In this piece for Unthinkable, Dr. Jacob Z. Hess describes ten ways we can all help to reduce suicide, including promoting self-determination and choice in recovery, helping people move toward long-term healing, and stopping the spread of the chemical imbalance theory of mental illness.
This a great read that should be spread around.
My only criticism is the author’s use of standard psychiatric labels without a footnote explaining Psychiatry’s lack of genuine science in their development of the DSM Bible.
Richard
I agree. I would also add that some analysis of WHY these 10 simple and in some cases rather obvious steps are not taken – the level of corruption underlying the assumptions of the current model can not be overemphasized!
11. Legalize it. Make suicide a right.
Suicide already is a right. It’s attempted suicide that’s treated as a crime.
Not succeeding at suicide will get you locked up. Successful suicide is another story, however it is getting caught, admission, that is the crime, or “sickness”. Could the “mental health” police read minds, they would be arresting people for thinking about suicide.
The mental health police already lock people up for talking about suicide. I wonder how many people could be saved by having somebody they could talk to without fear. My best friend in the whole world has promised never to turn me in and we have had lengthy discussions about various suicide methods and what’s wrong with each. Basically, he tells me that it likely won’t work and that I’ll be in a worse off position than I was before I tried it. This is good advice.
As I see it, one’s enemies would like nothing better than to see one’s demise, however, that’s not the issue. Nobody has to euphemistically ‘eat crap’. Spite to mine enemies keeps me going. The problem is paternalism. We’ve got this suicide prevention because the authorities are out to save some people from themselves. Then, the question arises, who is going to save people from the authorities? If one, as I’ve seen happen, permits the locking up of people for their own good, one doesn’t oppose forced treatment. Suicide prevention turns the would be anti-psychiatrist, should he or she be a professional, into a were-psychiatrist. Distinctly to be avoided. Sure, the world may be full of hypocrites, but that still doesn’t make hypocrisy a virtue. I wouldn’t hesitate to imagine that, as a rule of thumb, treatment pushers are as addicted to their careers as treatment junkies are to their’s, and thus, halting the “mental health” disorder epidemic, part and parcel of “mental health” imperialism (i.e. business expansion), is going to require some drastic measures in the form of many pink slips. Withdrawal from “mental health” servicing, in other words, is likely, like withdrawal from the treatment (i.e. drugs), to hurt.
