Suicide prevention speaker encourages sharing
Alyse Warner and Graham Hunt, Staff Reporters
Last Monday, the ALC Mountain View room was packed with students, faculty, and members of the Regis and healthcare communities gathered together to listen and learn about bipolar disorder and suicide prevention.
All those in attendance hoped to learn more about these troubling issues from speaker Lizzie Simon
who presented a program entitled,"Success, Sanity and Suicide: Reflections on the Bipolar Diagnosis." Simon herself suffers from bipolar disorder that was mis-diagnosed as depression. She was prescribed Paxil and, "it nearly ended my life," she told the audience. Simon has spent a great deal of her time cris-crossing the country interviewing people who were also dealing with the effects of bipolar disorder. According to InSite, her book, DETOUR: My Bipolar Roadtrip in 4-D, catalogues her experiences. When she spoke about the people she interviewed for her book she stated, "There was something external driving their wellness."
Simon emphasized that in order to move on in life living with the disorder, it is necessary to find something you care about outside of yourself. She encouraged everyone, whether a family member, a friend of someone who was diagnosed, or a person struggling with their new diagnosis, to seek help. "I really encourage people to share them[selves] and to share their story," she explained. She also stressed the importance of inter-personal care, and how it can be more effective than larger scale mental health campaigns.
Closely connected with the discourse on mental illness is the issue of suicide. As Sally Spencer-Thomas, the director of leadership development and behavioral health promotion, explained, "We know from our research on suicide from last spring that about half of the Regis community has experienced suicidal thoughts at one point or another and about 9% has made an attempt," she said. "These numbers are staggering but not surprising. Most people do not realize that there are more deaths from suicide than from motor vehicles in Colorado." According to the Mental Health Association of Colorado literature, "Colorado has the 7th highest suicide rate in the nation."
When asked what she believed students needed to know about bipolar disorder and suicide Spencer- Thomas stated, "Suicide affects everyone and we have a shared responsibility to prevent it. Sometimes students fear that if they ask someone if they are suicidal, they will increase the likelihood that that someone will become suicidal," she said, "Actually, in most cases the opposite is true. When people have suicidal thoughts, many find that they are in increased anguish because they feel so socially isolated. Having a friend ask lets them know someone cares and that someone has noticed they are not doing well."
Simon's talk was sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Colorado, Regis University Leadership Development, Active Minds, Choices, Student Government, the Carson J. Spencer Foundation, and the Nursing program and is the first in a series of lectures concerned with the topic of civility, towards one another and towards ourselves. As Spencer-Thomas explained, "We are starting the series with a look at internal civility by examining the internalized stigma of mental health, and then over the semester we will look at other dimensions of civility: interpersonal (dating violence), racial, sexual orientation, political and global." Spencer-Thomas also outlined plans to train students to recognize and correctly aide those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts or depression this upcoming spring.
There is also an upcoming speaker, "Unquiet Mind: Bipolar Disorder and Suicide Awareness" on November 4 from 7-9 p.m. in the Regis University Student Center. The cost for this particular speaker is free to students who show a valid Regis ID and $10 for community members.