{"id":44619,"date":"2019-09-11T13:31:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T17:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=44619"},"modified":"2019-09-11T13:32:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T17:32:12","slug":"suicide-are-there-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/09\/suicide-are-there-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide – Are there answers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Dr. Glenn Mollette <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billionaire financier Jeffrey\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, recently hanged himself in prison. With a\nlifetime of prison ahead of him he chose suicide over going through another\ntrial, more accusations and a lifetime behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When comedian Robin Williams killed\nhimself, we were shocked. Williams had been dealing with depression for many\nyears and his mental illness overcame him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions were stunned when television\npersonality Anthony Bourdain was found dead after reportedly hanging himself in\nFrance. To many of us it seemed he had the perfect life. He traveled, ate the\nbest food and was rich and famous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suicide happens to people at every\nlevel. Pastor Jarrid Wilson, a California church leader, author and mental\nhealth advocate, died by suicide.  At the age of 30 he had a great\nministry, was well loved and had a precious family. All of his knowledge and\npersonal tools of the Christian faith did not help him to overcome his\ndepression and mental state.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017 there were 47,173 recorded\nsuicides, up from 42,773 in 2014.  The U.S. suicide rate increased\n24% between 1999 and 2014, from 10.5 to 13.0 suicides per 100,000 people, which\nwas the highest rate in 28 years according to the National Center for Health Statistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do people commit suicide? My\nfirst wife tried. After being on a respirator for three days the first words\nshe said to me after being taken off life support were, “why didn’t you\nlet me die?” Karen had severe Multiple Sclerosis. She was totally debilitated\nand could do nothing for herself, except think. As a prisoner in her own body\nshe believed that suicide was her hope of escape. Sadly, two years later she\ndied in a nursing home which was a place she had hoped to escape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most, suicide is the hope of\nescaping what seems to be impossible. There are many reasons why some people\nkill themselves. Sometimes they think it’s their way of having the final word\nin a failed relationship. Sometimes it’s their way of saying, “I told you\nthat things were bad in my life.” However, almost always suicide results\nfrom mental illness. Some people think and talk about it for a long time and\nfinally go through with it. For some people they commit suicide at a dark\nmoment in their lives when it appears the only way out is death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the answer? People must stay\nconnected to a few real meaningful relationships in life. Suicide victims feel\nalone. People need people they can safely be real with without harsh\ncondemnation for everything they do. This is why some churches and ministers\noften fail in relationship building.  Phony surface friendships\naren’t the answer. Next, help such as counseling and reasonable medication are\noften crucial. Talking to someone who has been trained and is able to help you\nis important. Hope is imperative. It’s hard to imagine that media personalities\nsuch as Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain felt hopeless but to them it was on\nanother scale. One person’s mental state of hopelessness is not the same for\nanother. This is why people need help in ciphering through the fog of their\nminds to make sense of their mess and to see a light at the end of the tunnel\nof their desperation. Prayer, meditation, spiritual direction, counseling,\nmedication, group support, work, activity, hobbies, going to school and plans\nare all tools in the fight against mental illness and suicide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be attentive to the people in your\nlife. Give love, understanding, hope and be helpful. Care enough to talk,\nlisten and be a friend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Glenn Mollette  Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, recently hanged himself in prison. With a lifetime of prison ahead of him he chose suicide over going… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}