a mental health thread:
as everyone is enjoying today’s espn’s college gameday at wsu, my son, a freshman at wsu, is currently in the icu recovering from a suicide attempt. over the past two weeks, my son sought help through the schools “mental health” facilities,
as everyone is enjoying today’s espn’s college gameday at wsu, my son, a freshman at wsu, is currently in the icu recovering from a suicide attempt. over the past two weeks, my son sought help through the schools “mental health” facilities,
but was shuffled around and then told it would be 4 months before they could get him into a psychiatrist. he reached out to other local doctors, and doctors in surrounding cities. the mental health industry failed him and he gave up.
he drove out to the middle of nowhere, parked his car, and drank a bottle of alcohol and took an enormous amount of xanax and abilify. by the grace of god, his friends (Sam, Tim, Franco and Peter) clued into some odd behaviors of his and located him
via snapchat. by the time they reached him, he was unconscious. they rushed him to the hospital, where he remained unconscious for 40 hours. because i live so far away, his friends stayed by his side until i could arrive.
it’s been three days, and i’m happy to report he will make a full recovery (physically speaking). every hour since waking up, he is doing better and better. my husband and i will be taking him home where we can monitor
his mental health recovery more closely with providers who are caring and more responsive to a person with struggles such as his. i write this thread, with his permission, to try to raise awareness.
awareness to the fact that telling young people “to seek help” is not enough, because he did seek help and was basically turned away. college institutions need to be better about ACTUALLY helping people that seek help. he did everything he was told to do.
telling people to seek help, and then not helping them is worse than that person not seeking help to begin with, because you are essentially telling that person that they are not worth helping.
my son left a suicide note, naming his sole cause for killing himself as wsu’s failure in helping him. right now, i am not looking to blame anyone because that won’t help my son at this point. i want wsu, and all colleges, to be held accountable for providing accessible help to
people who seek it. in addition to this gross carelessness that they showed my son, one of the boys who SAVED HIS LIFE and stayed with him until i could arrived, missed an early morning test and was told he cannot make up the test.
this is disgusting to me. these boys are heroes, my son would not be alive today had they not done what they did for him. i am so angry at this school right now because their actions show me they don’t care about their students as people,
they don’t care if students do a great heroic act and save a life, they don’t care if a student lives or dies. after the deans got word of my son’s suicide attempt, to their credit, they have been accommodating in helping us get him home and moved out.
however, i learned that they were already aware of what he wrote in his suicide letter, blaming the school for his cause. we will be ending his enrollment at this school and bringing him home once he makes a full recovery.
in the meantime, i ask that people spread the word: telling people to seek help is not enough- they need to be GIVEN HELP WHEN THEY SEEK IT!
***i don’t know much about twitter, so my apologies if my etiquette is wrong, but i’m tagging some influencers who are advocates for mental health awareness for more visibility. sorry if this isn’t ok.
*** disclaimer: please read this knowing there are many more details that i simply don’t have the energy to include right now.
this tweet is to highlight my point, which is “help those that seek help, dammit”. tweeting “hashtag mental health awareness” doesn’t f*cking save a life- actually helping them saves them. #ACTUALsuicideprevention
i want to write an addition to my tweet regarding those students still at wsu that may need help now or in the future. i plead with you: please do not get discouraged by my son’s story so much that you opt to not seek help.
i share my son’s story with the hopes that mental healthcare improves and becomes more accessible. i do not want ANYONE to feel like they shouldn’t even bother because it seems hopeless.
since the time i’ve published my tweet, i’ve received many stories from students who sought help through wsu, some of which had great success. so please don’t give up on getting help.
if you are ever in crisis or ever feel like you are at risk of hurting or killing yourself, go to the hospital. pullman regional hospital was amazing and caring and will keep you safe during times of crisis.
utilize the crisis textline: 741741, or wsu’s 24/7 crisis line 509-334-1133.
if you are in need of therapy and counseling, wsu’s counseling and psychological services offers walk-in hours (mon, tues, thurs, fri 10:30a-3:30p) and (wed 1:00p-3:30p).
please share this info with everyone, in case they don’t know. i will update with more resources as i find them. please know, i am here for anyone who might ever need to talk for any reason. much love 😘
