Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Psychache

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a blog that had some interesting comments about suicide. I thought I’d post one such thought provoking paragraph:

In our average lives we say “I could never take my own life”. We say this from a safe place, able to deal with lifes ups and downs. THIS CAN AND DOES CHANGE. If we lack or lose the ability to handle our emotions, negativity and frustration step in. we start moving towards the spectrum of suicidal thought. we feel we are not coping and life becomes a struggle. The constant struggle seems endless. our needs are not met and we slowly slide into wishing it was all over.


In another place the author of the blog uses a great word (neologism) that fits suicidal thoughts (and other mental health issues) very well: psychache. (I warned them that I was going to use their word)

These are things we need to consider in working to prevent suicide, in working to get folks help that they need, and in understanding the problems that swirl around suicide and mental health. We must not only work to prevent suicide, but work to help them deal with their psychache.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish more people were educated when it comes to mental health. I have been involved with emergency services since the age of eighteen and have seen numerous people suffering from deppresion and mental illness. A lot of times all these folks need is for someone to say "I care" and for someone to listen to them. I wish more communities had training for first responders and have counselors that are trained to go out into the community to help people in a time of crisis 24hrs a day. A lot of suicides can be prevented if we just educate the the public and look out for each other. It takes no time at all to call someone or stop by and see them, and to let them know you are there for them if they need anything. In fifteen years I have seen many people take there lives and a lot of them (not all of them) could have been prevented. In closing I want to tell you all, I know how it is to lose someone to suicide I lost one of my good friends last year and this person was a police officer, husband, and most important he was a dad to four beautiful children. I am just trying to prevent this from happening to anyone else. I believe we can do this if we all work together. Take care and god Bless! Dan

Anonymous said...

Thanks for Quoting me but I cant claim I came up with the term psychache,its someone else's.people with Dans attitude are badly needed.Looking at research into professional attitude, a lot of research suggests that professionals feel a lot of stress from fear of losing someone in their care to suicide.Additional research shows sadly that mental health professionals fail to respond promptly or thoroughly to suicidal patients, putting their lives at risk.
Widely accepted research and data also reveals that many clinicians have strong often adverse feelings towards suicidal patients that may interfere with treatment and can even prevent addressing the issue.
The simplistic prescribing of antidepressants to sort things out, is being eroded by findings that some can increase suicidal ideation. This puts the solution back on the practitioners lap,so to speak, leaving many in a new predicament. we are all human but if we are care givers or gatekeepers (youthworkers etc) we have to look at our own shortcomings first.

Anonymous said...

I've talked and taken anti-depressents. I'm tired of doctors and don't want to talk. There is no help if one doesn't want to "work on it" and where on earth would that kind of motivation come from if one is depressed and wanting to hit the fast forward button on life?

Dr. Richard Keller said...

There are certainly a variety of non-doctor folks you can talk to if talking to doctors isn’t of benefit to you.

If you have a faith-tradition, you might try someone there (minister, deacon, lay minister, etc). Various counselors in various settings are worth thinking about. Even art therapists 9or art classes not in a therapy setting), writing classes/journaling with or without therapeutic help, “alternative medicine” practitioners of a wide variety, online help, etc.
The opportunities are almost boundless.

If you don’t want to work on ‘it”, try working on something else; perhaps unconventional, but it might make a difference.