you're listening to this, Celeste, I
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don't know what that looks like. I would encourage you to start,
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maybe start with thinking about things you may have liked when you were younger, or
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start to Pay attention to
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the things that you see that like bring you joy or
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puts a smile on your face, right? I promise you there's
13:56
something that you can engage in that
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can bring you joy and that you may find
14:03
yourself loving. I didn't love cooking at first. And
14:07
like I said, I did it out of necessity. And so
14:10
it's something that like really brings me joy to cook for
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my family and for others. The next thing I
14:17
want you to think about is limiting access
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to means. So removing dangerous items, so like
14:25
firearms, medication. These are for people that may be struggling with
14:29
suicidal thoughts, sharp objects. That's
14:32
important. There are some people that will
14:36
have like these thoughts about it, right? If you find yourself having
14:39
thoughts about it, if you feel that you're
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unsafe, right? Find a trusted
14:46
friend, family member, and anything, especially
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if you've attempted in the past, get those things
14:54
out of your house, get them out of your room, right? Shop
14:58
objects, like, so that it's not something that you're thinking about
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going to, right? And again, when it comes to suicide,
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right, I tell people that Sometimes when
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things get hard, you tell yourself like, I wish I wasn't here,
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right? And so that's a suicidal ideation. That's
15:17
the thoughts that you have. And a lot of people, including myself, have
15:20
had those thoughts of like, I wish I wasn't here. When you
15:24
start to think about a plan, that's when
15:27
it gets really scary. And these things that I'm
15:30
talking about today is because I want to help you not get to that point where
15:34
you are creating a plan, where you start envisioning yourself. I've
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talked to people who have attempted in the
15:43
hospital and met with them, and they
15:47
talked about this stuff. I've talked to people who were creating a
15:50
plan. I talked to people who were family members of
15:54
people who had just passed away due
15:57
to suicide. So it's such a really hard
16:01
subject where a lot of people are left with
16:05
no answers. Because I've been able to
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talk to people for a living who have been in this process, I
16:12
have a deeper understanding on what's going on.
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And so I really want to encourage you, anytime you find yourself
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thinking about a plan of of what you would do.
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It's dangerous, right? And I want you to get in tune.
16:28
I want you to reach out for support. There's
16:32
a safety hotline you can call, right? I
16:36
really want you to think about that. But again, if sharp
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objects, if you do own a weapon, if medications
16:44
is something that You think about like
16:47
using, like, start to get out of your head. You
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can't do this by yourself. I'm going to say that one more time. You cannot do this by yourself.
16:55
So if you don't have a trusted friend or family member, reach out
16:59
for support. I'm going to give you numbers that you can
17:02
call because I really want to give you hope. The
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next thing I want you to think about is healthy lifestyle
17:10
choices Creating a healthy lifestyle
17:14
can actually improve your mental health, believe it or not. When
17:17
it comes to your physical health, so physical
17:21
activity can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, creating
17:25
a balanced diet that can support your overall
17:29
wellbeing and sleep. Stressing the importance of good sleep
17:32
hygiene. This is something I'm always talking about on the podcast, on
17:37
my stories and my Instagram and social
17:40
media. I'm talking about my life, how I'm trying to move my body.
17:45
how that the foods are important. And if
17:48
you live in America, I promise you, they don't care about the type of
17:51
foods that they are putting in the
17:56
food choices that we have. A lot of the foods that
18:00
are created here and the ingredients that are used here
18:03
are banned in other countries. So they
18:06
really don't care. And I really wanna emphasize
18:10
the importance of Yes, you may have a
18:13
long way to go of changing your food choices, but
18:17
I don't want you to not try. I shared this story
18:21
a million times, but when I was trying to work on my health and
18:26
I was working out, I would go to Burger
18:29
King and have a Whopper. It was one of my favorite meals,
18:33
I love burgers, not realizing I was defeating the
18:36
purpose. It's not about not having that burger, but
18:40
it's about not having that burger every day. Greens wasn't
18:43
a part of my diet or anything like that. It's kind of
18:47
like eating on the go, that was normal for me. So
18:51
once I recognized that's not the best thing to do, I found
18:55
myself saying, okay, I'm going to make this change. So
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I went out and brought all these healthy things, but that
19:02
was hard. Those healthy things went to waste because I
19:05
didn't know how to incorporate that into my diet. So I started
19:09
educating myself. Months turned into years, and
19:12
I started with breakfast. I literally just started making smoothies
19:16
in the morning. I'm like, you know what? Let me try to just start my day with the smoothie.
19:20
My lunch and dinner was probably crap back then, right? But
19:24
at least I got the breakfast out of the way. It was a very intentional
19:27
process. So I think sometimes we think we got so far away
19:31
to go when it comes to trying to work on our
19:35
healthy choices. Instead of thinking about, oh
19:38
my gosh, I got this long way to go. How about thinking about what
19:41
can I do right now in this moment to create change? right?
19:45
So educate yourself, YouTube, there's podcasts,
19:49
there are free resources where you're listening to people that are
19:52
talking about it. I listened to people talking about different
19:56
changes that you can make in your food choices. And over time,
20:00
it started to resonate with me. It was something that my mind
20:03
started to shift and create a way for me
20:06
to see the possibilities. You can't see the possibilities if
20:10
you're not feeding your mind with information that's going to teach you how
20:13
to create that change. When it comes to sleep, if
20:17
your sleep is horrible, start creating a
20:20
sleep routine. I promise you it can help. If
20:24
you are on your screen scrolling with that
20:27
light, that light, even if you're watching healthy things, like, which
20:31
I know is impossible. I don't care how much you curate your feed to
20:36
have like a kind of healthy way of thinking and living. something
20:40
could be thrown in there that could throw you off. So regardless of that,
20:43
that light on the phone is telling your mind that
20:47
we're still up and wired, right? So if
20:50
you can work on creating a nighttime routine 30 minutes before you
20:54
go to bed, Turn the phone off, put the phone away, right?
20:57
You can put on some, if you need some noise, put on some like sleep
21:01
sounds on YouTube, something that's familiar that
21:05
can help you sleep, right? If you are struggling with a lot of
21:09
thoughts before you go to sleep, you can have like a thought
21:12
journal by your bed and write those thoughts out.
21:16
Just because you go to sleep, if you're struggling with thinking a lot, it
21:19
doesn't mean that you're going to fall asleep. If you're dealing with a stressful
21:23
situation and your mind is trying to get answers, like,
21:26
oh my gosh, let's say you're about to start a new job. Oh
21:29
my gosh, what's going to happen tomorrow? Answer that thought.
21:33
I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I know I'm going to meet with Susie and
21:36
she's going to go over X, Y, and Z. A lot of times,
21:40
sometimes we're ruminating over things where our mind is just
21:43
really trying to get answers. It's doing what it's designed to do. Like
21:47
don't, sometimes I think it's hard because you feel like your
21:50
mind is deceiving you or you feel like, Oh, why is this happening? Right.
21:54
Instead of doing that, take time to think about what's going on in
21:58
your head. It can be scary to start to
22:02
access the thoughts that are happening, but what's scary is
22:05
the fact that you're living your life off of these thoughts. That may not be
22:09
true. A lot of the thoughts that you're experienced are from your past
22:12
trauma. the things that you've experienced, the things that you're
22:16
watching, the conversations you're having, right? So we're
22:19
constantly being bombarded with advertisement. If you live in a country
22:23
where advertisement, like it's capitalistic, like in
22:26
America, everything's about what can we sell people? Like,
22:29
how can we make people buy this thing? So a
22:33
lot of the things that are in your head are based off of so many
22:36
things that has nothing to do with wellness. And so
22:39
if you're not making time to meditate and think about what's going on,
22:43
what's happening is that you're allowing your thoughts to
22:47
be the lens on your life. And that is just not fair to
22:50
your overall wellbeing. Let's just
22:53
get into this advertisement real quick, and I'll come back with the last four.
22:57
I hope you're enjoying the episode. Quick announcement. I
23:00
want to give you some ways you can support, right? I have two books. One
23:04
is called Relationship Goals. It's a guide to a healthy relationship. I
23:08
also have a guided journal. And if you find yourself stuck
23:11
in thoughts, want to get your thoughts on paper, I ask you different
23:15
questions. And I also ask you how you're feeling. I provide you
23:18
with the feelings chart. If you go to CelesteTherapist.com, you
23:22
could find 365 days of intentional living along
23:26
with relationship goals. Another way you can support me,
23:29
I have this wellness center that I'm so excited about
23:33
called Shifting the Way You Think Wellness Center. At my center, I
23:37
do not want finances to be a reason why people can't get what
23:40
they need. So if you wanna donate a class to someone, please
23:44
feel free to go to my website, stwyt.com, and
23:49
you can give a donation. The classes run between 15 and
23:54
$35. My goal is for everyone to be able
23:57
to access these services regardless of finances. So
24:01
if you can donate, please donate to your Girl Center. I
24:05
would be greatly appreciated. All right, y'all, let's get back
24:08
into this amazing episode. All
24:13
right, so the next thing I want you to think about, whether
24:17
it's you or somebody that you love, is thinking about a safety plan,
24:20
right? So being able to identify triggers, helping individuals
24:24
recognize situations or feelings that might lead to these thoughts, which
24:27
we just talked about. Developing coping strategies, so
24:31
creating a list of coping strategies. and
24:35
distractions that can be used when the thoughts arise, and
24:38
emergency contacts. Include a list of people to contact in
24:42
crisis, friends, family, or mental health professionals. Next,
24:46
I'm going to share some coping strategies. But having
24:50
a safety plan is important because when you're struggling
24:54
with these thoughts, you start to forget there are some people that
24:57
you can call that care about you. There are some things that
25:01
you can do that can help in those moments. to help
25:04
you not be so caught
25:08
up in that thought of not wanting to be here. Because
25:11
the more you think that way and the more you stay by yourself, which is
25:15
why I said, if you're struggling with these thoughts, the worst thing you can
25:18
do is isolate yourself. I know you
25:21
may not feel like going to that support group. You may not feel
25:25
like doing those things that can help, but try
25:28
not to think about what you're feeling because those feelings are
25:31
temporary. They're not going to last. They're here for a moment, right?
25:35
And so I really want you to think about those things as you're trying to create your
25:38
safety plan. Being able to identify your triggers
25:42
can help you because if I am around certain people
25:46
and I recognize The way that they're operating in life is
25:50
making me feel sad or making me feel anxious. I'm going to limit
25:53
the amount of time I work with them, deal with them. For example, if
25:57
you have coworkers and you have to work together, but
26:01
then they're like, oh, let's go have some drinks after work, right?
26:04
And they're engaging in conduct or conversation that's
26:08
very triggering to you. And you're just sitting there going along with the flow and
26:11
thinking like, oh, because they're my coworkers. No, you
26:15
have autonomy over your life where you can say, you know, I'm going
26:18
to sit this one out, right? You don't have to say like, oh, you're triggering me, right? Like,
26:22
but you can not do it. But if
26:25
you're not aware that you're being triggered by it,
26:29
you're going to keep going out and having drinks with them after work. So
26:33
be mindful of the things that you struggle with
26:37
and when it happens. So again, you can understand yourself
26:41
better. Now, when it comes to coping strategies,
26:45
I want you to develop some coping strategies. Mindfulness and
26:48
relaxation, like working on deep breathing, are a
26:52
really great way. People who know me know
26:55
my favorite artist is J. Cole. He's
26:59
a great storyteller. He's so transparent. And
27:02
I just listened to his 10-episode podcast he did
27:05
with one of his best friends. And he talked about a
27:09
change that took place in his life. when he added meditation to
27:13
his life. It was so powerful. It was so powerful. He
27:17
said, I was getting ready to record this album and
27:21
it ended up being his best album. But he said, a
27:25
lady that was working with him said, oh, won't you try meditation? He
27:29
said, I started with five minutes, 10 minutes. He said, it was an amazing experience.
27:33
I got to understand myself better, understand what worked, understand what
27:37
didn't work, understood what set me off. And to this day,
27:41
he continues to meditate. And if you're somebody
27:44
that thinks that meditation is hard because I
27:47
have all these thoughts, yes, that's what's happening. You have all
27:51
these thoughts. And these thoughts are going to happen and
27:54
continue to go on whether you choose to be a part of it or not.
27:57
I say this a lot. Whether you're going to choose to be a part of your thoughts
28:01
or not, your thoughts are going to keep going. So
28:05
when you think about it, yes, it's hard initially. to
28:09
understand what's going on in your head, because it can feel scary, it can feel
28:12
hard. But over time, you start to
28:16
gain power back, right? Your thoughts are
28:19
in control of a lot of your decision makings on how you're feeling. And
28:22
if you work on engaging with what's happening in your head,
28:27
you can actually start to direct the path that you're going. So
28:30
meditation is a great coping strategy. Journaling
28:34
out your thoughts, another great coping strategy. When
28:38
I was younger, I used to write in my diary a lot.
28:41
And I remember writing and just feeling better,
28:45
right? So that's why I continued to write. I didn't know
28:48
anything about mental health, and I didn't understand what I was doing was
28:51
therapeutic. But it was so helpful
28:55
for me because when the thoughts are in your head,
28:58
it feels real. But when you say it out loud, when you write
29:02
it out loud, it has less power. So for instance, when
29:05
I'm working with people and they'll be like, yeah, I
29:09
can't do this. It's so hard. I can't
29:12
do it. And I said, oh, you can't? And I said, what makes you think you can't?
29:16
I start to challenge that thought with them out loud. And then
29:19
they start to reframe it and think, wait, actually, I could do this. But
29:23
if you don't write it out, if you're not talking it out, you're allowing
29:26
those thoughts to attach to the things
29:30
that didn't go well, or the things that you struggled with,
29:33
or the things people say you're not going to be able to do. For instance,
29:37
this podcast I started in 2018, I
29:41
remember people saying, you really want to start a podcast? Everybody
29:45
has a podcast. If I didn't think about those conversations and
29:50
declare power over my life, telling myself, no, I
29:53
can do this, what's going to happen is as I'm trying
29:56
to start this podcast, if I'm not mindful, I'm
30:00
going to let The thing that that person said stopped
30:04
me from starting this podcast. And we're in 2024, almost
30:09
in 2025. And I would have never started this podcast. I
30:12
would have never been able to help all the people that I helped through
30:15
this podcast. So I really want you to be
30:19
mindful of the thoughts that you're having. And
30:22
journaling could be a great, great thing. The
30:26
next one is like building your support network, right? So there
30:30
are amazing support groups. NAMI, N-A-M-I, is
30:34
a great one, right? And that's the National Alliance
30:37
of Mental Illness. And you can Google it. They
30:41
have a chapter in every state. But there
30:45
are support groups that you could find online now. That's
30:49
one thing that came out the pandemic is that people have been able
30:52
to get support online,
30:57
and that's something that wasn't really heard of before the
31:01
pandemic. Reaching
31:06
out to family and friends are important only
31:09
if they are supportive, right? I want to make sure they're supportive. Sometimes
31:29
you have people in your life that are not supportive. So
31:35
it's important that you know who the people in
31:38
your life. And when I say they're not supportive, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, but
31:42
sometimes people do not know how
31:47
to give you the support that they need because they don't even know how to give it for themselves. Right.
31:52
So that's important to remember. Now,
31:57
the last thing I want you to think about is crisis
32:01
hotline. Even if you're not feeling
32:05
like you have a plan and you just want
32:08
to talk, right? Because I know there are some people
32:11
that may not feel like they have somebody in their life they can talk to, right?
32:15
I know there are a lot of people that have that, but there are people that really don't have that.
32:19
So I really want you to think about this crisis hotline. It's
32:23
US, the National Prevention Line, 1-800-273-TALK. And
32:28
then there's a crisis text line. So
32:33
if you are somebody that don't want to talk and you'd rather text,
32:36
guess what? There's a text line that you can do. And the text
32:40
line, text hello to 741-741. I'll say that again. Text hello
32:43
to 741-741. And if someone's in immediate danger where there's no intervention,
32:58
at the planning stage, definitely reaching out to
33:03
911 is the best resort because sometimes people get
33:06
to that stage where they really need
33:11
more intervention. So again, this
33:14
is a really hard topic where I
33:18
know so many people who have been affected by this, right? I
33:22
get choked up a little bit just thinking about it. Sometimes
33:27
I can't believe how I'm still able to show up
33:30
and do what I do because the stories that I hear are
33:34
really hard. from families, from
33:37
people, they're really hard. And what
33:41
keeps me going is knowing that I'm going to educate somebody so
33:44
that they won't be the next person to feel
33:48
like this is the route that they have to take. I want to educate somebody
33:52
so if they may not have a therapist in their life or
33:55
a therapist that they can talk to, at least they'll be equipped with
33:58
some information. Some key points I want you to
34:01
take out of today is that suicide is a complex
34:05
issue influenced by various factors, and it's essential to
34:09
approach it with empathy and understanding. I've heard
34:13
people say, why would somebody do that? And it bothers me to
34:17
my core, because if you've never walked
34:21
in somebody's shoes, you can't really say like,
34:24
you can't really think that way, right? Like, I just want you to, and
34:28
if you're listening to this and you have thought that way, I just want
34:31
you to know, people are dealing with things that you can't see on
34:35
the outside. It looks good, but believe me, I know I do this work.
34:38
People are dealing with a lot of hard things that the naked
34:42
eye can't see, right? A lot of internal are, I
34:45
would say it's us against us. Sometimes we're fighting our
34:49
own thoughts, our own selves, right? So approaching
34:53
it with empathy and understanding. I also want you to take
34:56
away that prevention is possible, and there are effective strategies that
35:00
can reduce suicide, right? So it
35:03
is possible. Intervention is possible. And
35:07
then open discussion about mental health can help destigmatize the
35:11
topic and encourage those and need to seek help.
35:15
Like it's okay to talk about it, right? I don't want you to feel like
35:19
talking about it is a bad thing, right? Even mental
35:22
health, talking about it. When I first started, I
35:26
started posting on social media Uh,
35:29
probably back in like 2012, 13, I had this like
35:32
passion because, you know, I was working on myself and
35:36
I'm like, Oh, these, I'm learning all this stuff about like shifting
35:39
the way I think and, and these things. So I had a passion
35:42
to share with people and people were like, Oh, why are you doing that? Like
35:46
it was such a taboo thing back in 2012. Um,
35:49
it wasn't something that people were talking about. But
35:53
in my household, we talk about mental health the way we talk about pizza
35:57
with my clients. That's what it is. On my social
36:00
media, when people think about mental health,
36:04
they think about me because I'm always talking
36:07
about it. I'm always bringing it into people's awareness so that they are
36:11
aware, right? Because we're dealing with something that we can't see. But
36:14
if you pay attention, it's affecting your entire life. physically,
36:18
mentally, your choices that you're making. So I
36:21
want to give people a different avenue. So take those points
36:26
away. If this was helpful to you, I
36:29
would love to hear from you. You can message me
36:32
on social media, write under one of the posts. If
36:36
you enjoy it, share this with somebody that you love. You never know
36:39
how one of these episodes can really help people. And
36:43
if you want to support me, um, I have a couple of books. I also have
36:46
a class that's coming up about healing the inner child. We
36:50
have classes at the center. So if you are, um, in
36:53
the Boston area, the South shore area, uh, we actually,
36:57
I actually have a center where, um, we are having classes.
37:00
Um, I'm doing an online class as well on healing
37:04
the inner child. And I'm also going to be doing a free workshop
37:08
about um, thinking about your goals. I want people to
37:11
think about their goals and have a plan. So if
37:15
you want to work on creating a vision for yourself, um, all you gotta
37:18
do is go to stw yt.com slash events, and
37:22
you will find the links to the different things that are taking place. And
37:26
if you want to follow me, you can follow me everywhere, uh, by searching Celeste,
37:30
the therapist and until next time, beautiful people,