STOP THE STIGMA!

Yesterday I posted about suicide in general and addressing the problem: Today in addition to giving a couple of great resources for studies and statistics and help I would like to look at society and suicide.

I grew up with a belief that if you committed suicide you were automatically going to hell. That It meant you did not trust God enough to handle your problems and you were weak. There was this fear of suicide and it was almost like somewhere along the way I had been taught these things to scare me out of ever thinking about suicide.

As an adult I look at depression and suicide in a much different light. Depression is a disease and if left untreated can cause a person to think and act in very unnatural ways. Through my studies I cannot find anywhere in the Bible that states that those who commit suicide are going to Hell. You don’t go to Hell for a heart attack even though you lived an unhealthy lifestyle and ate too much of the wrong food. You are not condemned to Hell if you die as a result of any other disease so why then would suicide as the result of depression be any different.

We cannot begin to understand what is going through a person’s mind when they are suffering from depression. Even though I may have depression it is not the same as someone else who has depression and we just don’t know what that person is going through.

We have to stop condemning those who are depressed and making them feel like they are broken or unfixable or some type of pariah to society.

Listen, if you are suffering from depression YOU ARE NOT ALONE. THERE IS HELP. IT IS OKAY TO TALK ABOUT IT.

Growing up believing what I did about suicide I would have never told anyone I was depressed because I did not want to be seen as weak or any less of a person.

So if I am going to have a tagline I will let it be this STOP THE STIGMA! It’s okay to talk about depression and your mental health. If you have a stomach ache you tell someone so why don’t we speak up when our mind is hurting.

STOP THE STIGMA!

https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics

· Please check out the link for more statistics:

Here are just a few I pulled:

Anxiety disorders are highly treatable yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.

In 2015 there were approximately 16.1 million Americans aged 18 or older that had experienced at least one depressive episode in the last year. That is 6.7 % of all American adults.

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/depression-teens · Another great resource and I will just drop a few highlights here:

Recent surveys indicate that as many as one in five teens suffer from clinical depression. It is difficult to diagnose because many adults just think teens are being “moody”.

The pressure on kids is at an all-time high:

School, making friends, playing sports, fitting in, living up to expectations.

Each year almost 5,000 young people ages 15-24 commit suicide.