{"id":224,"date":"2013-06-15T00:04:56","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T07:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/2008\/06\/18\/suicide\/"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:58:14","slug":"suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipolar Depression and Suicide Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-7666\" style=\"margin: 25px;\" alt=\"depressed black guy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-300x239.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-150x120.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-400x319.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy.jpg 743w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a>I just received this comment on the blog I wrote on bipolar depression:<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;\u00a0I want to die. Can you help me please. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I don&#8217;t want to live anymore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to get these emails- not because they shock me- they don&#8217;t, but because I wish I could sit across from the person and tell them why they feel the way they do and that they can get through this.<\/p>\n<p>Since I can&#8217;t actually look at the person, I will write\u00a0him here.<\/p>\n<p>Hi. I&#8217;ve been suicidal so many times I can no longer count the episodes.\u00a0 Suicidal thoughts are a completely normal part of bipolar disorder. We get depressed, manic, anxious and paranoid, just to name a few- and we also get suicidal.<\/p>\n<p>Wanting to die is actually something different than it seems- it&#8217;s actually wanting to end the pain that comes with bipolar disorder depression. I can remember being so suicidal that I was rolling on the floor in order not to do something I didn&#8217;t really want to do. I&#8217;m not kidding about this. The compulsion that comes with suicidal thoughts is what makes it so dangerous.\u00a0 When I had thoughts of running my car off a bridge, I said out loud, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to kill myself! This is not real! This is bipolar lying to me!&#8221;\u00a0 and I kept driving.<\/p>\n<p>Bipolar disorder can be a VERY dangerous illness. It makes you think and do things you don&#8217;t really think and don&#8217;t really want to do. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important to separate yourself from the suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>I see my suicidal thoughts as separate. They are not me- they are bipolar disorder.\u00a0 I hope you can do that- if you really examine what you&#8217;re thinking, you can see that there is a lot of crap going around in your head that doesn&#8217;t represent you. It&#8217;s not the real you. It&#8217;s the illness talking.<\/p>\n<p>Once you can see the <em>you<\/em> in there and <em>feel<\/em> the\u00a0you<em> <\/em>in there- you can say to yourself, this is bipolar talking and I&#8217;m going to get help immediately.<\/p>\n<p>I assure you- you don&#8217;t want to kill yourself. You want to get better. I hate suicidal thoughts because they aren&#8217;t fair and they are SO tricky.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m 49- and I&#8217;ve been suicidal off and on since I was 19. I have survived and you can too.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how to get help- first of all, say out loud- &#8220;I\u2019m suicidal because I have bipolar disorder. These thoughts are not real. They are a sign that I&#8217;m very sick.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Next- call your doctor immediately.\u00a0 Say, &#8220;This is an emergency. I have bipolar disorder and I&#8217;m thinking of killing myself.&#8221; This is an honest way to ask for help. If you fell down and broke a leg- you would scream for help. You have to do the same thing now.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t have access to your doctor- call a suicide hotline-\u00a0 if you go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moodgarden.com\/\">www.moodgarden.com<\/a> you will see suicide numbers on the left side of the page.\u00a0 There is also a link there for more help on what you&#8217;re going through.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re worried for your immediate physical health, call 911. They know what to do. Be honest, &#8220;I have bipolar disorder- I&#8217;m suicidal and I need help.&#8221;\u00a0 Or, &#8220;I&#8217;m bipolar and I just took a bottle of pills and I need help\u00a0&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You may notice that I&#8217;m being very methodical when I talk with you. It&#8217;s because I would do the same thing if I saw you bleeding on the side of the road. I would help you and remind you that things are going to be ok. You just need professional help.\u00a0 I would never expect you to take care of yourself on your own.<\/p>\n<p>Suicidal thoughts are completely normal when you have a mental illness. They are not the real you.\u00a0 The real you wants help. There is a lot of help out there.\u00a0 I encourage you to take care of the <em>you<\/em> that wants to live and not listen to the illness that is lying to you.\u00a0 I&#8217;m alive and well because I do this every time I get suicidal.<\/p>\n<p>Julie<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-7666\" style=\"margin: 25px;\" alt=\"depressed black guy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-300x239.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-150x120.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy-400x319.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/depressed-black-guy.jpg 743w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a>I just received this comment on the blog I wrote on bipolar depression:<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; I want to die. Can you help me please. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I don&#8217;t want to live anymore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to get these emails- not because they shock me- they don&#8217;t, but because I wish I could sit across from the person and tell them why they feel the way they do and that they can get through this.<\/p>\n<p>Since I can&#8217;t actually look at the person, I will write him here.<\/p>\n<p>Hi. I&#8217;ve been suicidal so many times I can no longer count the episodes. Suicidal thoughts are a completely normal part of bipolar disorder. We get depressed, manic, anxious and paranoid, just to name a few- and we also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/suicide\/\">[ Read More ]<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11366,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/11366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}