Today, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day. The World Health Organization designated this day in order to raise awareness of mental health issues throughout the world. And so, today, I pause to remember all of the many patients I cared for in my nursing career who suffered from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, to name a few. It also gave me pause to consider my own mental health.

To clarify any stigma and to help those to understand, someone once told me people with depression should just snap out of it or better yet “get Jesus”. Those who are plagued by mental illness detest those pat answers/“solutions”.

Here’s what I know for certain from caring for others as well as caring for myself, who also had a difficult struggle with depression. You wish you could snap out of it. If you are a believer, your mind knows Jesus is the divine healer, yet if that’s so, then why do you feel so despondent? You try to transform your mind through scripture and prayer. You smile through your pain when your heart is breaking. You make sure to take care of others and make others happy since you can’t do that for yourself. You think it’s all in your head yet it’s really not just “in your head” because you know mental illness is like any other disease process – there is a cause. Depression is a flaw in chemistry not character.

I have a story. It’s a story I don’t want to tell … not because of the shame and stigma associated with mental illness but because I made it through to the other side and for that reason I don’t feel the need to dredge up the past. I am, though, incredibly grateful to my therapists, medication and Pastor Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life and Dr Robert Schuller’s book, The Be (Happy) Attitudes.

But what about those who didn’t make it through to the other side? What was their tipping point? Those who gave up on life, what tipped them over the edge? I’ve been told suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

I’ve also been told people commit suicide because the emotional pain in their brain becomes more than they can bear. At what point do those who have hung themselves in college or shot themselves with a gun or taken a bottle of pills or whatever choice of how to end their lives, what was their tipping point? If we could answer that question, maybe, just maybe, parents, friends, spouses, brothers and sisters would not have to experience the pain of a loss so deep that causes them to lose their breath, or crumble to the floor in gut-wrenching sobs, or drink themselves into a stupor to numb the pain.

This is what I want us all to consider. If you know someone with mental illness or someone you are concerned would harm themselves, don’t wait for them to confide their “secret” to you. Help them help themselves. Love them. Talk to them. Offer to get them help.

Most importantly give them the number for the National Suicide Prevention Life Line which is 1-800-273-TALK. There is someone to talk to at this number 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. All calls are confidential. You can also go to
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Reach out … you might be the difference for someone not hitting their tipping point.