Helping to Prevent Suicide Only Takes Moments

September isNational Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. This means that your social media timelines will suddenly be filled with celebrities sharing the national hotline. The cynic in you may roll your eyes. These celebrities will care very, very deeply in 280 characters; lots of their "show somebody you care" posts will gets thousands of likes and reposts, but where were they on August 31st? Where will they be on October 1st? Chasing a new cause, probably. Mounting their social media steed and charging to the next virtue signal over the hill beyond while shouting, "Don't forget to like and retweet!"With the sea of hotline tweets will come angry killjoys ranting about how these celebrities don't really care, or they don't care enough, or those hotlines are terrible and they trace your call and alert the police so don't call them guys!It can all be a bit much.Personally, I think it's wonderful that celebrities take time out to share the national hotline with their followers. Even if the celebrity doesn't care (and who are we to decide that from the moral might of our phones& keyboards), that number will be seen by millions of users. Surelysomebody out there needs to see it. The problem with suicide prevention is that we find out about the problem when it's too late to do anything about it. Broadcasting the national suicide prevention hotline can only be a good thing.But, the detractors have a point. Sometimes, a call to a call center isn't what a person needs. Sometimes t...

Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - September 4, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Depression Family Goodreads Suicide Source Type: blogs