People who are thinking of ending their life often exhibit one or more warning signs, either through what they say or what they do. There usually is not one clear reason for why someone may feel suicidal or that suicide is the only answer to their problems. Suicide is preventable and knowing the warning signs allows us to help those around us who may be feeling hopeless.
This one-pager outlines the early stages of escalation. Download this PDF to help you interrupt the process, flatten the curve, and respond effectively before it's a crisis.
Seasonal depression, or SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), is when someone experiences depressive symptoms during cold winter months. However, some people experience this in reverse and feel symptoms of depression during the summer and spring time. While fun for some, summer can trigger depressive symptoms or make people feel melancholy. So how do you know if you have “summertime blues”, summer SAD, or something more?
The 4th of July, for many, is a fun summer holiday with outdoor festivities, cooking, and fireworks. But for some, this time of year can be stressful. The loud, booming noises and bright colors of fireworks can trigger and overwhelm those living with sensory processing issues, often stemming from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or sensory processing disorder (SPD), to name a few.
Over the past several years humanity has learned how to become resilient in isolation. Many of our face-to-face interactions and relationships were severed during COVID and as a result, we have developed long-term habitual loneliness. So how do we recover? To state it simply, a first step is "do then feel".
I love the idea of waves of fluid pulsing through my brain as I sleep, restoring and refreshing it. This image has led me to think of other things that can also refresh, restore, and clean out my brain—wondering about ways to “spring clean” my outlook and to release my grip on unneeded waste.