The potential responsibility behind my volunteering for the suicide hotline hit me soon after. Who are these people and why do they want to off themselves. What would I say to them? How do I act? How am I going to feel if...?
Suicide took the lives of 29,350 Americans in 2000
More people die from suicide than from homicide. In 2000, there were 1.7 times as many suicides as homicides.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24.
Males are more than four times more likely to die from suicide than are females. However, females are more likely to attempt suicide than are males.
Suicide rates are generally higher than the national average in the western states and lower in the eastern and midwestern states. [I was in California.]
As much as I tried I couldn't induce a mindset such that I could empathize with these people. Instead I was forced to take a more pragmatic approach to dealing with them. And, of course, retrospectively my sex was a problem. John Gray's Men are from Mars... wouldn't be published until 1993. But when it was I found myself relating spot on to the notion of men primarily being problem solvers and women primarily being listeners. (And I don't condone stereotyping the sexes at any time, but, Duh!)
Being a listener, as it turned out, was ten-fold more important than being a problem solver in terms of answering a potential suicide victim. The problems in these peoples lives were often times irrational and therefore didn't lend themselves to easy fixes. Better just to be a good listener. A lesson I would learn the hard way.
Usually, the hotline was staffed by two people and a speaker phone. Sort of the same premise of a firing squad: One rifle always has a blank shell. No one person could ever ultimately be responsible for a potential victim's potential subsequent suicide. That's was the scenario on one Saturday night in 1978. Except that my partner, Tammy, had gone to get pizza takeout. The phone rang.
"Hello suicide hotline. This is Rich."
After a pause the voice on the end of the line said, "I think I want to kill myself."
More later.
10:40:33 AM 
|
Welcome To The Club
