Darkened Pathways to Suicide
This is a really, really hard, and dark time for family and close friends to go through and it leaves them with a constant stream of thoughts of what they could’ve said or done differently to change this final decision that was made. There are few, if not any that haven’t been touched by this, whether a family member or friend.
I believe the reason more of a dialog isn’t had between the public and the ones that study this, (CDC, FDA, and others in charge of public health services), is due to what a lot of these cases trace back to and have in common with each other.
Example: there are many people that suffer from pain, depression, and life altering tragedies, but what are the most common links that may factor in on the ones that choose to end it? Were they in intense pain? Were they in a deep depression? Did they go through a life-altering situation? Were they fixing the problem or were they medicating the problem? Was guidance given beyond a piece of paper with a psychotropic medication order or refill? Were they on combination drug therapy (such as prescription pain meds and S.S.R.I. drugs)?
It can be easy to let the sadness and hurt turn to anger by the ones left behind as well as ones a little further removed from the situation to judge a person or situation verbally or mentally, but it is important to realize that we cannot properly judge a person who’s shoes we have not personally walked in. And unless we know what it feels like to sink into a black hole of despair (without a glimmer or a ray of hope that things will get better), it is hard for us to understand.
Suicide from sudden impulse: I follow the research of a neurosurgeon (Dr. Russell Blaylock) and one particular article stood out to me where he spoke about the development (or underdevelopment) of the shadow region of the brain. He noticed how that attention spans were getting shorter when he gave class lectures, and he attributed this to rapid sources of information from tech devices. Accepting information at face value without research tends to not involve counter intuitive parts of the brain (shadow region) and when this is underdeveloped our capability to counter sudden thoughts with logic become less and less.
Example: if you have the sudden urge to hit someone that made you angry, what stopped you? Was it because they did something to calm you down or was it because you countered your anger with a host of reasons that you should not do this? When this part of the brain is not functioning or is not properly developed, a person’s capability to counter sudden impulse is weakened.
Pain and (or) disease: most times when we get hurt, have a chronic illness, debilitating condition, or disease, and we have hope of getting rid of the pain or disease, it encourages us to fight our way back. But if it’s a terminal disease, debilitating or deteriorating condition and if we are given no hope that the pain, we are in will ever get better, a person may begin to look at their life as already being over and decide to end it. I personally believe the power for healing and recovery that is given to a person by his or her Creator should never be taken away from them by another human being.
The Mayo Clinic on pain and depression: pain and depression are closely related. Depression can cause pain and pain can cause depression. Sometimes pain and depression create a vicious cycle in which pain worsens symptoms of depression, and then the resulting depression worsens feelings of pain.
We know what comes next…antidepressant prescriptions.
Suicide because of depression: depression can turn the lights of hope off in a person’s brain and if not properly remedied can put a person in a very dark place. It may temporarily change someone’s outlook by taking antidepressants, but it does nothing to change the depressing situation, just like pain pills do not remedy the pain your body is in, it simply makes so you can’t feel it. I do not have answers for this since everyone’s pain and depression is unique to them as an individual, but we should all realize that when we do not acknowledge pain and depression and do something real about what is causing it (instead of just medicating it), it tends to get worse.
Questions we should ask are: what is causing my body to hurt and what can I do to stop it? What is causing my depression and what can I do to make this situation better? What can I do to measure my actions so that I do not act on impulse in situations that may hurt myself or someone else? Am I including regular exercise, (a great feel-good dopamine stimulator and regulator)? Personally, though being in the health and fitness business for over 30 years, the one thing that I believe is better than any single solution for depression, is faith in God, to work things out and as a guide, friend and confident through troubled waters.
There are pathways to suicide that can become highways for someone that loses hope, and we can only try to create pathways for change and hope around ourselves and the ones we care about. If you lost someone you care about to suicide (no matter how long it has been), my prayer is that you will be able to find the happiness and peace that the one you are missing would want for you.
