A Frame of Reference

Before detailing the contents of this entry, it is important to specify the intersection between suicidality and social theory, not only to justify the following conversation which pertains to mindfulness, but also continuing a multidimensional approach to mental health.

When we learn about adjacent areas of individual and social behavior, we are not shifting the focus away from the problem of lethal means safety and suicide prevention, but rather, we are enlarging the boarders of understanding, looking at an ever-complex issue from a variety of interconnected factors in tandem with a specified understanding of critical factors, together, learning both the width as well as the depth of the issue of suicidality.

With this orientation, we no longer have a frame of reference but a prism of perspective, fractionating and highlighting the different layers of color which, in its whole, is the same light. These subjects are of the same, then; one of disconnection and isolation in the midst of trauma (wounding).

epidemic

adjective

ep·​i·​dem·​ic ˌe-pə-ˈde-mik 

: affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time.

The Narrative

Most recently, the word epidemic has been synonymous with the world wide outbreak and eventual pandemic of Covid-19, touching everyone with its high and rapid growth of mass infection and corresponding social adherences such as social distancing, online school years, and masking. But this solely medical use of the term, adopted by Hippocrates from Homer to describe his medical research, sheaths an insightful social perspective that eventually leads to an intersecting insight into the social health spheres of operation; such as suicide prevention.

Crisis

Through a sociological lens, an epidemic is a sudden increase in a specified behavior or pattern which exemplifies itself often as a crisis. This increase is not gradual but abrupt, unforeseen, and unpredicted. This graphically can be seen as a sudden uptick in any measure against time, showing drastic increases in the prevalence of that which is upon the body of people it inhabits. Within a sociological crisis, a large number of individuals are effected at the same time, thus describing the sudden change in measure and scale.

A Hidden Crisis

To bring this from the conceptual to the historical, lets once again look at 2020 to see a sociological crisis, and epidemic.

Within the Covid-19 epidemic and eventual pandemic, there was a hidden health crisis going on in the homes and minds of many. The CDC reports that 40.9% of adults surveyed in April to June of 2020 showed signs of heightened anxiety, 26.6% reported increased substance use, and 13.3% had seriously considered suicide.

To add further context, a meta‑analysis found 25.2% showed clinically elevated depression and 20.5% anxiety during COVID—about double pre‑pandemic levels.

This data is not aiming to rehash healing wounds but rather to show the social epidemics that effect all of us.

The Culmination: catharsis

If we trace back to the ancient Greeks once again, we may find some wisdom that may provide solace to this frightening phenomena that socially and individually touches us in great waves of suddenness.

The word catharsis, originating from the Greek word katharsis, means purification or cleansing. A catharsis breaks the momentum of chaos caused by an epidemic crisis. This is the slowing down of the suddenness, it is a cathartic nature which resolves and supplants the chaotic one.

To specify this further, I want to directly relay this to lethal means safety: catharsis is the time and space we have that deescalates and provides room for a resolution of crisis.

On a social level, this leads us to ask ourselves what we have in our western cultural melting pot that supplies such catharsis? Where do we find our break in the wave of chaos? where do we find our healing in the sociological epidemics of substance use, mental health disorders, and suicidality? Where does our ease collectively come from? 

Local Initiatives and Involvements

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention 2025 EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN MESA COUNTY Register Here!

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST): September 18-19, November 6-7 This two-day workshop(16 hours) helps participants learn how to prevent suicide by recognizing signs, providing a skilled intervention, and developing a safety plan to keep someone alive.

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA): September 26, October 17, December 5 This eight (8) hour training teaches people how to recognize signs of mental health or substance use challenges in adults, how to offer and provide initial help, and how to guide a person toward appropriate care.

Youth Mental Health First Aid (Youth MHFA): August 29 This Six and half (6.5) hour training for adults who regularly interact with people ages 12-18. It introduces common mental health challenges, typical adolescent development, and plan for how to help in crisis and non-crisis situations

Soul Shop™: October 2 This 90-minute workshop equips faith community leaders and other people of faith to train their congregations to minister to those impacted by suicidal desperation.

If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, call or text 988. The National Suicide Hotline is staffed around the clock with certified members of the American Association of Suicidology. Or the Crisis Text Line, text CO to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and responds, all from a secure online platform.