December 25, 2024 • 37 mins
Episode Summary:
In this episode of "Celeste, the Therapist" podcast, I delve into the critical and often taboo topic of suicide. I start by welcoming both new and longtime listeners, expressing my gratitude for their support. I explain the purpose of the podcast, which is to help people understand why they get stuck in certain areas of their lives and provide practical tools to shift their thinking.
Today's episode focuses on suicide, a subject many avoid discussing due to the misconception that talking about it might encourage suicidal behavior. I emphasize the importance of transparency and education in addressing this issue. I share alarming statistics, such as the fact that over 720,000 people die by suicide each year, and it is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 29-year-olds.
I outline common risk factors, including mental disorders, physical ailments, substance abuse, and high-stress situations. I then provide a comprehensive list of strategies and tools to help those struggling with suicidal thoughts or supporting someone who is. These include seeking professional help, regular check-ins, engaging in meaningful activities, limiting access to means, and making healthy lifestyle choices.
I also stress the importance of creating a safety plan, developing coping strategies, and building a support network. I share resources like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line for immediate help.
Throughout the episode, I aim to empower listeners with knowledge and practical advice, encouraging them to approach the topic with empathy and understanding. I conclude by inviting listeners to support my work through my books, wellness center, and upcoming classes, and I encourage them to share the episode with others who might benefit from it. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, take care.
Tune in to learn more about combating overthinking and how to embrace a positive outlook as we head into the new year!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
You are now tuned in to Celeste, the therapist podcast. Hello,
my name is Celeste. Thank you so much for giving me a try. If
you are new here, I wanna say thank you so much for checking me
out. What we do here is I talk about
areas of our lives that we get stuck in. I
talk about why we get stuck and I help you shift the way
(00:26):
you think about it by giving you practical tools. I'm
all about using what you have, starting where you can. And
I think a lot of times people tend to give up because they
don't understand why they're feeling this things that they're
feeling or why things are happening. And I find that
the more educated we are about a topic, the
(00:46):
better it is for us to create change in our
life. If you are a longtime listener, thank you so much for
sticking it out with me. I appreciate you. If
you enjoy these episodes that I do, Do
me a favor, share it with somebody that you love. If you want a
topic discussed, all you got to do is email me info at
Celeste, the therapist.com. If you want to follow me, you can
(01:10):
follow me everywhere at Celeste, the therapist. Also,
I have a whole wellness center that I created called
shifting the way you think. And if you want to learn more about
the wellness center, get involved, attend 1 of the classes. All
you gotta do is go to dot com again.
That's dot com.
(01:33):
All right, let's get into this amazing episode.
All right. Hello, hello, hello, beautiful people. So
my name is Celeste and I'm a therapist. I
just want to shout out to Michelle who
sent me the shirt, My Therapist is Black. I love
the shirt. If you're new here, I talk
(01:56):
about things that we struggle with and then try to give you
some education and awareness and tips. Today's subject,
we're talking about suicide, and
it's such a taboo topic. It's a subject that people think, like,
we don't want to talk about it, because if we talk about it, then it
can encourage someone to do something, which is not true.
(02:18):
Right. I'm all about putting everything out on the table,
being transparent. A lot of people are struggling with so many different
things, but I see that people struggle in
silence. And this podcast was created in 2018 because
I wanted people to have a free avenue to
help them on their journey, on their healing journey, on their discovery of
(02:41):
who they are and why they work the way they work,
right? The more you understand yourself, the better it is. Like we
don't come with the manual, you know, you get instructions on
how to set something up. And sometimes people throw those instructions away
and they have to go back out the trash and be like, let me see
what this, what it says. We don't come with a manual,
(03:02):
but the more we understand and make space
and time to pay attention to what's going on,
we will start to understand ourselves better. And I promise you,
understanding yourself better feels so good
because now you're not feeling like everything is happening to you. So
this episode is good for people that might be struggling with SI,
(03:24):
IDH, suicidal. I'll say SI, but struggling
with those kinds of thoughts. Or if you are a loved one
trying to get support for someone in your life, I
want this episode to be something that encourages and empowers you.
I want you to take heed to the things that I'm saying and
try to implement some things in your life that may stick out
(03:46):
for you. All right, so let's just start with what
is the definition of suicide. And it
says it's the act of intentionally causing harm on
one's death, which happens a lot. If
we were to look at the stats, more than
720,000 people died due to suicide every year. Suicide
(04:09):
is the third leading cause of death amongst 15 to
29-year-olds. And then
73% of global suicides occur in low and middle income families. income
countries, which is very interesting. So
those are some stats that you may not be aware of. And
I know I feel like the age is getting younger and younger, and where
(04:32):
people are kind of losing hope. One thing about the
mind that's important to remember is that it doesn't have concept of
time. What I do know is a lot of people are struggling with
feeling the stored pain or the stored trauma in their body, in
their system. and their thoughts. And this podcast,
like all of these episodes that you could find, over 400 episodes,
(04:55):
where I'm sharing a story or I'm talking about an issue. And
these episodes will help you start to see a
way out, right? I'm big on shifting the way you
think, because if you get stuck in your head, it's
so easy to feel hopeless and feel like nothing's going
to change. And as somebody who understands
(05:16):
how easy it is for these thoughts to get stuck in
your head, which is why I do what I do, which is why I
have this platform. I have this amazing
passion to help people understand themselves,
understand their journey. so that they can have hope, right?
That's my main mission in life,
(05:40):
right? I recognize this is my purpose because it comes easily.
It's something I can do without getting paid is teaching people
about mental health and about themselves. These are
some common risk factors. And if you are listening to me on the audio,
this podcast does stream on YouTube as well. And I
have visuals for people that are more visually inclined,
(06:02):
where I'm putting up information so that you can see it while
I'm talking about it. So some common risk
factors. If you're struggling with a mental disorder, if
you're struggling with depression, anxiety, bipolar, that's
people that are at high risk. If you have physical disorders
or struggle with substance abuse, also high risk. With
(06:24):
these physical ailments, dealing with pain a lot,
it's easy for you to struggle with some kind of depression or
feeling hopeless. Impulsive acts
driven by financial issues, relationship problems, or
bullying. People that are in high
stressful situations, it's easy to make a
(06:46):
permanent decision in the moment of dealing with high
stress, right? Because in those moments, you feel like you can't see your
way out. And then people who may have had a
previous attempt of suicide are also at
a higher risk for suicide. Now,
these are some things I wanted you to understand what
(07:06):
suicide is, kind of the stats and the risk factors, right?
Now, the rest of this segment, we're going to talk about strategies, ways
that you can think about working on
creating a toolbox for yourself, right? If you're struggling, or
if you are a loved one of somebody who struggles, I want
to help empower you. Like I think, so I'm a therapist, right? A
(07:28):
real therapist. People say, are you a real therapist? I'm a real therapist. And I
went to school for this. But I also have a lot of wisdom.
I read a lot. And so I don't want people to feel because
they are not a therapist that they can't help their loved
one. I think if you equip yourself with enough information, I
want you to be empowered. So I'm going
(07:50):
to give you these 10 different things that you could think about and
they are in no order. It's not like one supersedes the other. They
just happen to be posted in the way that is posted. Um,
so take what you can leave, what you can't write. So some prevention,
um, one seeking professional help. Um, so as you
can see on the screen, I have therapy, counseling, medication. Um,
(08:13):
now I believe in therapy and I believe that therapy
can help, right? Therapy's helped me. I help people through
therapy. I also know that therapy can
be challenging to get, right? You see, I got my shirt. My therapist is
Black. There's like 4% of people in America that are
Black. And if you are a Black person,
(08:33):
a lot of times you want to talk to somebody that looks like you, and that can be
challenging. Or finances can prevent you from being able
to see someone, right? But If you
are comfortable or have insurance or thinking about seeing a therapist, right?
That could be something that can be helpful. I also have one
here, medication. In some cases, medication may be necessary to manage
(08:54):
underlining medical conditions like depression and anxiety. I
am somebody who, I'm not a person that's
like, oh, no medication, but I am somebody that thinks about
like, let's look at other ways that we can work on ourselves. and
let medication be a last resort, right? I've never had to
take medication, but I work with people who ended up
(09:16):
taking medication and finding some relief. And then they've
been able to work through some things and get off. And some people are still on
it and it helps them manage some of their symptoms, right? So
that is one avenue that can help, especially when
people are dealing with like deep anxiety
that is hindering them from dealing with
(09:38):
everyday life stuff. A lot of times with the medication, it
can help people like take the edge off so that they can get
to a place to work on themselves and work on the things that they
need to work on. So that's one kind of intervention.
Follow-up and check-ins. So regular check-ins, encouraging your
friends and family to check in regularly with individuals who are struggling, and
(10:00):
then monitoring progress. Encourage individuals to keep track
of their feelings and progress. and to communicate any
changes to their support network. This is important. If
you are somebody who has a friend or a family member that's struggling, check
in with them. You don't have to understand what they're going
through. A lot of times we don't understand, so don't say
(10:21):
like, oh, I get it if you don't get it. But listening, sometimes
just listening is helpful. When it comes to monitoring progress,
I think being able to check in with yourself how you're feeling so
that you can see, you know what? Yesterday, between one and 10, I
was feeling like a four, but today I'm feeling like a six. My
mood is a lot higher. Being able to see your growth is important
(10:44):
because it allows you to be like, okay, I'm stepping
a step forward. I'm progressing. So
monitoring your progress with your emotions. It's also
good to monitor your emotions and your progress and
pay attention to how you're feeling so that you can understand your
triggers. Sometimes there are things in our lives or people in
(11:06):
our lives that are very triggering, but because they've always been
around or because we've always done things a certain way, we always deal
with family because we were taught family is important. We
don't realize how they could be hindering us or triggering us, right?
So the more you start to monitor the things that you're
feeling and the ways that you find yourself affected, again,
(11:29):
you'll be able to create that manual where you can start to understand what
it is that ticks you off, what it is that motivates you, right?
How could you understand yourself if you are not doing
anything to monitor when you find yourself
struggling? The next prevention thing
I want you to think about is encouraging meaningful activities.
(11:53):
So engagement in hobbies is important. Volunteering
can be something that's important. When you are doing things
that you love, I know a lot of creative people who find themselves
just working, working and not doing anything creative. And so we
work on a plan and talk about the importance of adding some creativity
to your life, no matter what that looks like, right? I'm
(12:15):
somebody who I started learning how to cook
out of necessity. Cooking for me is an outlet. Gardening
and my plants, they're an outlet for me, right? That's
something where I say it's a hobby. It's a hobby I learned. Actually, when
it came to cooking, if you don't follow me on social
media, you could follow me on Instagram, all social media. platform,
(12:35):
Snapchat, TikTok at Celeste, the therapist where I share a
lot of my life. But being able
to learn how to cook and garden and I have a really amazing
plants. I cook really well. I actually learned on YouTube and
I always like to share that because it's a free place that you can get information
and it's an outlet for me. Right. So what are your
(12:57):
outlets? What are the hobbies you're engaged in? Right. And
if you're asking, like, what does this have to do with suicide? Being
able to have a plan or create things in your
life, I look at it as your toolkit for
living, right? When it comes to surviving life, we know we gotta eat,
we know we gotta drink water, we know we need sleep, right? That's
(13:21):
surviving. We know we gotta work to get paid. When it comes to
living life, I feel like we don't have those tools, right?
And so when you think about being able to engage in meaningful
activities, that can bring you so much joy. And if
you're saying to me, as you're listening to this, Celeste, I
don't know what that looks like. I would encourage you to start,
(13:43):
maybe start with thinking about things you may have liked when you were younger, or
start to Pay attention to
the things that you see that like bring you joy or
puts a smile on your face, right? I promise you there's
something that you can engage in that
can bring you joy and that you may find
(14:03):
yourself loving. I didn't love cooking at first. And
like I said, I did it out of necessity. And so
it's something that like really brings me joy to cook for
my family and for others. The next thing I
want you to think about is limiting access
to means. So removing dangerous items, so like
(14:25):
firearms, medication. These are for people that may be struggling with
suicidal thoughts, sharp objects. That's
important. There are some people that will
have like these thoughts about it, right? If you find yourself having
thoughts about it, if you feel that you're
unsafe, right? Find a trusted
(14:46):
friend, family member, and anything, especially
if you've attempted in the past, get those things
out of your house, get them out of your room, right? Shop
objects, like, so that it's not something that you're thinking about
going to, right? And again, when it comes to suicide,
right, I tell people that Sometimes when
(15:10):
things get hard, you tell yourself like, I wish I wasn't here,
right? And so that's a suicidal ideation. That's
the thoughts that you have. And a lot of people, including myself, have
had those thoughts of like, I wish I wasn't here. When you
start to think about a plan, that's when
it gets really scary. And these things that I'm
(15:30):
talking about today is because I want to help you not get to that point where
you are creating a plan, where you start envisioning yourself. I've
talked to people who have attempted in the
hospital and met with them, and they
talked about this stuff. I've talked to people who were creating a
plan. I talked to people who were family members of
(15:54):
people who had just passed away due
to suicide. So it's such a really hard
subject where a lot of people are left with
no answers. Because I've been able to
talk to people for a living who have been in this process, I
have a deeper understanding on what's going on.
(16:16):
And so I really want to encourage you, anytime you find yourself
thinking about a plan of of what you would do.
It's dangerous, right? And I want you to get in tune.
I want you to reach out for support. There's
a safety hotline you can call, right? I
really want you to think about that. But again, if sharp
(16:39):
objects, if you do own a weapon, if medications
is something that You think about like
using, like, start to get out of your head. You
can't do this by yourself. I'm going to say that one more time. You cannot do this by yourself.
So if you don't have a trusted friend or family member, reach out
for support. I'm going to give you numbers that you can
(17:02):
call because I really want to give you hope. The
next thing I want you to think about is healthy lifestyle
choices Creating a healthy lifestyle
can actually improve your mental health, believe it or not. When
it comes to your physical health, so physical
activity can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, creating
(17:25):
a balanced diet that can support your overall
wellbeing and sleep. Stressing the importance of good sleep
hygiene. This is something I'm always talking about on the podcast, on
my stories and my Instagram and social
media. I'm talking about my life, how I'm trying to move my body.
how that the foods are important. And if
(17:48):
you live in America, I promise you, they don't care about the type of
foods that they are putting in the
food choices that we have. A lot of the foods that
are created here and the ingredients that are used here
are banned in other countries. So they
really don't care. And I really wanna emphasize
(18:10):
the importance of Yes, you may have a
long way to go of changing your food choices, but
I don't want you to not try. I shared this story
a million times, but when I was trying to work on my health and
I was working out, I would go to Burger
King and have a Whopper. It was one of my favorite meals,
(18:33):
I love burgers, not realizing I was defeating the
purpose. It's not about not having that burger, but
it's about not having that burger every day. Greens wasn't
a part of my diet or anything like that. It's kind of
like eating on the go, that was normal for me. So
once I recognized that's not the best thing to do, I found
(18:55):
myself saying, okay, I'm going to make this change. So
I went out and brought all these healthy things, but that
was hard. Those healthy things went to waste because I
didn't know how to incorporate that into my diet. So I started
educating myself. Months turned into years, and
I started with breakfast. I literally just started making smoothies
(19:16):
in the morning. I'm like, you know what? Let me try to just start my day with the smoothie.
My lunch and dinner was probably crap back then, right? But
at least I got the breakfast out of the way. It was a very intentional
process. So I think sometimes we think we got so far away
to go when it comes to trying to work on our
healthy choices. Instead of thinking about, oh
(19:38):
my gosh, I got this long way to go. How about thinking about what
can I do right now in this moment to create change? right?
So educate yourself, YouTube, there's podcasts,
there are free resources where you're listening to people that are
talking about it. I listened to people talking about different
changes that you can make in your food choices. And over time,
(20:00):
it started to resonate with me. It was something that my mind
started to shift and create a way for me
to see the possibilities. You can't see the possibilities if
you're not feeding your mind with information that's going to teach you how
to create that change. When it comes to sleep, if
your sleep is horrible, start creating a
(20:20):
sleep routine. I promise you it can help. If
you are on your screen scrolling with that
light, that light, even if you're watching healthy things, like, which
I know is impossible. I don't care how much you curate your feed to
have like a kind of healthy way of thinking and living. something
could be thrown in there that could throw you off. So regardless of that,
(20:43):
that light on the phone is telling your mind that
we're still up and wired, right? So if
you can work on creating a nighttime routine 30 minutes before you
go to bed, Turn the phone off, put the phone away, right?
You can put on some, if you need some noise, put on some like sleep
sounds on YouTube, something that's familiar that
(21:05):
can help you sleep, right? If you are struggling with a lot of
thoughts before you go to sleep, you can have like a thought
journal by your bed and write those thoughts out.
Just because you go to sleep, if you're struggling with thinking a lot, it
doesn't mean that you're going to fall asleep. If you're dealing with a stressful
situation and your mind is trying to get answers, like,
(21:26):
oh my gosh, let's say you're about to start a new job. Oh
my gosh, what's going to happen tomorrow? Answer that thought.
I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I know I'm going to meet with Susie and
she's going to go over X, Y, and Z. A lot of times,
sometimes we're ruminating over things where our mind is just
really trying to get answers. It's doing what it's designed to do. Like
(21:47):
don't, sometimes I think it's hard because you feel like your
mind is deceiving you or you feel like, Oh, why is this happening? Right.
Instead of doing that, take time to think about what's going on in
your head. It can be scary to start to
access the thoughts that are happening, but what's scary is
the fact that you're living your life off of these thoughts. That may not be
(22:09):
true. A lot of the thoughts that you're experienced are from your past
trauma. the things that you've experienced, the things that you're
watching, the conversations you're having, right? So we're
constantly being bombarded with advertisement. If you live in a country
where advertisement, like it's capitalistic, like in
America, everything's about what can we sell people? Like,
(22:29):
how can we make people buy this thing? So a
lot of the things that are in your head are based off of so many
things that has nothing to do with wellness. And so
if you're not making time to meditate and think about what's going on,
what's happening is that you're allowing your thoughts to
be the lens on your life. And that is just not fair to
(22:50):
your overall wellbeing. Let's just
get into this advertisement real quick, and I'll come back with the last four.
I hope you're enjoying the episode. Quick announcement. I
want to give you some ways you can support, right? I have two books. One
is called Relationship Goals. It's a guide to a healthy relationship. I
also have a guided journal. And if you find yourself stuck
(23:11):
in thoughts, want to get your thoughts on paper, I ask you different
questions. And I also ask you how you're feeling. I provide you
with the feelings chart. If you go to CelesteTherapist.com, you
could find 365 days of intentional living along
with relationship goals. Another way you can support me,
I have this wellness center that I'm so excited about
(23:33):
called Shifting the Way You Think Wellness Center. At my center, I
do not want finances to be a reason why people can't get what
they need. So if you wanna donate a class to someone, please
feel free to go to my website, stwyt.com, and
you can give a donation. The classes run between 15 and
(23:54):
$35. My goal is for everyone to be able
to access these services regardless of finances. So
if you can donate, please donate to your Girl Center. I
would be greatly appreciated. All right, y'all, let's get back
into this amazing episode. All
right, so the next thing I want you to think about, whether
(24:17):
it's you or somebody that you love, is thinking about a safety plan,
right? So being able to identify triggers, helping individuals
recognize situations or feelings that might lead to these thoughts, which
we just talked about. Developing coping strategies, so
creating a list of coping strategies. and
distractions that can be used when the thoughts arise, and
(24:38):
emergency contacts. Include a list of people to contact in
crisis, friends, family, or mental health professionals. Next,
I'm going to share some coping strategies. But having
a safety plan is important because when you're struggling
with these thoughts, you start to forget there are some people that
you can call that care about you. There are some things that
(25:01):
you can do that can help in those moments. to help
you not be so caught
up in that thought of not wanting to be here. Because
the more you think that way and the more you stay by yourself, which is
why I said, if you're struggling with these thoughts, the worst thing you can
do is isolate yourself. I know you
(25:21):
may not feel like going to that support group. You may not feel
like doing those things that can help, but try
not to think about what you're feeling because those feelings are
temporary. They're not going to last. They're here for a moment, right?
And so I really want you to think about those things as you're trying to create your
safety plan. Being able to identify your triggers
(25:42):
can help you because if I am around certain people
and I recognize The way that they're operating in life is
making me feel sad or making me feel anxious. I'm going to limit
the amount of time I work with them, deal with them. For example, if
you have coworkers and you have to work together, but
then they're like, oh, let's go have some drinks after work, right?
(26:04):
And they're engaging in conduct or conversation that's
very triggering to you. And you're just sitting there going along with the flow and
thinking like, oh, because they're my coworkers. No, you
have autonomy over your life where you can say, you know, I'm going
to sit this one out, right? You don't have to say like, oh, you're triggering me, right? Like,
but you can not do it. But if
(26:25):
you're not aware that you're being triggered by it,
you're going to keep going out and having drinks with them after work. So
be mindful of the things that you struggle with
and when it happens. So again, you can understand yourself
better. Now, when it comes to coping strategies,
I want you to develop some coping strategies. Mindfulness and
(26:48):
relaxation, like working on deep breathing, are a
really great way. People who know me know
my favorite artist is J. Cole. He's
a great storyteller. He's so transparent. And
I just listened to his 10-episode podcast he did
with one of his best friends. And he talked about a
(27:09):
change that took place in his life. when he added meditation to
his life. It was so powerful. It was so powerful. He
said, I was getting ready to record this album and
it ended up being his best album. But he said, a
lady that was working with him said, oh, won't you try meditation? He
(27:29):
said, I started with five minutes, 10 minutes. He said, it was an amazing experience.
I got to understand myself better, understand what worked, understand what
didn't work, understood what set me off. And to this day,
he continues to meditate. And if you're somebody
that thinks that meditation is hard because I
have all these thoughts, yes, that's what's happening. You have all
(27:51):
these thoughts. And these thoughts are going to happen and
continue to go on whether you choose to be a part of it or not.
I say this a lot. Whether you're going to choose to be a part of your thoughts
or not, your thoughts are going to keep going. So
when you think about it, yes, it's hard initially. to
understand what's going on in your head, because it can feel scary, it can feel
(28:12):
hard. But over time, you start to
gain power back, right? Your thoughts are
in control of a lot of your decision makings on how you're feeling. And
if you work on engaging with what's happening in your head,
you can actually start to direct the path that you're going. So
meditation is a great coping strategy. Journaling
(28:34):
out your thoughts, another great coping strategy. When
I was younger, I used to write in my diary a lot.
And I remember writing and just feeling better,
right? So that's why I continued to write. I didn't know
anything about mental health, and I didn't understand what I was doing was
therapeutic. But it was so helpful
(28:55):
for me because when the thoughts are in your head,
it feels real. But when you say it out loud, when you write
it out loud, it has less power. So for instance, when
I'm working with people and they'll be like, yeah, I
can't do this. It's so hard. I can't
do it. And I said, oh, you can't? And I said, what makes you think you can't?
(29:16):
I start to challenge that thought with them out loud. And then
they start to reframe it and think, wait, actually, I could do this. But
if you don't write it out, if you're not talking it out, you're allowing
those thoughts to attach to the things
that didn't go well, or the things that you struggled with,
or the things people say you're not going to be able to do. For instance,
(29:37):
this podcast I started in 2018, I
remember people saying, you really want to start a podcast? Everybody
has a podcast. If I didn't think about those conversations and
declare power over my life, telling myself, no, I
can do this, what's going to happen is as I'm trying
to start this podcast, if I'm not mindful, I'm
(30:00):
going to let The thing that that person said stopped
me from starting this podcast. And we're in 2024, almost
in 2025. And I would have never started this podcast. I
would have never been able to help all the people that I helped through
this podcast. So I really want you to be
mindful of the thoughts that you're having. And
(30:22):
journaling could be a great, great thing. The
next one is like building your support network, right? So there
are amazing support groups. NAMI, N-A-M-I, is
a great one, right? And that's the National Alliance
of Mental Illness. And you can Google it. They
have a chapter in every state. But there
(30:45):
are support groups that you could find online now. That's
one thing that came out the pandemic is that people have been able
to get support online,
and that's something that wasn't really heard of before the
pandemic. Reaching
(31:06):
out to family and friends are important only
if they are supportive, right? I want to make sure they're supportive. Sometimes
(31:29):
you have people in your life that are not supportive. So
it's important that you know who the people in
your life. And when I say they're not supportive, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, but
sometimes people do not know how
to give you the support that they need because they don't even know how to give it for themselves. Right.
(31:52):
So that's important to remember. Now,
the last thing I want you to think about is crisis
hotline. Even if you're not feeling
like you have a plan and you just want
to talk, right? Because I know there are some people
that may not feel like they have somebody in their life they can talk to, right?
(32:15):
I know there are a lot of people that have that, but there are people that really don't have that.
So I really want you to think about this crisis hotline. It's
US, the National Prevention Line, 1-800-273-TALK. And
then there's a crisis text line. So
if you are somebody that don't want to talk and you'd rather text,
(32:36):
guess what? There's a text line that you can do. And the text
line, text hello to 741-741. I'll say that again. Text hello
to 741-741. And if someone's in immediate danger where there's no intervention,
(32:58):
at the planning stage, definitely reaching out to
911 is the best resort because sometimes people get
to that stage where they really need
more intervention. So again, this
is a really hard topic where I
(33:18):
know so many people who have been affected by this, right? I
get choked up a little bit just thinking about it. Sometimes
I can't believe how I'm still able to show up
and do what I do because the stories that I hear are
really hard. from families, from
people, they're really hard. And what
(33:41):
keeps me going is knowing that I'm going to educate somebody so
that they won't be the next person to feel
like this is the route that they have to take. I want to educate somebody
so if they may not have a therapist in their life or
a therapist that they can talk to, at least they'll be equipped with
some information. Some key points I want you to
(34:01):
take out of today is that suicide is a complex
issue influenced by various factors, and it's essential to
approach it with empathy and understanding. I've heard
people say, why would somebody do that? And it bothers me to
my core, because if you've never walked
in somebody's shoes, you can't really say like,
(34:24):
you can't really think that way, right? Like, I just want you to, and
if you're listening to this and you have thought that way, I just want
you to know, people are dealing with things that you can't see on
the outside. It looks good, but believe me, I know I do this work.
People are dealing with a lot of hard things that the naked
eye can't see, right? A lot of internal are, I
(34:45):
would say it's us against us. Sometimes we're fighting our
own thoughts, our own selves, right? So approaching
it with empathy and understanding. I also want you to take
away that prevention is possible, and there are effective strategies that
can reduce suicide, right? So it
is possible. Intervention is possible. And
(35:07):
then open discussion about mental health can help destigmatize the
topic and encourage those and need to seek help.
Like it's okay to talk about it, right? I don't want you to feel like
talking about it is a bad thing, right? Even mental
health, talking about it. When I first started, I
started posting on social media Uh,
(35:29):
probably back in like 2012, 13, I had this like
passion because, you know, I was working on myself and
I'm like, Oh, these, I'm learning all this stuff about like shifting
the way I think and, and these things. So I had a passion
to share with people and people were like, Oh, why are you doing that? Like
it was such a taboo thing back in 2012. Um,
(35:49):
it wasn't something that people were talking about. But
in my household, we talk about mental health the way we talk about pizza
with my clients. That's what it is. On my social
media, when people think about mental health,
they think about me because I'm always talking
about it. I'm always bringing it into people's awareness so that they are
(36:11):
aware, right? Because we're dealing with something that we can't see. But
if you pay attention, it's affecting your entire life. physically,
mentally, your choices that you're making. So I
want to give people a different avenue. So take those points
away. If this was helpful to you, I
would love to hear from you. You can message me
(36:32):
on social media, write under one of the posts. If
you enjoy it, share this with somebody that you love. You never know
how one of these episodes can really help people. And
if you want to support me, um, I have a couple of books. I also have
a class that's coming up about healing the inner child. We
have classes at the center. So if you are, um, in
(36:53):
the Boston area, the South shore area, uh, we actually,
I actually have a center where, um, we are having classes.
Um, I'm doing an online class as well on healing
the inner child. And I'm also going to be doing a free workshop
about um, thinking about your goals. I want people to
think about their goals and have a plan. So if
(37:15):
you want to work on creating a vision for yourself, um, all you gotta
do is go to stw yt.com slash events, and
you will find the links to the different things that are taking place. And
if you want to follow me, you can follow me everywhere, uh, by searching Celeste,
the therapist and until next time, beautiful people,
You are now tuned in to Celeste, the therapist podcast. Hello,
my name is Celeste. Thank you so much for giving me a try. If
you are new here, I wanna say thank you so much for checking me
out. What we do here is I talk about
areas of our lives that we get stuck in. I
talk about why we get stuck and I help you shift the way
(00:26):
you think about it by giving you practical tools. I'm
all about using what you have, starting where you can. And
I think a lot of times people tend to give up because they
don't understand why they're feeling this things that they're
feeling or why things are happening. And I find that
the more educated we are about a topic, the
(00:46):
better it is for us to create change in our
life. If you are a longtime listener, thank you so much for
sticking it out with me. I appreciate you. If
you enjoy these episodes that I do, Do
me a favor, share it with somebody that you love. If you want a
topic discussed, all you got to do is email me info at
Celeste, the therapist.com. If you want to follow me, you can
(01:10):
follow me everywhere at Celeste, the therapist. Also,
I have a whole wellness center that I created called
shifting the way you think. And if you want to learn more about
the wellness center, get involved, attend 1 of the classes. All
you gotta do is go to dot com again.
That's dot com.
(01:33):
All right, let's get into this amazing episode.
All right. Hello, hello, hello, beautiful people. So
my name is Celeste and I'm a therapist. I
just want to shout out to Michelle who
sent me the shirt, My Therapist is Black. I love
the shirt. If you're new here, I talk
(01:56):
about things that we struggle with and then try to give you
some education and awareness and tips. Today's subject,
we're talking about suicide, and
it's such a taboo topic. It's a subject that people think, like,
we don't want to talk about it, because if we talk about it, then it
can encourage someone to do something, which is not true.
(02:18):
Right. I'm all about putting everything out on the table,
being transparent. A lot of people are struggling with so many different
things, but I see that people struggle in
silence. And this podcast was created in 2018 because
I wanted people to have a free avenue to
help them on their journey, on their healing journey, on their discovery of
(02:41):
who they are and why they work the way they work,
right? The more you understand yourself, the better it is. Like we
don't come with the manual, you know, you get instructions on
how to set something up. And sometimes people throw those instructions away
and they have to go back out the trash and be like, let me see
what this, what it says. We don't come with a manual,
(03:02):
but the more we understand and make space
and time to pay attention to what's going on,
we will start to understand ourselves better. And I promise you,
understanding yourself better feels so good
because now you're not feeling like everything is happening to you. So
this episode is good for people that might be struggling with SI,
(03:24):
IDH, suicidal. I'll say SI, but struggling
with those kinds of thoughts. Or if you are a loved one
trying to get support for someone in your life, I
want this episode to be something that encourages and empowers you.
I want you to take heed to the things that I'm saying and
try to implement some things in your life that may stick out
(03:46):
for you. All right, so let's just start with what
is the definition of suicide. And it
says it's the act of intentionally causing harm on
one's death, which happens a lot. If
we were to look at the stats, more than
720,000 people died due to suicide every year. Suicide
(04:09):
is the third leading cause of death amongst 15 to
29-year-olds. And then
73% of global suicides occur in low and middle income families. income
countries, which is very interesting. So
those are some stats that you may not be aware of. And
I know I feel like the age is getting younger and younger, and where
(04:32):
people are kind of losing hope. One thing about the
mind that's important to remember is that it doesn't have concept of
time. What I do know is a lot of people are struggling with
feeling the stored pain or the stored trauma in their body, in
their system. and their thoughts. And this podcast,
like all of these episodes that you could find, over 400 episodes,
(04:55):
where I'm sharing a story or I'm talking about an issue. And
these episodes will help you start to see a
way out, right? I'm big on shifting the way you
think, because if you get stuck in your head, it's
so easy to feel hopeless and feel like nothing's going
to change. And as somebody who understands
(05:16):
how easy it is for these thoughts to get stuck in
your head, which is why I do what I do, which is why I
have this platform. I have this amazing
passion to help people understand themselves,
understand their journey. so that they can have hope, right?
That's my main mission in life,
(05:40):
right? I recognize this is my purpose because it comes easily.
It's something I can do without getting paid is teaching people
about mental health and about themselves. These are
some common risk factors. And if you are listening to me on the audio,
this podcast does stream on YouTube as well. And I
have visuals for people that are more visually inclined,
(06:02):
where I'm putting up information so that you can see it while
I'm talking about it. So some common risk
factors. If you're struggling with a mental disorder, if
you're struggling with depression, anxiety, bipolar, that's
people that are at high risk. If you have physical disorders
or struggle with substance abuse, also high risk. With
(06:24):
these physical ailments, dealing with pain a lot,
it's easy for you to struggle with some kind of depression or
feeling hopeless. Impulsive acts
driven by financial issues, relationship problems, or
bullying. People that are in high
stressful situations, it's easy to make a
(06:46):
permanent decision in the moment of dealing with high
stress, right? Because in those moments, you feel like you can't see your
way out. And then people who may have had a
previous attempt of suicide are also at
a higher risk for suicide. Now,
these are some things I wanted you to understand what
(07:06):
suicide is, kind of the stats and the risk factors, right?
Now, the rest of this segment, we're going to talk about strategies, ways
that you can think about working on
creating a toolbox for yourself, right? If you're struggling, or
if you are a loved one of somebody who struggles, I want
to help empower you. Like I think, so I'm a therapist, right? A
(07:28):
real therapist. People say, are you a real therapist? I'm a real therapist. And I
went to school for this. But I also have a lot of wisdom.
I read a lot. And so I don't want people to feel because
they are not a therapist that they can't help their loved
one. I think if you equip yourself with enough information, I
want you to be empowered. So I'm going
(07:50):
to give you these 10 different things that you could think about and
they are in no order. It's not like one supersedes the other. They
just happen to be posted in the way that is posted. Um,
so take what you can leave, what you can't write. So some prevention,
um, one seeking professional help. Um, so as you
can see on the screen, I have therapy, counseling, medication. Um,
(08:13):
now I believe in therapy and I believe that therapy
can help, right? Therapy's helped me. I help people through
therapy. I also know that therapy can
be challenging to get, right? You see, I got my shirt. My therapist is
Black. There's like 4% of people in America that are
Black. And if you are a Black person,
(08:33):
a lot of times you want to talk to somebody that looks like you, and that can be
challenging. Or finances can prevent you from being able
to see someone, right? But If you
are comfortable or have insurance or thinking about seeing a therapist, right?
That could be something that can be helpful. I also have one
here, medication. In some cases, medication may be necessary to manage
(08:54):
underlining medical conditions like depression and anxiety. I
am somebody who, I'm not a person that's
like, oh, no medication, but I am somebody that thinks about
like, let's look at other ways that we can work on ourselves. and
let medication be a last resort, right? I've never had to
take medication, but I work with people who ended up
(09:16):
taking medication and finding some relief. And then they've
been able to work through some things and get off. And some people are still on
it and it helps them manage some of their symptoms, right? So
that is one avenue that can help, especially when
people are dealing with like deep anxiety
that is hindering them from dealing with
(09:38):
everyday life stuff. A lot of times with the medication, it
can help people like take the edge off so that they can get
to a place to work on themselves and work on the things that they
need to work on. So that's one kind of intervention.
Follow-up and check-ins. So regular check-ins, encouraging your
friends and family to check in regularly with individuals who are struggling, and
(10:00):
then monitoring progress. Encourage individuals to keep track
of their feelings and progress. and to communicate any
changes to their support network. This is important. If
you are somebody who has a friend or a family member that's struggling, check
in with them. You don't have to understand what they're going
through. A lot of times we don't understand, so don't say
(10:21):
like, oh, I get it if you don't get it. But listening, sometimes
just listening is helpful. When it comes to monitoring progress,
I think being able to check in with yourself how you're feeling so
that you can see, you know what? Yesterday, between one and 10, I
was feeling like a four, but today I'm feeling like a six. My
mood is a lot higher. Being able to see your growth is important
(10:44):
because it allows you to be like, okay, I'm stepping
a step forward. I'm progressing. So
monitoring your progress with your emotions. It's also
good to monitor your emotions and your progress and
pay attention to how you're feeling so that you can understand your
triggers. Sometimes there are things in our lives or people in
(11:06):
our lives that are very triggering, but because they've always been
around or because we've always done things a certain way, we always deal
with family because we were taught family is important. We
don't realize how they could be hindering us or triggering us, right?
So the more you start to monitor the things that you're
feeling and the ways that you find yourself affected, again,
(11:29):
you'll be able to create that manual where you can start to understand what
it is that ticks you off, what it is that motivates you, right?
How could you understand yourself if you are not doing
anything to monitor when you find yourself
struggling? The next prevention thing
I want you to think about is encouraging meaningful activities.
(11:53):
So engagement in hobbies is important. Volunteering
can be something that's important. When you are doing things
that you love, I know a lot of creative people who find themselves
just working, working and not doing anything creative. And so we
work on a plan and talk about the importance of adding some creativity
to your life, no matter what that looks like, right? I'm
(12:15):
somebody who I started learning how to cook
out of necessity. Cooking for me is an outlet. Gardening
and my plants, they're an outlet for me, right? That's
something where I say it's a hobby. It's a hobby I learned. Actually, when
it came to cooking, if you don't follow me on social
media, you could follow me on Instagram, all social media. platform,
(12:35):
Snapchat, TikTok at Celeste, the therapist where I share a
lot of my life. But being able
to learn how to cook and garden and I have a really amazing
plants. I cook really well. I actually learned on YouTube and
I always like to share that because it's a free place that you can get information
and it's an outlet for me. Right. So what are your
(12:57):
outlets? What are the hobbies you're engaged in? Right. And
if you're asking, like, what does this have to do with suicide? Being
able to have a plan or create things in your
life, I look at it as your toolkit for
living, right? When it comes to surviving life, we know we gotta eat,
we know we gotta drink water, we know we need sleep, right? That's
(13:21):
surviving. We know we gotta work to get paid. When it comes to
living life, I feel like we don't have those tools, right?
And so when you think about being able to engage in meaningful
activities, that can bring you so much joy. And if
you're saying to me, as you're listening to this, Celeste, I
don't know what that looks like. I would encourage you to start,
(13:43):
maybe start with thinking about things you may have liked when you were younger, or
start to Pay attention to
the things that you see that like bring you joy or
puts a smile on your face, right? I promise you there's
something that you can engage in that
can bring you joy and that you may find
(14:03):
yourself loving. I didn't love cooking at first. And
like I said, I did it out of necessity. And so
it's something that like really brings me joy to cook for
my family and for others. The next thing I
want you to think about is limiting access
to means. So removing dangerous items, so like
(14:25):
firearms, medication. These are for people that may be struggling with
suicidal thoughts, sharp objects. That's
important. There are some people that will
have like these thoughts about it, right? If you find yourself having
thoughts about it, if you feel that you're
unsafe, right? Find a trusted
(14:46):
friend, family member, and anything, especially
if you've attempted in the past, get those things
out of your house, get them out of your room, right? Shop
objects, like, so that it's not something that you're thinking about
going to, right? And again, when it comes to suicide,
right, I tell people that Sometimes when
(15:10):
things get hard, you tell yourself like, I wish I wasn't here,
right? And so that's a suicidal ideation. That's
the thoughts that you have. And a lot of people, including myself, have
had those thoughts of like, I wish I wasn't here. When you
start to think about a plan, that's when
it gets really scary. And these things that I'm
(15:30):
talking about today is because I want to help you not get to that point where
you are creating a plan, where you start envisioning yourself. I've
talked to people who have attempted in the
hospital and met with them, and they
talked about this stuff. I've talked to people who were creating a
plan. I talked to people who were family members of
(15:54):
people who had just passed away due
to suicide. So it's such a really hard
subject where a lot of people are left with
no answers. Because I've been able to
talk to people for a living who have been in this process, I
have a deeper understanding on what's going on.
(16:16):
And so I really want to encourage you, anytime you find yourself
thinking about a plan of of what you would do.
It's dangerous, right? And I want you to get in tune.
I want you to reach out for support. There's
a safety hotline you can call, right? I
really want you to think about that. But again, if sharp
(16:39):
objects, if you do own a weapon, if medications
is something that You think about like
using, like, start to get out of your head. You
can't do this by yourself. I'm going to say that one more time. You cannot do this by yourself.
So if you don't have a trusted friend or family member, reach out
for support. I'm going to give you numbers that you can
(17:02):
call because I really want to give you hope. The
next thing I want you to think about is healthy lifestyle
choices Creating a healthy lifestyle
can actually improve your mental health, believe it or not. When
it comes to your physical health, so physical
activity can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, creating
(17:25):
a balanced diet that can support your overall
wellbeing and sleep. Stressing the importance of good sleep
hygiene. This is something I'm always talking about on the podcast, on
my stories and my Instagram and social
media. I'm talking about my life, how I'm trying to move my body.
how that the foods are important. And if
(17:48):
you live in America, I promise you, they don't care about the type of
foods that they are putting in the
food choices that we have. A lot of the foods that
are created here and the ingredients that are used here
are banned in other countries. So they
really don't care. And I really wanna emphasize
(18:10):
the importance of Yes, you may have a
long way to go of changing your food choices, but
I don't want you to not try. I shared this story
a million times, but when I was trying to work on my health and
I was working out, I would go to Burger
King and have a Whopper. It was one of my favorite meals,
(18:33):
I love burgers, not realizing I was defeating the
purpose. It's not about not having that burger, but
it's about not having that burger every day. Greens wasn't
a part of my diet or anything like that. It's kind of
like eating on the go, that was normal for me. So
once I recognized that's not the best thing to do, I found
(18:55):
myself saying, okay, I'm going to make this change. So
I went out and brought all these healthy things, but that
was hard. Those healthy things went to waste because I
didn't know how to incorporate that into my diet. So I started
educating myself. Months turned into years, and
I started with breakfast. I literally just started making smoothies
(19:16):
in the morning. I'm like, you know what? Let me try to just start my day with the smoothie.
My lunch and dinner was probably crap back then, right? But
at least I got the breakfast out of the way. It was a very intentional
process. So I think sometimes we think we got so far away
to go when it comes to trying to work on our
healthy choices. Instead of thinking about, oh
(19:38):
my gosh, I got this long way to go. How about thinking about what
can I do right now in this moment to create change? right?
So educate yourself, YouTube, there's podcasts,
there are free resources where you're listening to people that are
talking about it. I listened to people talking about different
changes that you can make in your food choices. And over time,
(20:00):
it started to resonate with me. It was something that my mind
started to shift and create a way for me
to see the possibilities. You can't see the possibilities if
you're not feeding your mind with information that's going to teach you how
to create that change. When it comes to sleep, if
your sleep is horrible, start creating a
(20:20):
sleep routine. I promise you it can help. If
you are on your screen scrolling with that
light, that light, even if you're watching healthy things, like, which
I know is impossible. I don't care how much you curate your feed to
have like a kind of healthy way of thinking and living. something
could be thrown in there that could throw you off. So regardless of that,
(20:43):
that light on the phone is telling your mind that
we're still up and wired, right? So if
you can work on creating a nighttime routine 30 minutes before you
go to bed, Turn the phone off, put the phone away, right?
You can put on some, if you need some noise, put on some like sleep
sounds on YouTube, something that's familiar that
(21:05):
can help you sleep, right? If you are struggling with a lot of
thoughts before you go to sleep, you can have like a thought
journal by your bed and write those thoughts out.
Just because you go to sleep, if you're struggling with thinking a lot, it
doesn't mean that you're going to fall asleep. If you're dealing with a stressful
situation and your mind is trying to get answers, like,
(21:26):
oh my gosh, let's say you're about to start a new job. Oh
my gosh, what's going to happen tomorrow? Answer that thought.
I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I know I'm going to meet with Susie and
she's going to go over X, Y, and Z. A lot of times,
sometimes we're ruminating over things where our mind is just
really trying to get answers. It's doing what it's designed to do. Like
(21:47):
don't, sometimes I think it's hard because you feel like your
mind is deceiving you or you feel like, Oh, why is this happening? Right.
Instead of doing that, take time to think about what's going on in
your head. It can be scary to start to
access the thoughts that are happening, but what's scary is
the fact that you're living your life off of these thoughts. That may not be
(22:09):
true. A lot of the thoughts that you're experienced are from your past
trauma. the things that you've experienced, the things that you're
watching, the conversations you're having, right? So we're
constantly being bombarded with advertisement. If you live in a country
where advertisement, like it's capitalistic, like in
America, everything's about what can we sell people? Like,
(22:29):
how can we make people buy this thing? So a
lot of the things that are in your head are based off of so many
things that has nothing to do with wellness. And so
if you're not making time to meditate and think about what's going on,
what's happening is that you're allowing your thoughts to
be the lens on your life. And that is just not fair to
(22:50):
your overall wellbeing. Let's just
get into this advertisement real quick, and I'll come back with the last four.
I hope you're enjoying the episode. Quick announcement. I
want to give you some ways you can support, right? I have two books. One
is called Relationship Goals. It's a guide to a healthy relationship. I
also have a guided journal. And if you find yourself stuck
(23:11):
in thoughts, want to get your thoughts on paper, I ask you different
questions. And I also ask you how you're feeling. I provide you
with the feelings chart. If you go to CelesteTherapist.com, you
could find 365 days of intentional living along
with relationship goals. Another way you can support me,
I have this wellness center that I'm so excited about
(23:33):
called Shifting the Way You Think Wellness Center. At my center, I
do not want finances to be a reason why people can't get what
they need. So if you wanna donate a class to someone, please
feel free to go to my website, stwyt.com, and
you can give a donation. The classes run between 15 and
(23:54):
$35. My goal is for everyone to be able
to access these services regardless of finances. So
if you can donate, please donate to your Girl Center. I
would be greatly appreciated. All right, y'all, let's get back
into this amazing episode. All
right, so the next thing I want you to think about, whether
(24:17):
it's you or somebody that you love, is thinking about a safety plan,
right? So being able to identify triggers, helping individuals
recognize situations or feelings that might lead to these thoughts, which
we just talked about. Developing coping strategies, so
creating a list of coping strategies. and
distractions that can be used when the thoughts arise, and
(24:38):
emergency contacts. Include a list of people to contact in
crisis, friends, family, or mental health professionals. Next,
I'm going to share some coping strategies. But having
a safety plan is important because when you're struggling
with these thoughts, you start to forget there are some people that
you can call that care about you. There are some things that
(25:01):
you can do that can help in those moments. to help
you not be so caught
up in that thought of not wanting to be here. Because
the more you think that way and the more you stay by yourself, which is
why I said, if you're struggling with these thoughts, the worst thing you can
do is isolate yourself. I know you
(25:21):
may not feel like going to that support group. You may not feel
like doing those things that can help, but try
not to think about what you're feeling because those feelings are
temporary. They're not going to last. They're here for a moment, right?
And so I really want you to think about those things as you're trying to create your
safety plan. Being able to identify your triggers
(25:42):
can help you because if I am around certain people
and I recognize The way that they're operating in life is
making me feel sad or making me feel anxious. I'm going to limit
the amount of time I work with them, deal with them. For example, if
you have coworkers and you have to work together, but
then they're like, oh, let's go have some drinks after work, right?
(26:04):
And they're engaging in conduct or conversation that's
very triggering to you. And you're just sitting there going along with the flow and
thinking like, oh, because they're my coworkers. No, you
have autonomy over your life where you can say, you know, I'm going
to sit this one out, right? You don't have to say like, oh, you're triggering me, right? Like,
but you can not do it. But if
(26:25):
you're not aware that you're being triggered by it,
you're going to keep going out and having drinks with them after work. So
be mindful of the things that you struggle with
and when it happens. So again, you can understand yourself
better. Now, when it comes to coping strategies,
I want you to develop some coping strategies. Mindfulness and
(26:48):
relaxation, like working on deep breathing, are a
really great way. People who know me know
my favorite artist is J. Cole. He's
a great storyteller. He's so transparent. And
I just listened to his 10-episode podcast he did
with one of his best friends. And he talked about a
(27:09):
change that took place in his life. when he added meditation to
his life. It was so powerful. It was so powerful. He
said, I was getting ready to record this album and
it ended up being his best album. But he said, a
lady that was working with him said, oh, won't you try meditation? He
(27:29):
said, I started with five minutes, 10 minutes. He said, it was an amazing experience.
I got to understand myself better, understand what worked, understand what
didn't work, understood what set me off. And to this day,
he continues to meditate. And if you're somebody
that thinks that meditation is hard because I
have all these thoughts, yes, that's what's happening. You have all
(27:51):
these thoughts. And these thoughts are going to happen and
continue to go on whether you choose to be a part of it or not.
I say this a lot. Whether you're going to choose to be a part of your thoughts
or not, your thoughts are going to keep going. So
when you think about it, yes, it's hard initially. to
understand what's going on in your head, because it can feel scary, it can feel
(28:12):
hard. But over time, you start to
gain power back, right? Your thoughts are
in control of a lot of your decision makings on how you're feeling. And
if you work on engaging with what's happening in your head,
you can actually start to direct the path that you're going. So
meditation is a great coping strategy. Journaling
(28:34):
out your thoughts, another great coping strategy. When
I was younger, I used to write in my diary a lot.
And I remember writing and just feeling better,
right? So that's why I continued to write. I didn't know
anything about mental health, and I didn't understand what I was doing was
therapeutic. But it was so helpful
(28:55):
for me because when the thoughts are in your head,
it feels real. But when you say it out loud, when you write
it out loud, it has less power. So for instance, when
I'm working with people and they'll be like, yeah, I
can't do this. It's so hard. I can't
do it. And I said, oh, you can't? And I said, what makes you think you can't?
(29:16):
I start to challenge that thought with them out loud. And then
they start to reframe it and think, wait, actually, I could do this. But
if you don't write it out, if you're not talking it out, you're allowing
those thoughts to attach to the things
that didn't go well, or the things that you struggled with,
or the things people say you're not going to be able to do. For instance,
(29:37):
this podcast I started in 2018, I
remember people saying, you really want to start a podcast? Everybody
has a podcast. If I didn't think about those conversations and
declare power over my life, telling myself, no, I
can do this, what's going to happen is as I'm trying
to start this podcast, if I'm not mindful, I'm
(30:00):
going to let The thing that that person said stopped
me from starting this podcast. And we're in 2024, almost
in 2025. And I would have never started this podcast. I
would have never been able to help all the people that I helped through
this podcast. So I really want you to be
mindful of the thoughts that you're having. And
(30:22):
journaling could be a great, great thing. The
next one is like building your support network, right? So there
are amazing support groups. NAMI, N-A-M-I, is
a great one, right? And that's the National Alliance
of Mental Illness. And you can Google it. They
have a chapter in every state. But there
(30:45):
are support groups that you could find online now. That's
one thing that came out the pandemic is that people have been able
to get support online,
and that's something that wasn't really heard of before the
pandemic. Reaching
(31:06):
out to family and friends are important only
if they are supportive, right? I want to make sure they're supportive. Sometimes
(31:29):
you have people in your life that are not supportive. So
it's important that you know who the people in
your life. And when I say they're not supportive, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, but
sometimes people do not know how
to give you the support that they need because they don't even know how to give it for themselves. Right.
(31:52):
So that's important to remember. Now,
the last thing I want you to think about is crisis
hotline. Even if you're not feeling
like you have a plan and you just want
to talk, right? Because I know there are some people
that may not feel like they have somebody in their life they can talk to, right?
(32:15):
I know there are a lot of people that have that, but there are people that really don't have that.
So I really want you to think about this crisis hotline. It's
US, the National Prevention Line, 1-800-273-TALK. And
then there's a crisis text line. So
if you are somebody that don't want to talk and you'd rather text,
(32:36):
guess what? There's a text line that you can do. And the text
line, text hello to 741-741. I'll say that again. Text hello
to 741-741. And if someone's in immediate danger where there's no intervention,
(32:58):
at the planning stage, definitely reaching out to
911 is the best resort because sometimes people get
to that stage where they really need
more intervention. So again, this
is a really hard topic where I
(33:18):
know so many people who have been affected by this, right? I
get choked up a little bit just thinking about it. Sometimes
I can't believe how I'm still able to show up
and do what I do because the stories that I hear are
really hard. from families, from
people, they're really hard. And what
(33:41):
keeps me going is knowing that I'm going to educate somebody so
that they won't be the next person to feel
like this is the route that they have to take. I want to educate somebody
so if they may not have a therapist in their life or
a therapist that they can talk to, at least they'll be equipped with
some information. Some key points I want you to
(34:01):
take out of today is that suicide is a complex
issue influenced by various factors, and it's essential to
approach it with empathy and understanding. I've heard
people say, why would somebody do that? And it bothers me to
my core, because if you've never walked
in somebody's shoes, you can't really say like,
(34:24):
you can't really think that way, right? Like, I just want you to, and
if you're listening to this and you have thought that way, I just want
you to know, people are dealing with things that you can't see on
the outside. It looks good, but believe me, I know I do this work.
People are dealing with a lot of hard things that the naked
eye can't see, right? A lot of internal are, I
(34:45):
would say it's us against us. Sometimes we're fighting our
own thoughts, our own selves, right? So approaching
it with empathy and understanding. I also want you to take
away that prevention is possible, and there are effective strategies that
can reduce suicide, right? So it
is possible. Intervention is possible. And
(35:07):
then open discussion about mental health can help destigmatize the
topic and encourage those and need to seek help.
Like it's okay to talk about it, right? I don't want you to feel like
talking about it is a bad thing, right? Even mental
health, talking about it. When I first started, I
started posting on social media Uh,
(35:29):
probably back in like 2012, 13, I had this like
passion because, you know, I was working on myself and
I'm like, Oh, these, I'm learning all this stuff about like shifting
the way I think and, and these things. So I had a passion
to share with people and people were like, Oh, why are you doing that? Like
it was such a taboo thing back in 2012. Um,
(35:49):
it wasn't something that people were talking about. But
in my household, we talk about mental health the way we talk about pizza
with my clients. That's what it is. On my social
media, when people think about mental health,
they think about me because I'm always talking
about it. I'm always bringing it into people's awareness so that they are
(36:11):
aware, right? Because we're dealing with something that we can't see. But
if you pay attention, it's affecting your entire life. physically,
mentally, your choices that you're making. So I
want to give people a different avenue. So take those points
away. If this was helpful to you, I
would love to hear from you. You can message me
(36:32):
on social media, write under one of the posts. If
you enjoy it, share this with somebody that you love. You never know
how one of these episodes can really help people. And
if you want to support me, um, I have a couple of books. I also have
a class that's coming up about healing the inner child. We
have classes at the center. So if you are, um, in
(36:53):
the Boston area, the South shore area, uh, we actually,
I actually have a center where, um, we are having classes.
Um, I'm doing an online class as well on healing
the inner child. And I'm also going to be doing a free workshop
about um, thinking about your goals. I want people to
think about their goals and have a plan. So if
(37:15):
you want to work on creating a vision for yourself, um, all you gotta
do is go to stw yt.com slash events, and
you will find the links to the different things that are taking place. And
if you want to follow me, you can follow me everywhere, uh, by searching Celeste,
the therapist and until next time, beautiful people,
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