Thread by @mariliacout

1/ Suicide prevention and awareness require honesty, secularism and harm reduction

Yesterday I spent a long time ruminating on a background level of anger against some local okies who keep parroting

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2/ that my young friend's suicide was an "accidental overdose", repeating the word "accidental" a thousand times. Why did this bother me so much?

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3/ The kid is dead. Nothing will change that. I know why: because lying about suicide and under-reporting it is going against everything I have been fighting for. The damn Midwestern right wing devangelicals at it again. Damn.

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4/ There's a known story that has been profusely misreported about me in Brazil concerning my accidental survival of a suicide attempt in 2005.

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5/ The same old same old, nurture and nature, what came first, the rape and abuse egg or the mental distress chicken. I was promoted to the status of "hero of survival" by the local mainstream media who loves drama.

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6/ I actually think they parasitized my brother's notoriety and attached my "heroic efforts" to the family entertaining history.

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7/ It was not heroic. It was an accident. Statistically, about 90% of first suicide attempts fail for several reasons. Mine slashed part of the jugular but not as extensive as to cause exsanguination fast enough. Call it a clumsy mistake.

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8/ Then came the publishing houses and I have a book sitting in my computer with the tentative title of "strength against death" about how powerlifting saved my life. It did not.

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9/ Actually, it came very close to pushing me the extra inch towards suicide because of its very negative components that vulnerable people are not that equipped to handle.

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10/ You probably don't know, but there is a negative (protective) correlation between collegiate sports participation and suicide but a positive (detrimental) one between marginal, cult-like sports and suicide. So no, powerlifting didn't save my life. The lifts did. Long story.

11/ What nobody knows and I won't disclose the details is that it happened again exactly one year ago yesterday (funny date: 09-09-2019).

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12/ I have a history of respect and attention to psychiatric knowledge and diagnosis. I consult for them. And no, we don't have anything except an "atypical epilepsy" here. So, why?

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13/ I did recover. It took much longer: I'm older and this attempt was very nearly successful. There's a decision to be made: do I still see purpose in hanging around here or is it time for the third one? And third is the charm.

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14/ With a 30% overall increase in the USA in 10 years, something completely out of the expected trend of a "stable social phenomenon", the connection between mental illness, assumed to be the major "associated factor" for suicide, must be scrutinized.

15/ As a researcher and meta-researcher (folks that review research and submit their design to critique), I am positive in saying that we're reluctantly going through some major "paradigm shifts" (another way of saying we need better models)

16/ A large portion of the "new suicides" is associated with drug overdose. Today we know that a large part of drug overdoses are associated with despair concerning healthcare.

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17/ There's a wealth of published evidence about how the opioid paranoia (cutting off chronic pain patients from treatment, persecuting physicians, stigmatizing pain killer patients) is a driving force for suicide by overdose.

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18/ Let me tell you about mine, which was not an overdose: I had reached a point of such profound disappointment with everyone around except a few folks who,

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19/ .... like me, were powerless against the deteriorating social environment, the lack of alternatives, terrified physicians and evil people that I gave up.

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20/ So what now? As always, I believe that the only weapon we have against chronic conditions is knowledge, raw truth, more knowledge and honesty. Impossible to achieve in a non-secular society or an environment stained by the evangelical plague.

21/ I survived the "solid second" (we don't count minor encounters with death, that old friend). My friend's death by suicide provided me with something I needed: the last chapter and a reason to make it all matter.

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