Participants: Alanzo & June Smith
Series Code: FFH
Program Code: FFH00001B
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00:04 Welcome, you have been watching Families 4 Heaven.
00:08 We are talking with Pamella Simpson about the topic 00:11 The Vicious Rage of Suicide. 00:18 Pam your story is a delightful story even though it is 00:23 such a sad and painful story. 00:25 The reason why I use the word delightful, is that in the 00:30 midst of your pain, you anchored your faith somewhere. 00:34 Tell us where. 00:36 In God, I think everybody can understand pain, but when 00:45 you are able to see God respond to you in a personal way it 00:55 shows you that He does care. 00:58 Trials will come, but God is still in charge. 01:07 Okay, thank you very much. 01:08 Have you moved on? 01:10 Pam: oh yes! Alonzo: you have moved on, okay. 01:13 Dr. June, we have already established and the statistics 01:19 suggest that suicide is prevalent in our society. 01:26 However there are so many myths that are 01:32 bound about suicide. 01:34 So I'm going to share with you some of these myths. 01:39 I want you to react, or respond to them. 01:42 The first one I want to talk about is, this myth says, 01:46 people who talk about suicide, do not commit suicide. 01:52 As we saw in Pam's story, that people who say I'm going 01:58 to kill myself, are likely to do it. 02:02 And the first thing that a person who hears that needs to 02:07 do, is to indicate that obviously you are angry, 02:11 or obviously you are depressed, or obviously there 02:14 is a problem, let's talk about it. 02:16 But never under estimate a threat that a person makes 02:20 on taking their life. 02:22 Here's another one. 02:23 Suicide is related to social economic status. 02:31 That is as far from the truth as it is. 02:34 It is not about how wealthy you are or how poor you are. 02:39 Anyone who gets overwhelmed, or who thinks they are 02:42 unable to handle their problems and are trapped, 02:45 could commit suicide. 02:47 People who commit suicide are either mentally crazy, 02:53 insane, mentally ill, or something is wrong with them. 02:58 It is a myth that it has to be a psychotic person that 03:02 would take their life. 03:04 Now one could argue that clearly there has to be some 03:07 illness for a person to get so helpless. 03:10 On the other hand, even healthy people, or people who 03:14 appear to be healthy, could be at risk 03:17 to take their own lives. 03:19 People who threatened to commit suicide are only 03:25 seeking attention. 03:27 That is one of the biggest myths. 03:29 People don't go around saying I'm going to kill myself, 03:33 except they have had thoughts about killing themselves. 03:37 Now people who threatened, may not carry out the threat, 03:41 but there is some ideas going on and it is a sign that there 03:45 is a problem, so that person needs to get help. 03:49 Another myth that you hear people often say is, suicide 03:56 is painless if done correctly. 04:00 Unfortunately research shows that many people who attempt 04:06 suicide don't actually accomplish suicide. 04:10 In the process they are in agony, because sometimes the 04:15 methods they use don't work. 04:17 They are left either to be a quadriplegic, or to live 04:21 with this aftermath of whatever physical deficits they 04:26 now experience. 04:27 So it is not true that it is painless, it is clearly 04:32 taking your life is a painful and horrible thing. 04:37 Suicide is genetic. 04:45 That also is a myth, there is no gene that a person 04:49 possesses that will predispose you to take your life. 04:54 However, people who commit suicide socialize the people 04:58 around them to think that this is an option. 05:00 And it is said, or research shows that in families where 05:05 people commit suicide, other family members learned that 05:09 oh, this seems like an easy way out. 05:12 And they are at high risk to follow through on a suicide. 05:18 It is said that people who commit suicide, other family 05:24 members are high risks, why? 05:30 As I said before, they observe, they see and sometimes 05:35 get overwhelmed, they get depressed from having had this 05:40 experience in their families. 05:43 They just do not know what to do, much like the person 05:46 before them didn't know what to do. 05:48 Sometimes they keep it secret, when a suicide occurs 05:53 not often reported as a suicide, so the family itself, 05:58 as we said in our last presentation, 06:00 the family is a system. 06:02 A crisis in the family does not just affect the person 06:06 who is the victim, but the entire family is in crisis. 06:10 So the people who are left to mourn or to clean up the 06:15 pain of this horrific experience, are now prone to 06:19 depression and prone to just poor mental and emotional pain 06:24 and they could then do something as painful as a suicide. 06:29 There are some suicide preventions we should 06:32 share with our listeners. 06:35 Have an open discussion about suicide. 06:38 Talk to your children, talk to young people. 06:42 We should never take their threats of suicide lightly. 06:48 As a matter of fact, when someone threatens to commit 06:53 suicide, you should seek professional help. 06:57 It is not something that you should take lightly. 07:01 We trust, as you have been listening to this program, 07:05 that you understand that suicide is not an easy thing. 07:09 There is no easy way out. 07:11 There are some young people who think that I can do it 07:14 and that will be okay. 07:16 It is not going to be okay. 07:18 You must be strong no matter the challenge, no matter the 07:23 problem, you must be strong and you must understand that 07:28 suicide is never an option. 07:32 Have hope, have faith and keep living. |
Revised 2014-12-17