Reported by a WebMD post dated December 16, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission has approved using 988 as a suicide prevention hotline. It is not in service yet. Sad to say, mental illness and suicide go hand-in-hand very much. So much so that in 2017 1.4 million people attempted it. Additionally, suicide rates increased in 49 of 50 states from 1999 to 2016. From the post, “The CDC says suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States with more than 47,000 deaths in 2017.” “It is the 4th leading cause of death for people ages 35 to 54,” reports the Washington Post (December 13, 2019, by Taylor Telford).
Says FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, “Suicide and attendant mental health challenges have received far too little attention for far too long. That is now changing. Anything we can do to break down the barriers, to make it easier for conversations about mental health and counseling, to feel within reach, is something we should do.”
“Those facts are not easy to hear,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said. “Because for those of us who have lost family or friends they loved – myself included – they are cruel reminders of birthdays missed, holidays gone and words of encouragement that were never received.”
Life is different in the psychiatric hospital. Family and friends abandon you, leaving you with loneliness, isolation, and despair – hopelessness. I attempted to take my own life in 1979, but I, too, remember someone who took his own life. I called him Frank Kirkland in my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform. He had so much going for him, but he turned to drugs. Now it is 20 years later, and it still brings tears to my eyes.
If there is someone you know who is crying for help, don’t wait until tomorrow. Those wee hours of the morning can be awful. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or in New Jersey for a drug issue, call REACH NJ at 1-844-732-2465.