Venting My state has a campaign spreading suicide awareness and while I find it really important, I also feel its message is hypocritical

[cracklingroses]

The campaign is called 'Live On' and has come out with advertisements talking about "how one conversation could save a life".

While I really agree with its message, it is just ironic coming from an extreme Mormon and religious culture that encourages families to cut off loved ones for their religious views, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity.

It is just very contradicting. We know the underlying message is that only those who conform to the collective narratives are worthy of community and "help".

For the rest, if you don't conform to the same beliefs and way of living as everyone else around you, that justifies you being abandoned and abused by your families, religious groups, and mental health services.

Also, the reality of the "professional help" out there is just people claiming to be "doctors" who don't know how psychotropic medications actually work and affect people in the short and long term; and pushing those "treatments" onto people after just talking to them for fifteen to thirty minutes, if that, for pay outs from the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies.

Finding a genuinely good, qualified, caring therapist is very rare. Most therapists are overworked, burned out, underpaid, and lack the experience to really address certain people's issues.

It is a wild campaign and every time I see a billboard that says "a conversation can save a life" I go into a laughing fit because it's such a joke. The real reality is that people are incredibly selfish and self absorbed. No one gives a shit that you talk yourself out of suicide every day and night for years, or that you were on life support for days after a failed attempt this last year.

You aren't anything to anyone unless they can use you. So while the campaign certainly has good intentions, I really feel like it's also just a huge slap in the face to those of us who suffer without any genuine support from their community and loved ones.

 

[tfnb]

These campaigns are all self serving. Nobody wants to truly empathize with those of us who are dealing with traumas and emotions, they just want to par themselves on the back or not feel guilty for what they perceive as failing. It's feigned emotions. If it were true empathy then they would have to put themselves into the viewpoint of someone on the other side and remove their own biases and opinions, and they're incapable of doing that.

 

[Michi_Violeta]

I bet their idea of a conversation is: "Don't feel bad! The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why it's called the present! You'll get better, you'll find someone better, things will get better!"

Yeah, those life-saving, fucking useless conversations...

 

[cracklingroses]

These campaigns are all self serving. Nobody wants to truly empathize with those of us who are dealing with traumas and emotions, they just want to par themselves on the back or not feel guilty for what they perceive as failing. It's feigned emotions. If it were true empathy then they would have to put themselves into the viewpoint of someone on the other side and remove their own biases and opinions, and they're incapable of doing that.

Exactly.

I bet their idea of a conversation is: "Don't feel bad! The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why it's called the present! You'll get better, you'll find someone better, things will get better!"

Yeah, those life-saving ,fucking useless conversations...

Literally!!!

 

[tfnb]

I bet their idea of a conversation is: "Don't feel bad! The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why it's called the present! You'll get better, you'll find someone better, things will get better!"

Yeah, those life-saving ,fucking useless conversations...

Have you tried diet and exercise?
God only gives you the challenges that he thinks you can handle

 

[Michi_Violeta]

Have you tried diet and exercise?
God only gives you the challenges that he thinks you can handle

"It's because you only attract negative things, have you tried attracting positive things? Here, let me recommend you this YouTube video on the law of attraction..."

I SWEAR TO JESUCRISTO EN LOS PUTOS CIELOS

 

[tfnb]

"It's because you only attract negative things, have you tried attracting positive things? Here, let me recommend you this YouTube video on the law of attraction..."

I SWEAR TO JESUCRISTO EN LOS PUTOS CIELOS

I think that Barney on How I Met Your Mother had the perfect example of this line of thinking
"When I'm sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead"

 

[Michi_Violeta]

In all seriousness, I feel sick when I see those campaigns. There's a bridge in my neighborhood, an overpass over a BRT route to be precise, that has been used by several people to ctb. It's called El puente de la virgen, "The Virgin's Bridge", and it's surprisingly effective given that it's a drop no higher than 15-20 meters or so. Instead of investing in mental health campaigns or funding for the suicide hotline, what do they do? They spent a thousand six hundred milion fucking pesos (around $400k) to build higher fences on the bridge and try a bullshit PR campaign renaming it to "The Bridge of Life". Oh, and they wrote some stupid feelgood messages on the bridge plus police surveillance for a few days.

A friend of mine walked past that bridge a couple of times, wrote a poem about it even. Only thing that stopped him from ctb was his little son, not that bullshit campaign. And everyone still calls it El puente de la virgen...

 

[cme-dme]

The campaign is called 'Live On' and has come out with advertisements talking about "how one conversation could save a life".

While I really agree with its message, it is just ironic coming from an extreme Mormon and religious culture that encourages families to cut off loved ones for their religious views, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity.

It is just very contradicting. We know the underlying message is that only those who conform to the collective narratives are worthy of community and "help".

For the rest, if you don't conform to the same beliefs and way of living as everyone else around you, that justifies you being abandoned and abused by your families, religious groups, and mental health services.

Also, the reality of the "professional help" out there is just people claiming to be "doctors" who don't know how psychotropic medications actually work and affect people in the short and long term; and pushing those "treatments" onto people after just talking to them for fifteen to thirty minutes, if that, for pay outs from the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies.

Finding a genuinely good, qualified, caring therapist is very rare. Most therapists are overworked, burned out, underpaid, and lack the experience to really address certain people's issues.

It is a wild campaign and every time I see a billboard that says "a conversation can save a life" I go into a laughing fit because it's such a joke. The real reality is that people are incredibly selfish and self absorbed. No one gives a shit that you talk yourself out of suicide every day and night for years, or that you were on life support for days after a failed attempt this last year.

You aren't anything to anyone unless they can use you. So while the campaign certainly has good intentions, I really feel like it's also just a huge slap in the face to those of us who suffer without any genuine support from their community and loved ones.

Ironically these types of awareness campaigns serve the opposite intended effect for me. They, to me, are reminders of how out of touch people are with mental health and that I am better off keeping my mouth shut about such topics around most people.

"When I'm sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead"

In all seriousness, I feel sick when I see those campaigns. There's a bridge in my neighborhood, an overpass over a BRT route to be precise, that has been used by several people to ctb. It's called El puente de la virgen, "The Virgin's Bridge", and it's surprisingly effective given that it's a drop no higher than 15-20 meters or so. Instead of investing in mental health campaigns or funding for the suicide hotline, what do they do? They spent a thousand six hundred milion fucking pesos (around $400k) to build higher fences on the bridge and try a bullshit PR campaign renaming it to "The Bridge of Life". Oh, and they wrote some stupid feelgood messages on the bridge plus police surveillance for a few days.

A friend of mine walked past that bridge a couple of times, wrote a poem about it even. Only thing that stopped him from ctb was his little son, not that bullshit campaign. And everyone still calls it El puente de la virgen...

Man I remember the time I wanted to kill myself, I went to the highest bridge I could find but I noticed the fence was too high and there were feel good messages on the bridge and suddenly I stopped feeling depressed and suicidal and life became good and I went on living out the rest of my days as a functioning member of society...said no one ever.

 

[needthebus]

I hate these campaigns because they are always about "awareness," as though we, the suicidal, don't know about hotlines, medications, or involuntary hospitalization.

It's as though putting up a billboard is going to get someone to say to me "Are you depressed? Have you ever considered calling a suicide hotline?"

I am, in fact, depressed. I am also very poor, am having trouble paying for things, am having trouble with working, and society is not willing to help me right now (and yes, I've tried to get financial help). There are many people suffering on the street, including people who are not simply there because of drug use.

Will awareness help these people too?

It disgusts me when there are people who are homeless, some of whom aren't even allowed to sleep in a tent without committing a crime because so many people are so sadistic and selfish and shitty, this trifecta of human garbage that inflicts suffering on the downtrodden.

BUT... it's okay for them to be cold and hungry and miserable... and yet for the suicidal do you know what we need?

We need

AWARENESS

It's just fucking stupid and infuriating and only designed to make the public feel better about themselves, like pretending Jesus exists or Santa exists or that Suicidal People are just Unaware.

"if only we had known that by calling a suicide hotline, we could get involuntarily hospitalized for an expensive stay and then billed some horrible amount after"

FUCK MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

 

[cracklingroses]

I hate these campaigns because they are always about "awareness," as though we, the suicidal, don't know about hotlines, medications, or involuntary hospitalization.

It's as though putting up a billboard is going to get someone to say to me "Are you depressed? Have you ever considered calling a suicide hotline?"

I am, in fact, depressed. I am also very poor, am having trouble paying for things, am having trouble with working, and society is not willing to help me right now (and yes, I've tried to get financial help). There are many people suffering on the street, including people who are not simply there because of drug use.

Will awareness help these people too?

It disgusts me when there are people who are homeless, some of whom aren't even allowed to sleep in a tent without committing a crime because so many people are so sadistic and selfish and shitty, this trifecta of human garbage that inflicts suffering on the downtrodden.

BUT... it's okay for them to be cold and hungry and miserable... and yet for the suicidal do you know what we need?

We need

AWARENESS

It's just fucking stupid and infuriating and only designed to make the public feel better about themselves, like pretending Jesus exists or Santa exists or that Suicidal People are just Unaware.

"if only we had known that by calling a suicide hotline, we could get involuntarily hospitalized for an expensive stay and then billed some horrible amount after"

FUCK MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

I could not agree with you more.