Suicide Is Not Newsworthy

A young man threatens to kill himself in his home. Because it is heard that he may be in possession of firearms, a dozen law enforcement personnel surround his house and arrest him. He is sent to the hospital for assessment and later that day he is released. There is no mention in the newspaper about his cry for help and the local television station gives him a whopping 30-second spot. Because it's not news, certainly not the kind that anyone wants to know about. Nobody wants to hear about suicide. They want to read about snapping turtles that cause traffic jams or the best way to move a piano, but suicide......

Nah. Nobody wants to hear about that. And what they want to hear even less of is attempted suicide. Attempted suicide or non-fatal suicidal behavior is self-injury with the desire to end one's life that does not result in death as opposed to completed suicide, or the "act of taking one's own life.” Most people think that by pretending that attempted or completed suicide does not exist it will make the problem somehow go away. Got bad news for you Charlie. Suicide, whether brought on by post traumatic stress disorder or by plain old everyday depression is not going to go away just because you don't want to hear about it. It's a very real outcome of a very real illness that very real people suffer from.

Suicide is the seventh-most common cause of death among Canadian males, and tenth-highest among both sexes combined. According to Statistics Canada, among Canadians aged 15 to 24, suicide ranked second among the most common causes of death during 2003-2007 accounting for one-fifth of total mortality. The rate of suicide for all ages during the period 2000 - 2007 was 15 per 100,000 persons in Nova Scotia alone. According to recent articles in the Toronto Star, the Edmonton Sun, and the Alberta Daily Herald Tribune, the amount of suicides in the military was greater than the number of soldiers lost in Afghanistan.

Failure

Standing on a stool

looking for a beam to hang

the rope. There are none.

- copyright 2014

Jack of many trades...

I just made a list of previous employers that I have had. I came up with 38. Some of them I worked for more than once and one of them I worked for 8 times. I have been in the work force 42 years. Of course if you deduct the years I spent on EI or welfare or just unemployed, I've probably only spent 24 years actually working and 16 of those were during the past 17 years. So, some things have changed.

I'm no idiot

Last week I received an email wherein I was told. that I am arrogant, too far above myself, and an idiot. Mind you, the person who sent the email was probably drinking, if not drunk. No doubt her perception of reality was distorted.

That must be why she called me an idiot.

LOL.

September 1 - Fellowship

In a meeting, once, I heard a member make a distinction between the “program” of Alcoholics Anonymous and the “fellowship” of Alcoholics Anonymous. According to the dictionary, fellowship means a community of interest, activity, feeling or experience; the companionship of equals. The program of Alcoholics Anonymous is based on fellowship, two drunks talking to each other as equals, sharing with each other their experience and realizing their common interest – staying sober. So, for me, I can see the connection between the two, but I cannot see the distinction between the two.

September 2 - The Rubber Dinghy, The Canoe and the Helicopter

Yesterday morning I was at work. It was about 8 a.m. so I still had the full day ahead of me. I got a text message from someone who wanted to know where the A.A. meetings were that night. I get that a lot because everyone knows I'm a member and that I'm always willing to help a newcomer. So I went online and checked the location of one and told her. Then she said its been a while since I been to one are you and Nancy going? Well I wasn't going. I been working long hours and I'm tired. My leg has been bothering me and I'm in a lot of pain and I just wanted to go home and relax after work.

And then I remembered what my job is now. The Big Book, the one we have in AA, says "Your job is to be where you can be of maximum usefulness to God and to your fellows." So my job is not home on the couch, "taking it easy." My job is not going to the movies or going camping with my friends or working long hours to make money I won't have time to spend. I did enough of that when I was drunk. So I went to the meeting. And I enjoyed it. And I was able to be of service to someone new. After the meeting, I came home and relaxed.

I wanted to go to a meeting tonight but its a holiday so I am required to work. I'm not in business for Bernie so Bernie doesn't get to pick and choose when Bernie works. I do what they tell me to do and I get paid and get to keep my cable and my electricity and all those other things I didn't have when I was under the bridge.

But I have to always remember how I got where I am because if I don't, if I start thinking I don't need meetings or I don't have time for meetings or I don't have time to be a sponsor, guess what happens. I can tell you what happens. I become a Jimmy. or a Kelly. or a Danny Boy. or a Fred. or a Robin. or a Brenda. Those were people I knew who got the notion into their head that they were somehow special, that they could do this without going to meetings. They're gone now. They didn't just get drunk. They died.

I know there are people who are reading this who think they're special now. People who forgot how cold it was on the street or in that shed or how it felt to flatline on a gurney or to wake up in jail wondering if you killed someone last night. Get up off the couch. Get your butt back to meetings. You might not realize it but there's a lot of people who are going to miss you when you die.

There's an old story about a guy who was in a flooding town. He was sure he was special and that God would never let anything bad come to him. As the water started to rise, a guy came by in a rubber dinghy and said get in. He said no that's ok, god won't let me die. The water's really rising and he climbs up to the second story of his house. A guy comes by in a canoe and says, get in. Buddy says oh no thanks, god won't let me die. Then he's on the roof and there's water all around. A helicopter pilot throws him a rope ladder and yells down, get in you fool. Buddy says oh no I'm special, god won't let me die. The water rises, he slips off the roof and drowns. When he gets up to heaven he asks god why he let him die. God says, I don't know what you're talking about. I sent you a dinghy, a canoe, and a helicopter. But you turned down my help every time.

Know what I mean. Jellybean.