{"id":8177,"date":"2024-07-16T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8177"},"modified":"2024-07-16T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:30:00","slug":"having-thoughts-of-suicide-a-plan-could-save-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8177","title":{"rendered":"Having thoughts of suicide? A plan could save your life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published:<\/strong> 2024-07-16T18:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n

Knowing resources are available and where to find them can be critical for the suicide prevention of you or someone you love.<\/p>\n

My little brother\u00a0Austen\u00a0and I (pictured above) were 16 months apart, peas and carrots as they say.\u00a0I went to the University of North Carolina.\u00a0He went to Duke, nine miles down the road from me. I became a psychologist probably to figure out our childhood wounds and he a genetic scientist.\u00a0His journey took him to South Korea, where he invented a laser in graduate school that could sequence and print genetic material cheaply and accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austen\u00a0had grandiose and ambitious plans to transform modern medicine and he faced serious existential cross-roads.\u00a0He ultimately decided to commercialize the laser.\u00a0This meant leaving his graduate program, moving across the world from his fianc\u00e9e, living on my couch in San Francisco and building a business from absolutely nothing. Both of our parents were unemployed and I was a psychology intern. If he failed, there was no safety net.<\/p>\n

Austen\u00a0raised over $10 million, mostly while wearing ratty flip flops and his lucky black and gray North Face vest. He opened a laboratory near the San Francisco Giants stadium, hired a cracker-jack team, recruited leading scientific advisors, presented his ideas at conferences around the world and built that laser.\u00a0He was touched by fire and then\u2026<\/p>\n

The pressure and loneliness, so common to the entrepreneurial journey, started to extinguish his spark.\u00a0Austen\u00a0became stuck in his head, tortured by his thoughts and scared to seek the help he needed. He died by suicide in the lab where his dream had started. He died on my wedding anniversary, a day that will forever be bittersweet and complicated for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking meaning of his death by turning pain into purpose.\u201d<\/h2>\n

A sibling is a passenger who rides alongside you, witnessing your most formative, early experiences. Your perspectives may be different, but there is no one else who can know your world like they do.\u00a0Austen\u2019s passing left a tremendous void that I\u2019m slowly learning to live with.<\/p>\n

As time passes, my grief has slowly transitioned into making meaning of his death by turning pain into purpose. My goal has been to help ensure that everyone in\u00a0Austen\u2019s shoes can get the support they need and deserve. I\u2019ve researched, advocated for and spoken publicly about how it is mission critical to support mental health and well-being of entrepreneurs and military Veterans.\u00a0Veterans represent more than 10% of business owners in the United States and employ over five million people!<\/p>\n

I am incredibly lucky to be part of a team at the VA National Center for PTSD<\/a> (NCPTSD) that has created a portfolio of free, private and science-based mobile mental health apps. Veterans and entrepreneurs may see different forms of combat in their work, but they both share significantly increased risk for dying by suicide.\u00a0The latest app NCPTSD has developed,\u00a0Safety Plan<\/a>, helps people manage thoughts of suicide and other difficult feelings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many people believe you can\u2019t stop someone who really wants to die, but suicide is preventable.\u00a0An acute suicide crisis often lasts less than an hour and, in some cases, less than a few minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Research shows that having a plan for what to do during that short window saves lives.\u00a0Safety Plan walks an individual through creating a six-step plan to stay alive when experiencing thoughts of suicide or a crisis. Sometimes folks in crisis just need a simple distraction. The app also has cat videos and corny dad jokes for that.\u00a0If you or someone you love struggles with thoughts of suicide, give Safety Plan a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is waiting for you and I promise it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/h2>\n

In my clinical work with entrepreneurs, facilitating peer support groups and individual therapy, it\u2019s clear just how lonely the journey can be.\u00a0Terror and euphoria ride the same rollercoaster during enterprise formation.\u00a0But like any human trying to build something from nothing, without the right guardrails, we can get lost between the wiggles of hope and wallows in the trough of sorrow.\u00a0A few lucky ones will enter the elusive promised land, but the majority of entrepreneurs will stumble and many do inevitably fail.<\/p>\n

In order to help entrepreneurs realize their full potential, we need to proactively provide access to mental health resources. Once an entrepreneur is in crisis, the ripple effects go far and it can be difficult to recoup the damage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I said when giving\u00a0Austen\u2019s eulogy, \u201cIf you don\u2019t want to be alive anymore, know that one day you will experience joy that matches this unbearable pain. You might be stuck here in the darkness for a while, but hang on if you can. Life is waiting for you and I promise it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life has its storms. You don\u2019t have to navigate them alone. That\u2019s true whether it\u2019s an everyday struggle or something more complicated. VA provides extensive resources for many of life\u2019s challenges at Don\u2019t wait. Reach out.<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a Veteran in crisis or concerned about one, contact the Veterans Crisis Line to receive 24\/7 confidential support. You don\u2019t have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect. To reach responders, Dial\u202f988 then Press 1<\/a>, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net\/Chat, or text 838255<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heinz is a clinical research psychologist at the VA National Center for PTSD Public Digital Health Innovation Program and Stanford University. She has committed her career to building, disseminating and evaluating digital tools that promote mental wellbeing for all. <\/p>\n

\n

Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VA has created a portfolio of free, private mental health apps. The latest, Safety Plan, helps manage thoughts of suicide and difficult feelings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care","category-mental-health-recovery"],"yoast_head":"\nHaving thoughts of suicide? A plan could save your life - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VA has created a portfolio of free, private mental health apps. 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