International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day: November 19th, 2016 | Rachelle Freedman

Congress has designated the Saturday before Thanksgiving of each year as “National Survivors of Suicide Loss Day”. This day sets aside a time for those who have been affected by suicide to gain hope and understanding through interaction with other survivors as well as professionals in the mental health field. Since the emergence of this […]

“This generation is too sensitive! Everything offends them!” | Alexa Moody

So, the above memes and the title quotes are posts that I see floating around various social media sites often. They tend to come from older adults, baby boomers and generation X, but I see them reposted by a lot of millennials and generation Z’ers (or the iGen) as well. The gist is this: in […]

The Burden of Using Suicide as a Solution | Jeremy Lopus

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There’s a saying that God will not give you burdens too big for your shoulders. That the pressures and troubles you face during your life will not be bigger than you can bear. I don’t know that I believe this; it smacks too much of fate or predestination. But what is true is that sometimes […]

Depression Was Not Made To Rule You | Hollie Payette

Just a little over a year ago, I found myself sitting in one of a sequence of chairs along the wall in a small health clinic. “Hollie”, they called out loud as they opened the door that led back to hallways that were filled with small, private rooms for patients that needed to be seen. […]

My Mother Was An Alcoholic | Andrea Kemble

My mother was an alcoholic. She would have never agreed with that statement. She drank daily and I don’t remember a day that I did not see a beer sitting next to her. Because of this, my parents fought almost daily. According to the Mayo Clinic, a drinking problem is classified as having trouble controlling […]

After the Death of My Son | Toby Weitzman

Some Do’s and Don’ts for those of you who have good intentions but don’t know where to put them. When my kids were very young, toddlers, one of their favorite books was a book called Do’s and Don’ts. It was about right and wrong, good and bad, do and don’t do. Now in my 60’s, […]

Springtime Sadness | Eric Harkreader

T.S. Eliot, one of Western civilization’s greatest contemporary poets, once began his famous ode The Wasteland with the line, “April is the cruelest month.” For Eliot, who famously struggled with depression and what he self-diagnosed as “abulia,” or lack of will, the promise of spring was much darker and more complicated than sheer joy at […]

Two Events in Three Days – And More to Come! | Alexa Moody

Hello friends and fans of Please Live! It has been a while since we have posted a general “update” blog, so this month’s post will be a reflection on all that we’ve done so far this year (and it’s only March!) as well as what is coming soon to Please Live. Firstly, we have had […]

Slow Walk to Mental Health | Laura Cook

Sometimes life moves by and sad things happen quickly; you get in an accident and everything changes at once or your grandparent passes and you don’t get to say goodbye. There are some things in life, however, that happen so slowly, sometimes you have to wonder how things changed without you having noticed. My depression […]