Today’s post is a little different than my usual material. I published an article on KevinMD about physician suicide. It is more personal and there are some underlying themes that are very important and worth thinking about. I chose to publish it there rather than my blog because it will reach more people, the right audience (physicians and others in health care), and hopefully have a greater impact on a topic I care about.
Most of us are touched by suicide in some way during our life time, and it is often one of the most difficult events we are forced to deal with.
Please head over to KevinMD and give it a read. When you are finished please come back and share your comments and feedback.
Feel free to send a message to me using my contact page if you don’t feel comfortable in the comment section.
If you choose only one article of mine to share, please make it this one
As always, thank you for reading.
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/03/many-physicians-will-lose-suicide.html
Love,
TheHappyPhilosopher
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Powerful story. Sadly, a familiar story. Thank your for having the courage to share it with the world.
Thank you for the kind words.
Thank you for being willing to share this. I’m sorry to hear about the world’s loss.
Thanks for your comment Joe. We lost a fine human and fine physician.
I agree with “there is a stigma with mental illness” and that is one reason people do not talk about depression. With that being part of the problem, I think one way to address that is put pressure on TV and movie producers to stop with the “crazy” labels they put on people. Security professionals would never discount or not take seriously a person that had hypertension or diabetes so we need to make them aware that it is not acceptable to label people with their diagnosis. Just my thoughts today. Hope yours is terrific!
P.S. I found your article on Kevin MD.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting LuAnn. I appreciate your comments. Mental health and medicine are not accurately portrayed in TV and film, but I am definitely not an expert since I don’t watch much television!
https://thehappyphilosopher.com/kill-your-television/
The more we can have open and honest conversations about mental illness and suicide, the better chance there is to find solutions to these complex problems.
Thanks. I am a medical laboratory scientist at a small hospital where “everybody knows everything and everyone.” Throughout the work day I hear various derogatory comments about “crazy” people and how they can’t really take comments from people with mental illness seriously spoken by co-workers who should know better. These are “educated” people. Some are Christians. Neither gives them the right to make blanket statements/judgments like this. Once in a while I reply that we don’t know their situation and that just puts them on the defensive track. I can tell who has their mind made up and won’t budge in their opinions so I leave them alone. I have been known to have strong opinions myself so, to each their own.
I have watched many popular TV shows such as CSI, NCIS and Blue Bloods. I think some shows and movies are OK but I cringe when scripts make fun of anyone even close to a mental illness. What I’ve written to you is what I’d like to send the producers. I’m not sure one letter would do any good. One avenue that may be more effective is social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Many people can be “heard” that way. Not sure the original message gets to the right people in the industry but it is a start!
Hope you have a good week!
Blessings
LuAnn
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