August is an anniversary month for me. Over the past ten years several people I know have committed suicide. August is a tough time emotionally for me. Every year my thoughts turn to friends and family who have checked out this way and it’s sad.

Depression is a strange thing. It can be temporary, linked to an event (such as a parent or child’s or friend’s death), or it can be clinical - meaning related to chemical changes in the body. We can be depressed and not feel suicidal, or we can be both depressed AND suicidal. We all experience stress, and most of us will feel sad to the point of depression, but suicide and suicidal behavior are never normal responses to stress. They are typically responses to feeling that the demands on them exceed their resources or their ability to cope with the stress or the demands.

Anybody who expresses suicidal thoughts or intentions should be taken very seriously. Do not hesitate to call your local suicide hotline immediately. Call 800-SUICIDE (800-784-2433) or 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255) — or the deaf hotline at 800-799-4889.

In 2006, the year I became homeless, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. That’s a lot of unhappy and unhealthy people! I was nearly one of them - but thanks to friends, doctors and God I got through it. I hung onto hope, but it wasn’t easy.

Right now an estimated 19 MILLION Americans are currently living with major depression. If you’re feeling depressed or wonder if you are, or if you know someone who might be depressed, please check out WebMD for signs, symptoms and treatment options. Being depressed doesn’t mean you ARE suicidal, but depression carries a high risk of suicidal potential. Suicide isn’t something people are comfortable with and something many of us don’t talk about. I’m amazed at how many friends I have who have a sibling or parent who have committed suicide. My grandfather did, as did an uncle and several friends. I thought it was a rare thing, but I was wrong. People who commit suicide aren’t thinking about you - they’re thinking about their pain. If you know someone who has killed themselves, it’s not your fault and you’re not alone. Even people under the care of therapists and in mental hospitals manage to kill themselves. It doesn’t make it any less painful knowing that, but hopefully it takes some of the guilt away.

More than one million people commit suicide every year in the United States. The rate is higher in other countries.

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Most people don’t want to die.

They just want the pain of their situation to STOP.

People consider suicide when the demands on their time, money,
emotions, abilities and intellect exceed their resources.

If you want to know more download this FREE ebook. It’s in PDF form and can be read on most computers. Click on —-> 10 Things to Do Before You Commit Suicide to download it.

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As a matter of fact, suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 and 25 in the United States.

In an article on Livestrong.com a recent survey by the CDC of high school and college students they found:

Twenty-seven percent of high school students said they had “thought seriously” about killing themselves during the past year. Eight percent said they had actually tried to kill themselves.

Ten percent of U.S. college students admitted serious thoughts about suicide. Seven percent had a suicide plan.

More than 30,000 Americans commit suicide each year, and 5,000 of these people are teenagers.

Although one of every eight teenagers suffers with depression, the diagnosis is often missed, as depressive symptoms are often mistaken for the typical “ups and downs” of teenage life. Even in societies where suicide is illegal or taboo, people still kill themselves.

Most suicides occur in the home between the hours of 3 p.m. and midnight. There are 30 to 50 times as many attempted suicides as completed suicides. Four times as many males complete suicide than females, but female teens attempt suicide twice as frequently as male teenagers.

Statistics also show that kids from high-income families kill themselves as often as those from poor or middle-class families.

For every teenage suicide, there are more than 100 unsuccessful attempts. ”Copycat” suicides spread the tragedy even further.

People who talk about suicide often commit suicide. All talk about suicide should be taken seriously. People often have opposing feelings about whether or not they want to die, so there is always hope that they can change their minds if they receive professional help.

Amazing isn’t it?

I’ve found that 10 simple things helped me with my depression and I’ve written about them in this book (see photo above). You can download 10 Things to Do Before You Commit Suicide for free, and don’t even have to sign up with your email. You may send the book to friends or offer it FOR FREE on your own website or blog. I hope you do. It’s a 50-page guide about the ten things you can do to stop yourself from committing suicide. It’s not intended to cure or treat depression. It’s a guide for self-intervention so you don’t act on your feelings of self-harm.

I’m not a therapist and don’t claim to be one. I just know that when I’m feeling overwhelmed and when I felt suicidal in the past, these ten things helped me immensely. The short-hand version:

If you are feeling urgently suicidal now:

• Call someone NOW The National Suicide Hotline number is 1-800-273-8255
• Call a friend, a pastor, a therapist, Rescue Squad,
• Call 911 or go to your local Emergency Room.

Don’t drink or drug to dull the pain. If you are drinking now, stop. Alcohol and drugs release inhibitions that will make people do things they wouldn’t do if they were sober. If you must consider suicide, consider it while sober, not while intoxicated. Give yourself time to sober up before making any decisions.

Ask someone to lock up your guns or pills. Don’t do it yourself. The temptation will be too strong to use them.

Find someone to sit with you until the feeling passes. It WILL pass. It may return, but for now, do not be alone. Don’t isolate yourself. Go sit in an all-night restaurant, go to a movie, go to the mall but get around people, be with people.

If you’re considering suicide, some part of you knows the truth above, but doesn’t know exactly what to do about it.

The 10 Steps:

1. Figure Out What You Really Want
2. Write Down What You Need
3. Make a List of Your Resources
4. Eat Something and Take a Nap or Sleep
5. Celebrate the Morning
6. Call Someone
7. Feel Your Feelings
8. Come Up With a Plan
9. Put Your Plan in Motion
10. Get Additional Help

If you want to read the book and more detail on each of the steps, click 10 Things to Do Before You Commit Suicide ebook . It’s free. There are thousands of resources on the web and not all of them speak to everyone. Hopefully something in this book will speak to you or someone you know - just long enough to stop the act. Remember, suicide is not about wanting to die - it’s about wanting the pain you/they are in to STOP. Stop the pain and you can often stop the act.