Witt's End

There is no perfect magic shield for protecting against suicide. I'm sorry but that's the truth. I know a lot of people know this and I may be preaching to the choir a bit, but I needed to say it. I know a lot of good intention-ed people who wonder why so and so committed suicide. They seemed happy. They had a good job. They had a wonderful spouse. Beautiful family. They had purpose. They had faith, you could feel it, they were active in their church. All of these can mitigate suicide, and for many may be enough to hold on. But that doesn't mean it's true for everyone. Our thoughts are tricky tricky beasts. They can take us down a rabbit hole in no time flat. I can tell you from experience that one negative thought can snowball, and cause a string of catastrophizing that will rob one of all sleep in a night. It can happen to any of us. That much is true. That brain of ours is not infallible, it's susceptible to all kinds of trickery. Thoughts need to be active.

In a time where we are surrounded by tumultuous conflict every one is looking for where to turn, who or what can solve our problems. A lot of people will turn to self help, a political or governmental intervention, or spiritual guidance. Everyone seems to be attacking each other over what won't work. I'm going to try a different tact. I truly believe that part of this life is to become a better person. To specifically emulate a perfect savior. That someone took pains, sins, sufferings, sickness, affliction upon themselves for all men. That their whole purpose was to sacrifice themselves to redeem and succor us, humans, broken things to mend. That on a global scale there is someone to fix us all. I'm not naive enough to think that my spiritual beliefs or even shared beliefs in Jesus Christ will immediately solve all the world's problems. Even amongst those of us who have a belief and testimony there are severe disagreements. What I do think is that the smaller the sp

Something hit me harder than I would have anticipated today. Someone on my social media lost a relative to suicide. Just reading their emotion had my heart sink. It was a lot stronger of a reaction than I would have anticipated. I hope it's always that way. I hope suicides continue to hit me hard. At a time where we're having almost record suicides, widely publicized mass shootings, and overall noise it's easy to become desensitized to what's going on around us. To the how people really are doing. To who we know who is or might be struggling. I'm so far from perfect at this. I get so easily desensitized lately. I've been working hospice and rehab as a nurse aide. I see grief, I see struggles, I see even death almost daily. It becomes routine. At time it has to. When you lose a patient you care about it hurts, but you have to turn around and prep their body, console their family, and get the next call light. Time doesn't stop for you. So for me I just find a

I've stopped and started this three or four times already. Just having trouble finding a way to express how I'm feeling. So here goes. Too many of us believe our country, our world would be better if everyone thought like us. We also are increasingly believing that those not like us are less than human. We are empathizing less and less. It's scaring me. We've forgotten how to disagree. How to listen to opposition and apply it. As we become more and more divided I'm fearful. I'm so worried that the extremes are high jacking the discourse of the nation. Driving us further and further apart and toward extremes. One faction though worries me most. Mostly due to the fact it was where I identified with more. This push for nationalism is the most concerning thing for me. This idea that there is a singular historical national identity worries me. It's always a euro-centric ideology, typically conservative and focused on conformity. Personally it antithetica

Do we jump to mental health to avoid thinking that normal people can radicalize? I don't see us jumping to declare all radical Muslims mentally ill? Were all members of the Nazi party? I mean that sincerely.I'm deeply deeply disturbed that this is the go to answer. I get so worried about how this scapegoats mental health. I mean that. In a world where 1 in 6, to 1 in 5 adults are actively living with mental illness, is it really the time to blame some of the most catastrophic events we are currently experiencing on mental illness? I mean that seriously. I'm concerned that we have to find something to blame other than people. I worry about the added stigmatization that occurs from this. How it could potentially damage the rights of non-dangerous people to obtain firearms in the future. I mean that sincerely. I fear by always leaping straight to mental health at mass shootings we will end up making things worse not better. And hear me out, please. First things first. A diag

Tragedy has struck more than once the past few days. El Paso, Ohio, Chicago. There are too many events where too many people are dying by gun violence. That's just a fact. We all need to realize it. Regardless of what side of the line we're on we need to realize that the other side is not full of spineless capitulating cowards, or bloodthirsty heartless monsters. That's also a fact. You have people who are afraid of weapons who are scared to leave their homes. People with a legitimate fear of mass shootings. Afraid of being a victim. You also have people who worry there is a motion to take their guns. All of them. Not some. But all. Who would lose something they may use for food or defense, actually use. Afraid of being a victim. Both sides are being motivated by fear. That's now how this should go at all. We can have some discussions. We need to. So to what I really wanted to say. There is no good easy silver bullet solution here. And I have to admit to being a b

This blog is about to get a lot more use. I've got a lot of drafts I've been working on. So I'm going to start coalescing some of my ideas from scattered thoughts to a defined idea. And then share them with the world. One to two posts a week. Some of it may be spiritual. Some may be policy based. But all are going to be me sharing my ideas.