DARN WRIGHT Reevaluating hopelessness

Editor’s note: This article discusses self-harm. If you are thinking of harming yourself, there are resources. 988 is the new, nationwide, three-digit dialing code for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The 988 dialing code connects people via call, text, or chat, to the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL), where compassionate, accessible care, and support are available for anyone experiencing mental health-related distress.

Suicide prevention week is this week. This b eing the case, it is especially important we mental health professionals, and society continue to educate ourselves about this epidemic.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for ages 10 to 64 and the second-leading cause of death for our 10- to 14-year-olds.

It’s commonly assumed among mental health professionals (MHP) that when a person dies by suicide, they do so because the person was in a state of hopelessness. But is this seemingly long-accepted view really valid?

In our country, a person attempts an act of self-destruction about every 60 seconds. With these statistics in mind, I challenge readers to ask: “Were all those human beings in a state of hopelessness?”

Isn’t it time that we MHPs begin to reevaluate the assumption that the act of suicide is due to a person being in a state of hopelessness?

Over 40 years of training as a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) and like my peers, I was taught suicide is a state of hopelessness. Not really thinking this “truism” through, I just accepted this gospel and passed this scripture on to my own students.

That is until I was fighting off my own suicidal ideations. From this life experience, I stopped looking at “hopelessness” as the road towards suicide. But I kept my finding to myself until a close friend of mine, Dr. Chris Harris, psychiatrist, and I were discussing this topic.

My friend said he was working with a patient who was in a hopeless state and who was constantly thinking about suicide. It was at this point I decided to let him know my views about hopelessness.

Chris knew about my suicidal thoughts and knowing this I said: “Chris, when I was dealing with my obsessive suicidal thoughts, I was not in a hopeless state. Rather, I was in an encouraging state. In my own way suicide was an optimistic way of dealing with my mental pain. I learned the way to work with a suicidal person was to take their hopeful thinking that by suicide they will be out of this pain and redirect this hope in another direction.”

So the way to treat a self-destructive person was to first find out what they hope to get from their death, and then assist them in finding lifesaving hopeful ways of alleviating their pain.

It was a couple of weeks after Chris and my discussion he told me about using this concept with his suicidal person.

In this case, his patient felt his behavior was bringing down his family and therefore he was a burden to them. By “checking out” he would save them from this “unnecessary load.” After actively listening to the person, the good doctor let the person know by having biweekly sessions and taking his prescribed medication that together they can make it through his feeling of being a “thorn-in-the side of my family.”

The person became hopeful and agreed to this.

Two years after this contract the individual was stable and, in his words, “hopeful of many more successes in my life.”

This finding led Chris and me to write an article, “Suicide Is Based On Hope.” We submitted it to the prestigious American Association of Suicidology (AAs). It was accepted. The group asked us to present this concept at its Atlanta, Georgia International Conference.

After reading Matt Saintsing and Mary Dever’s “New suicide prevention effort connects veterans with messages of hope” article in the March/April 2021 DVA (Disabled Veterans Magazine), I learned another way to help suicidal individuals redirect their hopefulness that suicide would be their answer to life’s problems.

In 2020, the Department of Veterans Affairs launched the “Caring Letters Program.” Afterward, Dr. Lisa Kearney, VA director for suicide prevention, noted: “It’s a way to reconnect, not only with treatment options, but to remind them (suicidal patients) that there are folks here that care for them.”

This effective Caring Letters Program approach to suicide prevention follows medical research showing that those receiving thoughtful letters can reduce their likelihood of suicide. A 2001 study, published in the Medical Journal Psychiatric service, “found patients who received this support … had a lower suicide rate in all five years of the study.”

Darn right, by constantly speaking and writing to those in suicidal pain we are letting them know people do care and that there are many positive alternatives to their current, and one-sided, state of hopefulness.

A tale of Big Gulch salmon

During an after-dinner conversation with Mukilte o friends, the topic of Big Gulch arose.

Muk Revisited

BY JERRY ARNOLD mukilteo

This prominent forested ravine, nested between 92nd Street SW and Harbour Pointe Boulevard is a well-loved, and well-known gem of Mukilteo, with an intriguing history all its own, including a salmon run. The story I heard was that the salmon run had stopped after a chemical spill.

Wow, salmon in Big Gulch. Being curious, I started digging.

Some background

Big Gulch originates at Paine Field and collects surface water from other sources as it moves towards the sea. Around the turn of the century, Big Gulch was owned and logged by the Port Gamble Lumber Company. Then in the 1960s, it was owned by Chevron as a potential refinery site.

In 1993, 1996, and 2000, a series of chemical spills occurred at the Goodrich Paine Field facility and at Iconn Sports on Chennault Beach Road. Big Gulch ultimately received these spills. Near the mouth of the creek, alongside its final length, is the Mukilteo Water and Wastewater District sewage treatment plant, performing the very necessary task

Corrections

Apologies to Bill Johnson and the other members of PNW Beach Korfball. Our unfamiliarity with the new sport resulted in it being misspelled in an Aug. 31 story. For the record, the new sport that will be on display Saturday, Sept. 10, in the volleyball area at the Lighthouse Festival is called beach korfball.

The Beacon strives to write fair and accurate stories and will run corrections when warranted. Contact Editor David Pan at mukilteoeditor@yourbeacon.net of processing the waste materials we send to it. In 2005 the concrete sewage feeder line running down Big Gulch was observed to be damaged (undercut in some areas) by stormwater runoff. The fix see ARNOLD page 8 u