Ivy Tied Up |

warning: this is a grim topic:

I read an article on sparkpeople.com about how doctors often fail to spot suicidal patients. Here is what part of the article says:

Pointing to a disconnect between doctors and some of their neediest patients, a new study suggests that large numbers of physicians fail to spot symptoms that raise suicide risk.
U.S. researchers recruited actresses to act as patients and visit physicians while showing signs of depression or a similar disorder.

Only 36 percent of the doctors asked the “patients” about suicidal thoughts, the team found.

“There is often a window of opportunity for doctors to screen for suicidality and intervene appropriately, but, as we found, they frequently miss this opportunity,” said study lead author Dr. Mitchell Feldman, professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

To read the entire article:
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While I do not vouch for their studies or finds it does raise an interesting question. How many drs have no idea what to look for? How many lives could have been saved seeing as how “75 percent of people who commit suicide visited a primary-care provider in the 30 days before killing themselves”?
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I know when I was suicidal my dr failed to realize the signs. She failed to look for them. However when I was not suicidal she did ask. I think and like I said I THINK the most used term to describe how we are when suicidal is “i’m fine” . I don’t know if we try to convince ourselves we really are fine or what. My being suicidal was medicine induced. There are tons of other reasons people become suicidal. Question is how do you fight it? Most of the time it goes un noticed. The rest of the time people see it coming but have no idea how to fight it.

A guy I went to school with hung himself. He was distraught and thought his life was over after he was forced (by family) to marry a girl he had gotten pregnant. Less than 3 months after being married and having the baby he hung himself. I know what that did to his family. I can only imagine what that did to his wife and the guilt all parties involved feel. Not only the guilt but the pain of going through that. No family should have to deal with loss like that. But he felt it was his only way out.

When I was in high school a friend of mines mother killed herself. She was the sweetest woman ever. No one saw it coming. Her son found her. It was a very traumatic experience for him. As said above no family should have to go through that.

Some people think suicide is the chicken shit way out. That its the easy way out. Forget your morals and what you’ve been told all your life about going to hell because suicide is a sin. You aren’t allowed to think about that right now. Part of me has always agreed suicide is the easy way out. That they are only thinking bout themselves. But then part of me sees it as something else. Its not easy at all. It takes alot of guts to actually do it. It takes alot of something thats for sure. And some really believe they are doing those around them a service by taking themselves out of the equation. Some really believe its the right thing to do. Its not just the chicken shit way out. Its not the easy way out. Its called ,”Something isnt right with them” its called ,”mentally ill” even if its just for that time that they’ve appeared that way. I don’t agree with suicide. I ask what the fuck was so bad that they had to kill themselves. But thats an answer you’ll never know unless you’ve experienced that level of pain. I have experienced htat level of pain. I’m just still here.. I figure i’ve got more to live for than that. And I figure those who commit suicide are the opposite. They figure they have nothing left to live for and the pain is so severe they can’t do it anymore.

Now a very grim question that i’d like honest answers to. Have you ever been suicidal? Yes its a nosey question . Its also one you don’t have to answer