A successful suicide is 100% fatal. One hundred percent, so if you attempt it, unless it’s a superficial try, you better be serious about it. Stepping out in front of even a bicycle on the road, thinking they’ll just injure you, could kill you…and many others. Putting that noose around your neck for sexual pleasure, is a suicide attempt. You’re just hoping to catch yourself before you asphyxiate. Taking pain medications that aren’t yours, or maybe even are yours, but are more than you’re prescribed, just to get that nice slow burning high that can last for a while? That’s a suicide attempt. heroin? Yup, suicide attempt. We should start calling these things as they are. Not, “He overdosed on heroin, but they gave him Narcan and he survived.” No. He attempted suicide by using heroin. Any time you use a street drug, or a prescription drug for recreational use is a suicide attempt. And remember this, even an attempt can kill others. Suicide by crashing your car? Did you know that some people actually smash their car into someone else’s car in a suicide attempt? How many lives are shattered that way?
If you’re feeling like the only way out is to end your life, let me tell you that you are 100% wrong. It’s OK to be wrong this time. There absolutely is help for you, even if you think you’ve tried everything. New ideas for dealing with depression are being born every day. For example, did you know that there’s a new device, which treats depression and insomnia with absolutely no side effects? You just put it on your head like a headband, or like the old 70s sweat bands. The brand name is Fisher Wallace Stimulator. As their web site claims, it “comfortably stimulates the brain regions responsible for healthy mood and sleep”. There is also a possibility of known street drug, Ketamine, being re-purposed to help with severe depression, but this is still in trials, as the dosage needs to be just right, or…well…see the first paragraph. Not just depression, but anxiety is getting a lot of new research hopefuls around the corner with new brain mapping and whole body treatments, as well as others.
Meanwhile, before the serotonin starts to drop, you need to find a therapist of some sort, whom you can trust: a counselor, a social worker, a pastor, a rabbi, a psychologist, a mental health coach, whomever you feel comfortable with and has a certification for counseling in your state. After you find this person, you need to establish a healthy relationship with him or her. Meet with him/her regularly and create an atmosphere conducive to healing and growing mentally healthy. Then, if or when the need arises, and you require someone to help bring you down from a dangerous place, you have someone to call upon. Someone who knows you and your history. Someone who understands why you are where you are. Someone who can bring you back to a level of happy that you can live with. Maintain that relationship as long as you can.