I had planned to use this year to be surrounded by those I love. Instead, I’m facing #loneliness
By Nylah Burton
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John Mondello, 23, worked in the New York City Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services. He died by #suicide on April 24, less than three months after starting to treat #Covid-19 patients.
“He told me he was experiencing a lot of #anxiety witnessing a lot of death, he’d feel it was a heavy experience when he’d fail to save a life,” Mondello’s friend told the New York Post.
Dr. Lorna M. Breen, 49, was the medical director of the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. She died by #suicide on April 26. Breen had no prior history of #mentalillness, her father, Philip Breen, told the New York Times, but she seemed “detached,” when she spoke about the onslaught of death she was witnessing at work.
“She was truly in the trenches of the front line. … Make sure she’s praised as a hero, because she was,” her father said. “She’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died.”
Workers on the front lines of this #pandemic are not only being put at physical risk. They’re staring down a massive #mentalhealthcrisis, too. Tasked with treating tens of thousands of patients, often without adequate resources such as personal protective equipment, #healthcareworkers are experiencing #hopelessness in the face of repeated exposure to death and illness, according to Jodi Jacobson Frey, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work.
But these risks aren’t just limited to #firstresponders and frontline workers. They’re felt by many of us who struggle with #mentalhealthissues, especially those with a history of suicidal ideation or attempts. A new study released Friday found that up to 75,000 additional people could die from “deaths of despair” — suicides and substance use — because of the Covid-19 crisis. That’s on top of a #suicide rate that was already on the rise before the #pandemic.
“There are many reports from crisis lines and other data collection sources that there has been an uptick in firearm sales, interpersonal violence, and personal financial crisis,” said Jonathan Singer, president of the #AmericanAssociationofSuicidology, adding that these are all factors that have long been correlated with increased #suicide risk.
“In one worst-case scenario, you have someone who has been struggling with suicidal thoughts for a long time, recently lost their job, and is in a highly conflictual interpersonal relationship with no safe means of leaving,” he said. But with #socialdistancing and self-#isolation, resources and support systems are harder to access. Add the government’s failure to adequately respond to the litany of risk factors, and the #mentalhealthcrisis will only get worse.
#JamesDonaldson notes:
Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.
Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.
Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space. #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle
I know firsthand how risky this time is.A few weeks ago, I hung up on my therapist. My phone immediately trembled with a notification. Please fill out this safety plan, my therapist’s message read, reiterating what she had tried to tell me during our teletherapy session.
My life was in danger. Again.
Last November, after spending months suffering from untreated bipolar disorder and social #isolation, I attempted #suicide. Afterward, I needed to breathe life back into myself.
I planned on using this year to be with the people I loved, to travel to new places, and learn to transform my deep pain into building community. But just three months after I gave up hope on life, #Covid-19 plunged me back into #loneliness. I felt as though this critical year of healing had been stolen from me. And in many ways, it has been.
In the year after a #suicide attempt, people are at their highest risk of attempting again and dying by #suicide, according to a recent scientific review by Drs. Jennifer Schreiber and Larry Culpepper. It’s especially dangerous for people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and unipolar major #depression.
An article published last month inJAMA Psychiatryexplores how #socialdistancing — the practice of staying at home and remaining physically distant from others to reduce infection rates of the novel #coronavirus — is connected to a higher risk of #suicide. “Individuals experiencing suicidal ideation may lack connections to other people and often disconnect from others as #suicide risk rises. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors are associated with social #isolation and #loneliness,” the authors write.
I know how feeling utterly alone and abandoned can make me think I’ve run out of options. A few times since I started #socialdistancing, I’ve curled up in a ball and sobbed, weighed down by the feeling of #isolation, the feeling that I had locked myself into a tomb. In a lot of ways, I feel I’m slowly returning to the space I was in at my worst. And I’m terrified.
Still, I know staying at home is the best way to prevent the spread of the #coronavirus. I may be in danger because of my psychiatric conditions, but sheltering in place, I tell myself, is how I will keep myself and my loved ones safe. That doesn’t mean I’m not fighting like hell. And that every day, the government makes it more difficult.
The failed state response to this #pandemic — from a staggering lack of widespread testing to an immense shortage of masks and other protective equipment — has resulted in more than 60,000 deaths and 26.5 million lost jobs. I’ve watched our president give medical advice that would literally kill us. Every day, another state rushes to reopen its economy, disregarding the advice of public health experts. Meanwhile, with diminished budgets, my writing career plummets and unemployment benefits feel impossible to receive. As our government fails to contain this #virus, more people will die, not only from physical illness but from the mental despair they might succumb to.
It makes sense hospital workers are at risk. In early March, the US only had 1 percent of the required masks experts estimated it would need to address this crisis. Hospital workers were failed by a system that did not provide frontline health care workers — including nurses, sanitation workers, and medical assistants — with enough personal protective equipment, so they wouldn’t have to watch their colleagues die.
Then there was our government’s refusal to enact stay-at-home orders earlier in the crisis, which caused hospitals to become flooded with #Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, hospital workers were further failed by the lack of sweeping rent and mortgage cancellations, or economic safety nets that would ease some of the stresses of having to go out and work and be exposed to the #virus.
On top of the essential workers on the front lines of this crisis — many of whom are underpaid black, indigenous, and brown people — there are other vulnerable populations to be concerned about during this time: domestic violence survivors trapped with their abusers, feeling like there’s no escape because they can’t afford a hotel and all the shelters are closed. People who’ve lost hope because they’ve become houseless or because they can’t feed their families. Those who couldn’t hold their loved ones’ hands as they died from this disease. People struggling with substance misuse are also endangered, especially if they’ve previously experienced an overdose, which is linked to a higher risk of dying by #suicide.
Then there are the mentally ill people who can’t afford life-saving treatments and medicines they need, or who don’t have the community resources to keep them alive. Then add to that an 85 percent increase in gun purchasing during March, and people are two to 10 times more likely to die from firearm #suicide than other kinds of attempts.
Gabriela is a recent college graduate who has #depression and #anxiety. She has no idea how she’ll find work or get health insurance. She told Vox that this instability, as well as being away from her family, friends, and partner has caused her to struggle with suicidal ideation.
As a resident of Puerto Rico whose entire undergraduate experience has been filled with natural disasters, she says our governments need to assume responsibility for this #mentalhealth crisis. “I wish they would just do their job and their part in ending the pandemic as soon as possible,” she tells Vox.
For me, it’s one thing to be in recovery. It’s another to do so with the fear that if I were to have a psychiatric emergency, the facility I’d be transported to might have a #Covid-19 outbreak due to policies, neglect, and psychiatric patients’ specific vulnerabilities. Then there is the middle-of-the-night panicking about what the future of our world is going to look like.
The more prepared our health care workers are, the more effective our leaders can be, the more at ease those of us who struggle with #mentalhealthissues can feel.
Frey tells Vox that there are ways to address this issue, primarily increasing our investment in #mentalhealth and substance use treatment. She also points out that it’s critical to consult those who have firsthand experience with #mentalillness and substance misuse. “People who have gone through the experience should be part of finding solutions,” she says.
I am mourning the critical year of healing I thought I’d have. But to stay alive, I have to also embrace the year that lies before me, however uncertain it may seem.
If you or anyone you know is considering #suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:
In the US:
Crisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling
The #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline: 1-800-273-8255
The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386
Outside the US:
The International Association for #SuicidePrevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them.
So, to continue my healing, I speak with people I love through video calls, meme-sharing group chats, and daily check-ins. I attend psychiatry appointments online, and get my prescriptions delivered. I do constant internal work, journaling, and reflecting. I keep the #suicide hotline number nearby. I grasp at hope wherever I can find it. I try to love deeply, I try to forgive myself for things I may regret. I try to find joy wherever I can.
I dream of a different world. And when I feel rage, I try to use that rage to imagine how I can help make those dreams a reality, like becoming a #healthcareworker in communities of color. Despair is everywhere. But so is the desire for change, the hunger for revolution.
Dese’Rae L. Stage, a social work graduate student and a survivor of #suicide, has also struggled with symptoms since the crisis started. “Once this is over, we’re going to fundamentally change as people,” she says.
Frey says she’s hopeful when she sees people increasing their awareness about #mentalhealthissues and disparities, saying that the #Covid-19 crisis is like a mirror that shows us how broken our society is. “And the mirror is shattered,” she says. “So if we don’t learn from this and we don’t improve. … I almost can’t even stomach the thought. People are going to continue to die if we don’t do something to change the system.”
Nylah Burton is a Denver-based writer. She covers #mentalhealth, social justice, and identity. You can follow her on Twitter.
James Donaldson is a Washington State University graduate (’79). After an outstanding basketball career with WSU, he went on to play professional basketball in the NBA with the Seattle Supersonics, San Diego/L.A. Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Utah Jazz. He also played for several teams in the European Leagues in Spain, Italy, and Greece, and he toured with The Harlem Globetrotters to wrap up his career. James was an NBA All-Star in 1988 while playing center for the Dallas Mavericks. In 2006, James was inducted into the Pac-10 Sports Hall of Fame and also the Washington State University Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2010, James was elected as a board member for the NBA Retired Players Association.
James frequently conducts speaking engagements (motivational, inspirational, educational) for organizations, schools, and youth groups.
In 2010, James was the recipient of the NBA Legends of Basketball ABC Award, awarded for outstanding contributions in Athletics–Business–Community.
He believes in being a role model for success and professionalism to the scores of young people to whom he devotes so much of his time. He currently serves on several boards and committees and is a member of many organizations.
James believes in developing relationships that create a “Win-Win” environment for everyone involved, and in being the best he can be!
For more information about James Donaldson or to request he speak at your event, contact him at:
www.StandingAboveTheCrowd.com
JamesD@StandingAboveTheCrowd.com
1-800-745-3161 (voicemail & fax)
James Donaldson is the author of “Standing Above The Crowd” and “Celebrating Your Gift of Life” and founder of the Your Gift of Life Foundation which focuses on mental health awareness and suicide prevention, especially pertaining to our school aged children and men.
If you’re interested in having James come and speak to your group of young adults, business entrepreneurs, aspiring political and community leaders, and athletic teams, please contact him at jamesd@yourgiftoflife.org and or leave a personal message for him at 1-800-745-3161. Keep up with him and read about how he is reaching out and making a difference in the lives of so many around the world at www.yourgiftoflife.org
