 Guest Post by Steve Johnson Post Design by Christy Zigweid Photo by qimono via Pixabay made using @WordSwagApp Surviving a suicide attempt often leaves a person confused, conflicted, and unsure of where to go next. Receiving treatment for the underlying causes of your attempt is a critical first step but figuring out how to make that first step often is difficult for survivors. You also may not fully understand what you are going through, which makes your circumstances even more difficult. If you have survived a suicide attempt, there are some valuable resources to help you understand yourself and seek the help you need. The National Suicide Hotline
Psychology Today Psychology Today is a website with information on mental health written in terms that can be understood by the average person. This site can be a very useful resource if you’re not sure what is causing your suicidal thoughts. The better you understand your situation, the better able you will be to help yourself. Lifeline for Attempt Survivors Linelineforattemptsurvivors.org is a site devoted to the community of suicide attempt survivors. It contains information on every facet of being a suicide attempt survivor including tips on self-care from survivors like you, stories of recovery and hope, and personal stories about treatment. They also have a list of resources that can help you get help and recover. Speaking of Suicide Speakingofsuicide.com is a site for not just survivors but for friends, family, and healthcare professionals to help those who survive a suicide attempt. As a suicide attempt survivor, you should get support from loved ones; however, your loved ones may not fully understand what you are going through. Resources like this can help them better understand what a suicide attempt looks like, why they happen, and how they can help you get better. It also has information, tips, and resources for survivors. Support Groups Not all helpful resources are online. A support group can offer you not only support but also compassion from people like you. Your group members will be able to listen, understand, and offer advice based on personal experience. Hearing tips from someone who has gone through what you have can be much more helpful than reading them from a website. Furthermore, you will be able to watch the members of your group get better, which will offer you hope. If you have survived a suicide attempt, you may want to seriously consider a support group, particularly if your loved ones aren’t as helpful as you need them to be. Surviving a suicide attempt is a confusing life event. Some people see this as a failure while others may view it as a second chance. What is most important to remember is that there is help out there for you. You can beat whatever made you consider suicide and reclaim your life and your happiness. Get the help you need, utilize your resources, and settle into the process of recovery. About the Author Steve Johnson has always been dedicated to promoting health and wellness in all aspects of life. Studying in the medical field has shown him how important it is for reputable health-related facts, figures, tips, and other guidance to be readily available to the public. He created PublicHealthLibrary.org with a fellow student to act as a resource for people’s overall health inquiries and as an accurate and extensive source of health information. When he isn’t hard at work in his studies, Steve enjoys playing tennis and listening to his vintage record collection.
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Surviving Survival is really difficult.
Sometimes, surviving is actually worse and harder to overcome than when the actual events happened. Kelley, The Survivor Coach, knows this all too well. She has survived many things. She has lost children, molested as a child, has lost both of her parents, breast cancer, divorce after many years of marriage and an almost successful suicide attempt. Her mission in this life is to help others not only survive but THRIVE in their survival. She has created her own tools to help those who can relate to these things and those who suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts. This is her story.
 Last week I was honored to co-host the This Is My Brave show in Greenville, SC. The event was a huge success as there were 200 people in the audience and 150 viewers on Periscope from all over the world. Rebecca Shafer and Julia McDonald co-produced the show and Rebecca also served as co-host with me. The non-profit's co-founder Jennifer Marshall kicked off the evening with her story followed by 11 individual performances. I started the ConquerWorry.org platform five years ago, so you can imagine that I thought that I had heard just about every 'story' surrounding a mental health struggle. Last week I learned that I was wrong to make that assumption. One story in particular struck me as so powerful that I wanted to share it with you. A young woman named Annalise Sinclair shared an articulate account of her battle with her mental health. I met her before the show and she outwardly appears to be the girl next door. Someone you would hire to babysit your kids or house sit for you while you are on vacation. For her performance, she detailed her struggle with mental illness and overwhelming suicidal thoughts. She shared that she had planned her own suicide down to the day, but had one obstacle to overcome. She had acquired a cat and being concerned for her cats well being after she was gone was important to her. So, she decided to drop the cat off at her mothers house before she took her own life. On the day she decided to take her own life, fate intervened. Her mom unexpectedly came home as she was dropping off her beloved cat. That started a discussion and saved Annalise's life. As Annalise was eloquently sharing her story from the stage, I was sitting behind her. I could see her mother in the audience, watching her daughter tell her harrowing story of mental anguish and suicidal intent. I was choked up, but her mom was smiling. That choked me up even more! While it can't be quantified, Annalise and all the cast members had a dramatic impact on the lives of people who are struggling and their loved ones. After the show I heard from people who watched the show online. The one story that I heard brought up the most was the story of 'The Cat Lady.' I know from experience that there are many young women out there that need to hear the story of 'The Cat Lady' and others like it. That is why the This Is My Brave organization is so powerful. Annalise's cat is not the only one in her house saving lives. Storytelling Saves Lives. Jay Coulter  Article by Paul Banuski Post Design by Christy Zigweid Edited by Maureene Danielle Photo made using @WordSwagApp I recently marked two years since my suicide attempt. Two years of avoiding alcohol, of taking medication, going to therapy and trying to remind myself that I’m good enough to keep staying around. Some days are certainly easier than others and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t troubled or tempted or haven’t been tested over the last two years- hell, in the last two weeks. But so far I have fought off every single attempt to knock me off of the path of recovery and self-improvement. To be honest with you, the hard days are still really hard and I think it’s possible that I’m only one bad day away from failing. The road ahead of me stretches out, winding through deep valleys and shadows, with who knows what waiting for me, lurking around each bend. There are days when I worry how much progress I have made and I fear that it’s laughable how I struggle for inches rather than miles. And all those miles still to go… Well, it is a trick of perception. When you live with depression, you can pick up on these tricks. After all, that’s what depression does- trick your brain into pain and anger and sadness. In my most recent therapy session, we spent some time going back over my progress so far. How when I came to therapy two years ago, I would struggle with things that I do today without a second thought. I have managed to reign in some of my worse impulses (the quick and cheap relief of getting drunk) and to tackle problems head on rather than turn my head away, hoping they will disappear. I can throw the brakes on my train of thought when it begins to speed up and threaten to careen off of the tracks. Mindfulness practice has taught me to recognize negative and judgmental thoughts, and to process them in a healthy way. When I take a longer view I can see just how far I have come and how different I am from the man I was two years ago. I now worry less about the years to come and try to live the moment, and to take each day as it comes. And if I pause once in a while by pulling back and looking down the road ahead with fresh eyes, I can still see the valleys and I can still see the dark corners, but they are broken up by gentle rises and bright straight stretches. And then I refocus on the present day. About the Author
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