Sports and Mental Health – Calming down, affirming, complimenting, etc. vs the alternatives

Story provided by Kirby Maus. Marriage and Family Therapist MC, LMFT, MBA. Kirby is also a former TV sportscaster in Phoenix. He provides columns and content to our Starting the Conversation platform.

There’s a Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) at www.thecalmzone.net and there’s Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) at www.zerosuicide.edc.org/toolkit
Both are about calming down, affirming, complimenting, validating self, or soothing self, even seeking and finding help and support, rather than committing suicide, or hurting and injuring self…
According to the latest statistics by HealthDay, The mental health crisis hitting Americans shows no sign of abating, with provisional numbers for 2022 showing suicides rose by another 2.6% last year… That follows on an overall 5% increase in suicides in 2021, noted officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently released the early data for 2022… Overall, 49,449 Americans lost their lives to suicide last year, up from 48,183 deaths in 2021, the agency reported. Meanwhile, 22 military personnel commit suicide per day, and the suicide rate of First Responders is rising fast…
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24 in the U.S… Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness… According to AARP, 10,000 people per day becoming a senior citizen, and more elderly living alone with nobody around to take care of them, or even to check-in on them, the suicide rate of the elderly is also slowly rising…
Suicide is an equal opportunity destroyer… teenagers, young adults, alcoholics and drug addicts, homeless, military, first responders, athletes, executives, the elderly…
We really never know who is going to commit suicide, when they’re going to do it, where they’re going to do it, or how someone may attempt to injure themselves or take their own life… We do know that more woman attempt suicide only significantly injuring themselves while more men successfully complete the impulsive act of suicide… The difference being the lethal means of choice…
If you feeling intense guilt and shame, are languishing and self-loathing, even surviving with dysfunctional compulsive or impulsive behavior, you can dial 988 or get help fast in Arizona at www.mind24-7.com, or call 1-844-534-4673 (HOPE), and text 4HOPE (44673)…
Remember, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem…
Kirby specializes in facilitating individuals, couples, and families (businesses) in the game of life at www.digdowndeep.com… He writes with 3 dots just like Brad… It’s a teleprompter thing…