Today, November 20, 2010 is Survivors of Suicide Day and I want to take a moment to write something from someone who has in his official mental health records”History of Multiple Suicide Attempts.”  It was not till I saw that in writing that I really thought and understood what that really meant….  (I’m @#$%ed)  This isn’t true, but at the time, I believed it to be.

Suicide is a reality, in a unreal mind!  It is not to escape life!  At the time we feel suicidal, it seems like the only way to escape our minds, our deep inner pains that seem at the time to be killing us.  There are many reasons for us not to do it!  But walk in the shoes of a suicidal mind and you will quickly learn that our reasoning center of our mind is distorted. Trapped, cornered, scared, not from death but from life. It is a scary time and if the signs are not noticed and help received then the end is suicide!  There is hope, there is recovery!!  No matter how bleak and dark life looks right now, you have to hear and believe …it will get better with you here not gone!!

Warning: This video contains photos of Suicide victims and could be a trigger.

Survivors of Suicide Day is November 20th, a day of healing for those who have lost someone they love to suicide. This video is my way to honor my peers and remembering the Fallen.  (YouTube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8_2Zpg_JaQ)

Exercise to feel well! Here’s an option: How about bike riding? We all need some motivation to get off the couch, right? Exercising (or bike riding) for a good reason that could “SAVE” yourself or someone else…now that’s motivation!!

Have you heard of the National Non-Profit Suicide Prevention Agency, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE)? (And, do you remember that 1979 inspiring movie, “Breaking Away”…the teen cycling team called “the Cutters” win the Indiana University Little 500 bike race?!) Well, Patrick “Cutter”…who is a Suicide PREVENTION Advocate, is trying to cross the U.S., by bicycle, from Alaska to Florida.  His goal….Get Money to SAVE!!

If cycling from Alaska to Florida is too short of a trip, how about cycling around the world?! (Think it may take longer than “80 days” however!) A British Columbia teacher living with Bipolar Disorder, Michael Schratter, hopes to cycle 25,000 miles across 6 continents and 30 countries.