Mental Illness and Suicide Escalation

Photos: O. Hale

The national escalation of suicide and mental illness over the past few years has brought on increased efforts of making the issue known locally

by: MALLORY SWOPE staff writer

September 1st of every year kicks off Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month. As a contribution to this, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) hosts walks of varying lengths across the country where individuals or teams come together on a designated day and walk to raise money for suicide and mental health awareness. Saturday, September 14th marked the second annual AFSP walk in Traverse City, where roughly 1,300 people joined together in the two-mile loop from the Open Space down Front Street to Wellington, up State Street to Division and back to the Open Space. Janeen Wardie, a field advocate for the AFSP, is the mastermind behind both Out of the Darkness Community Walks that occurred in Traverse City in the last two years. Wardie’s ties to mental illness and suicide run extremely deep. Having dealt with severe anxiety and depression most of her life and being on the flip side of things when her son, Zechariah, died of mental illness in 2015, there was arguably very few people more capable or passionate about the issue than Wardie. The events hosted drew the attention and participation of hundreds of locals and visitors from different backgrounds in the attempt to make a massive improvement in the fight of raising awareness about suicide. Before the commencement of the walk, participants were welcomed to registration and were free to circulate and talk to other participants. Many bonds were formed instantaneously as strangers came to the realization that every single person they were surrounded by in that moment was going through or had already gone through something similar. This walk helped people cope with and remember their past or current struggles, as well as encouraged them to seek love and support from the community. Some participants walked holding signs that depicted lost loved ones or signs that revealed their own internal demons, and others walked hand in hand with those supporting them. According to Wardie, the goal of the AFSP Out of the Darkness Community Walks is “to show those that are in that darkness that it’s okay to reach out for help. We want them to hold on to hope, we want them to feel loved and validated in their struggles.” As the streets of downtown blurred with hundreds of cascading bodies, participants’ faces displayed an abundance of emotions; Christina “Tina” Wells-Dohm, an experienced volunteer and participant, stated that she was expecting there to be “happiness, sadness, hope, love, growth, and awareness” amidst the participants of the event. The population of people “in the darkness” was not just limited to adults and grieving family members; many children and teenagers were present at the walk to honor their struggles with mental illness too. The National Alliance on Mental Illness disclosed in their 2016 Mental Health by the Numbers Report that 16.5 percent (7.7 million individuals) of adolescents aged 6-17 years old in America have displayed a lifetime or longtime prevalence of some sort of diagnosable mental illness, whether it be anxiety, depression, eating disorders, thought disorders, or

“It’s okay to ask for help.”

personality disorders. Within Central High School’s own walls, administrators, counseling staff, and teachers “have noticed, over the years, a drastic increase in the anxiety,” according to School Social Worker Diane Burden. She acknowledged that all students are affected by highs and lows in their mental health due to the lack of full completion of brain development as a part of growing up. Some students, however, tend to show these signs for a period of time that is longer or more frequent, an issue that stems from much deeper roots—mental illnesses or disorders. Wardie stated that part of the issue with students and people in general suffering from mental illnesses is that “[people] talk openly about and bring awareness to every other organ in [the] body being ill. But when it comes to [the] brain being ill, [people] have been taught not to talk about it.” There is a stigma centered around mental illnesses and suicide that makes it almost inappropriate to talk about normally, but this only pushes people further into the darkness rather than pulling them out into the light. The passing of Traverse City local Jake Heller in early 2019 brought his closest friends, family, and co-workers together to participate in the Out of the Darkness walk in his name as Team We Walk for Jake. Tricia Adams, a participant of Team We Walk for Jake, spoke out about the goal of the team and of the overall event, saying that suicide was never really talked about in the past, but “it doesn’t have to be a hush-hush conversation anymore, and we need to encourage people to talk about it, and be aware of it, and understand that [suicide and mental illness] seems to be an increasing problem.” Anyone—no matter their personal backgrounds, genetic make-up, family life, or friend association—is susceptible to the gruesome effects of the inexpressible pain that mental illness causes. Burden states that the administrators and staff of CHS try to make the school as welcoming and as safe a space for students as they possibly can, and “every adult in this building is here because of kids.” In addition to the measures taken in school to aid students in coping with their mental illnesses or even the highs and lows adolescents experience, events outside of school such as the AFSP’s Out of the Darkness Community Walk serve as opportunities for people of all ages to receive support from others who may be going through something similar to themselves. Despite the dark and tragic reasons for joining the community together, there is optimism and unity among the individuals. Wardie endorses this by explaining the goal of the AFSP and other suicide/mental disorder awareness-promoting events through her eyes: “They are not alone. There are people who understand.” //