Hello and welcome to “Leaving The Valley.” We’re having a father-daughter talk about suicide. Why? Well, because suicide, unfortunately, is all too common. It’s the second leading cause of death for young people (ages 10-34) and in the top 10 causes of deaths for Americans. But just in case you’re asking yourself- “Why do I need to know anything about suicide? I’m not suicidal.” We think that’s a great question.
There’s this commonly held belief that there are two types of people in this world. Those that would take their lives by suicide and everyone else.
The first group is viewed as “weak” or “cowardly,” “They just gave up on themselves and their family…” And then there’s everyone else in the other group who “would never do something like that.” That’s the way the story goes, right? That’s a myth. The truth is there is just ONE group of people in the world and under terrible circumstances anyone of us could become suicidal.
Understanding more about suicide will make you safer and those you care about.
We hope to create a community where people can talk about suicide and mental health. Where regular, everyday people, not just experts, understand what might trigger thoughts of suicide and how to help someone who is suffering from those thoughts. We hope we can move this subject out of the shadows and make it easier to talk about. We want to make suicidal thoughts easier to identify so that all of us can better spot them in ourselves or our friends and family. Finally, we hope that by sharing all of this info, less people will die by suicide.
Suicide is in the top 10 killers of adults in the US, and it’s the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-34. That’s a lot of people. In fact in 2018 48,344 people died by suicide and there were an estimated 1,400,000 suicide attempts according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
We’ve asked ourselves how much smaller that number would be if people thought about, talked about, and generally understood ways to prevent suicide the way people think about, talk about and generally understand ways to prevent other types of fatalities. Everyone knows you shouldn’t smoke or you’ll get cancer. Everyone knows to wear their seatbelt. What if people also understood the link between a relationship ending and suicide? Or about how feelings of isolation have a direct impact on who might attempt suicide? What if we as a society could better identify and intervene with suicidal individuals? Whose life might be saved if that’s the type of place where we lived? We can get there. We can get there together.
So we want to welcome you to “Leaving The Valley”. Throughout this site you’ll find resources and information to explore and share. For helpful reading click here and every other week we’ll be releasing a new episode of our podcast. Listen to them here.
Everyone knows to wear their seatbelt. What if people also understood the link between a relationship ending and suicide? Or about how feelings of isolation have a direct impact on who might attempt suicide? Click To Tweet