National Suicide Prevention Week Brings Awareness to Mental Illness and Drug Addiction

September 10th through the 16th was National Suicide Prevention Week. During this time, many events were held to raise awareness for suicide. Stories were told about suicide attempts, lost loved ones, and experts discussed how to prevent it from happening.

The goal of the events was simply to bring awareness to the rising problem of suicide. Every year, approximately 34,598 people die from suicide, and 864,950 attempt it. This translates to about 94 suicides a day, or one person every 38 seconds tries it.

 

Many people are scared of getting murdered, but the risk of suicide is higher. It’s the 11th cause of death for all ages.

 

The risk factors are many, but most of them have to do with:

 

  • Mental illness (depression, anxiety)
  • Alcohol and/or drug abuse
  • Family history

What This Means

If you’re struggling with a mental disorder or alcohol/drug abuse, you are at risk of suicide. Even if you do not think or plan on doing it now, there may be a time in the near future that this could happen. The risk increases significantly if someone in your family either committed suicide or attempted.

 

Once you are in the depths of suicidal ideation (the thoughts of killing yourself), it’s difficult to free yourself from them. Fascination comes into play, and that can take you to a place where convincing yourself it’s not the right choice becomes nearly impossible.

 

That’s why it’s important that if you have any of the major risk factors, such as mental illness, addiction, and/or family history of suicide, you seek help immediately.

 

How Michigan Counseling Group Can Help

Michigan Counseling Group provides services to help you or your loved one prevent suicide. We offer:

 

Counseling: Therapy offers an out for people. Talking about issues, understanding why they are issues, and coming up with a plan on how to solve them can be overwhelming to do on your own, but not with a counselor. This professional can help you understand your thoughts and feelings, and relieve them enough so you can take steps that will prevent you from feeling hopeless.

 

Testing: Accountability means a lot when you’re trying to recover from an addiction. Knowing you’ll have a drug test in morning can keep you clean the day before. As you get through the beginning of recovery knowing you’re being tested, it will become easier to deal with the withdrawals and the cravings will decrease.

 
At Michigan Counseling Group, we are committed to providing the services needed to help people recover from addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness, so they can lead better lives.

 

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If you or someone you know needs help, please call Michigan Counseling Group today.