Create your own avatar at the Lifeline Gallery

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, with a donation from producer James L. Brooks, runs The Lifeline Gallery, a powerful virtual space where suicide survivors, attempt survivors, and suicide prevention supporters can share their stories. There are three categories from which users may choose: Loss, Turning Points, and Helpers. Basically, you can create an animated avatar that looks like you (or not), then record your two-minute message by phone. The website instantly links your message to your avatar’s lips, and then you can save your story in the gallery.

“If you can’t [talk about suicide], maybe your avatar can,” says Christopher Gandin Le, co-creator of the Lifeline Gallery… “The Gallery offers a safe platform for people who have traditionally stayed silent about suicide and mental health.”

"These personal stories are deeply affecting, as are the faces in the Gallery who tell them. When, in our daily lives, are we encouraged to talk about something so personal, yet so unfortunately common, as suicide? I love that this Gallery harnesses the semi-anonymity of the internet so that people can create an avatar who will tell their story online." - Jennifer Gandin Le

Real Lives: Share Your Story

This one-of-a-kind project by Mental Health America invites people who struggle with mental illnesses to break the silence and share their stories. We all know how empowering human connections are to those seeking wellness and recovery. By speaking out about your experiences, you help give a voice to the 57.7 million American adults—and as many as one in 10 children—who have a mental health disorder.

Your story will help bust the stigma that keeps people from getting care and perpetuates misunderstanding about those affected by mental health disorders. We think there’s no better antidote to that misunderstanding than the real lives of real people. And there’s no better antidote to silence than speaking out.

Together, we can help others and kick open the door to the truth about mental illness: that it ’s real, common and treatable.

So tell your story and give a real voice to a great cause. Your story can change a life, and even save one.

http://www.nmha.org/reallives/storyForm1.cfm

The Loneliness Workbook

In the prelude to The Loneliness Workbook, Mary Ellen Copeland, PhD, says, “I have wanted to explore how other people resolve the issue of loneliness in their lives for a very long time, for as long as I have been aware of how good it feels to be closely connected with others – and how terrible it feels to be alone and unsupported.”

The Loneliness Workbook explores loneliness and how it relates your life. It helps you determine what kinds of friends and supporters you would like to have and how to build these kinds of relationships. Often loneliness is associated with negative thinking, so positive thinking is addressed. There are many ideas about how to relieve loneliness.

Tips on avoiding loneliness:
-- reach out
-- invite people over to eat (no one turns down dinner)
-- no one is going to ask to be your friend – be proactive
-- do an activity
-- start a conversation
-- be perceptive and listen
-- ask people to show off their talents

No one is exempt from loneliness – rich, poor, young, or old. One of our best defenses is to build a network of people, and yes pets, so we can help each other through the daily times, the tough experiences, and to celebrate the best occasions with. Loneliness does not have to be forever for anyone.

For information on The Loneliness Workbook and Wellness Recovery Action Plans visit www.mentalhealthrecovery.com

Toward a Blood Test for Mood Disorders

A team led by Alexander B. Niculescu III, M.D., Ph.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine reported that it has demonstrated how biomarkers in the blood might be able to measure the presence or absence, and even the intensity, of mood disorders, including bipolar disorder. This advance, while preliminary, is encouraging for those who eagerly await the development of reliable tests for rapid, positive diagnosis of mental illness. Such tests, if perfected, would be a boon to patients, permitting early diagnosis, and a powerful means of overcoming stigma. The biomarkers found by Dr. Niculescu are present in differing amounts in individuals suffering from high or low mood states. Although much research must be performed before such relationships can be quantified and validated, the results reported indicate a path forward for this important work. Press release: http://www.narsad.org/news/press/rg_2008/res2008-03-05.html

The Holiday-Suicide Myth

One of the more persistent myths about the end-of-year holidays is that suicides rise during this period. According to a recently completed analysis of news reporting during last year’s holiday period, there was renewed repetition of this myth in newspaper reporting. The analysis, released by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, shows that about half of the articles written during last year’s holiday season that made a direct connection to the season perpetuated the myth.

The fact is that the rate of suicide in the U.S. is lowest in December and peaks in the spring and fall.

“Although there has been a drop in press support of the myth since 1999, it is disappointing to see that so many stories continue to reinforce the myth,” said Dan Romer, the director of Annenberg’s Adolescent Risk Communication Institute, which conducted the study. “Reporters who make the link should realize that they are making a connection that just doesn’t exist.”

Read the December 8, 2008 press release here: http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Releases/Release_HolidaySuicide/suiciderelease%202008%20with%20tables.pdf

While suicidal thoughts should be taken seriously at any time of year, there’s no reason to think that this month is especially dangerous.

Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?

The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors published a study two years ago called "Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness." The report analyzed data from 16 states, and found that, on average, people with severe mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population.

The causes of physical illness and death among psychiatric patients are much the same as those in other groups — cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes — and are treatable.

Read the full story, published in the December 8, 2008 edition of Time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1863220,00.html

What a Difference a Friend Makes

Check out the 'What a Difference a Friend Makes' site: whatadifference.samhsa.gov, a site for people living with mental illness—and their friends. The site offers tools to help in the recovery process, information about the different kinds of mental illnesses, real-life stories about support and recovery, and videos about how friends can make all the difference.