Approaching the idea of suicide can come in various forms and two forums presented a couple of these during the Suicide Prevention Conference shedding light on how to decrease the rate of suicides.
Joshua Rivedal, the keynote speaker for the conference, shared his trials and how he battled the cycle of suicide in his family. His paternal grandfather fell victim to the act and later Rivedal, the executive director of The i’Mpossible Project, attempted to take his own life.
Rivedal put on a one-man play for the audience in the Charleston-Mattoon Room Tuesday and told a story of how he landed in his current position. In his one-man play, he revealed that his father had an anger management problem and Rivedal often saw the worst side of his father’s temperament.
Later on in the presentation, Rivedal told audience members he got a phone call from his mother saying his father committed suicide. His dad wrote the family a letter stating it was due to the recent divorce with Rivedal’s mother. While coming face-to-face with his dad for the last time before his father’s burial, Rivedal said he promised something to himself.
“This shit stops now, I’m done and I’m never going to kill myself,” Rivedal said.
Rivedal said he started to think about death often and he found himself about to take his life, but a conversation with his mother helped him start his recovery process. After telling the story of how he almost brought on his own demise, Rivedal said it took it several months to recuperate from clinical depression.
Since the events in his life, Rivedal has been on shows like “Saturday Night Live,” and he has created a company called The i’Mpossible Project. The project provides a platform for people to tell their story and let others know they are not alone.
Rivedal currently travels to present speeches and seminars on being a survivor of suicide.
“It’s not just the church, it’s not just your family, it takes a village,” Rivedal said. “Together we are mighty and we need to work to have zero suicides.”
Rivedal said the more people talk about suicide through storytelling and platforms like a blog or a panel the less likely people are to feel alone and the more likely they are to go seek the proper help.
Another forum during the conference focused on members of the LGBT community being shunned during a presentation called “Microagression: Suicide & Microagression Against LGBTQA+ Community.”
This forum was led by Ben Wilburn, the LGBT Resource Center Coordinator, who elaborated the thought of microagressions in today’s society and tied it into how it could lead to suicide. He defined microagression as the everyday verbal and nonverbal slights and snubs people do intentionally or unintentionally.
Wilburn said often times people are raised in prejudice or homophobic homes and sometimes questions can be unconsciously harmful.
Wilburn said some microagressions could be asking a Mexican-American if they were legal or telling someone they do not look gay.
“There’s a difference between not knowing and blatant ignorance,” Wilburn said.
Wilburn said some people are constantly dealing with their own inner battles and microagressions often lead to a problem in one’s mental health. He said many people in the LGBT community suffer from depression and anxiety.
Wilburn showed the percentile of adolescent girls and boys who have either attempted suicide or had thoughts of committing suicide. The attempts of suicide in adolescent gay males was 29 percent while in lesbian girls it was 52 percent. Thoughts of suicide in gay adolescents was 47 percent and thoughts of the attempt for lesbian adolescents was 72 percent.
Barb Bestes, a behavioral health clinician, said she wanted to come out to the conference to get more insight on suicide prevention. She said it takes words and not action for people to advocate for those who are outcasts.
“We do see a high rate of depression in the LGBT community,” Bestes said. “People who have privilege don’t necessary see that they have and there’s an old saying that silence implies agreement because not challenging kind of gives permission.”
Marilyn Ryan, a counselor at Parkland College, said people who outcast individuals can lead to the demise of the person being outed.
“Homophobia can be lethal because it can kill people though suicide,” Ryan said. “But if we could help them get through these hard times then suicide will never be an option.”