Using "humor therapy" to help prevent suicides was one of several potential methods offered Monday by the executive director of Suicide Prevention Allies.
Speaking to members of Oaklawn Rotary Club at their weekly meeting at The Hotel Hot Springs & Spa, Susie Reynolds said the use of humor was a form of suicide prevention she is particularly passionate about.
"Did you know there's something called humor therapy? Where we laugh and it increases serotonin, it increases dopamine, and increases our overall well being. How often do we look at those things as efforts to prevent suicide instead of a four-hour class that you don't want to sit through, right?" she asked.
"If you smile, even if you're in a bad mood, it will immediately improve your mood, because the simple action of thinking about smiling and using the muscles is enough to trigger-happy chemicals in the brain. Humor therapy is effective. It improves our overall mood, our physical well being, and there's lots and lots of things that support this. This is just one approach to suicide prevention."
Speaking of her father's own suicide when she was a child, Reece said she was "impacted on a very individual level, and through that I wanted to know more. I wanted to understand why the people in my life weren't talking about the things that were hurting. They weren't talking about the loss. I realize now that there's a lot more to the issue of suicide than what we often realize."
Reece defined suicide prevention as "any effort to reduce suicidal ideation, attempt and death by suicide." She said that prevention rarely takes place, though.
"We are actually most likely doing interventions. We're not really doing true prevention. In fact, this, this right now is prevention. This is community coming together. This is bringing people in, networking, having fun, telling jokes," she said.
"We need to start looking at this issue differently than what we have been, because if the things that we were doing in the past were working or have been doing were working, why is the rate continually going up?"
Reece noted Arkansas has the ninth highest suicide rate in the nation. She said one person dies by suicide every 12-14 hours in the state, and that for every one death, "there are at least 35-100 people who are attempting suicide."
"Our youth numbers are staggering. The ages were 10-24 years old for common risk. The American Psychiatric Association actually lowered that number to 5 years old to 24," she said.
Across the nation, Reece cited suicide as the tenth most common cause of death, but the least funded of the top 10.
"Most other issues are in the billions of dollars. This one typically gets around $10-15 million. When you look at research and addressing something, that's just a drop in the bucket," she said.
Reece debunked several suicide myths, including that the holidays see a higher rate of suicide than any other time of the year. She said most suicides occur during March and April due to "biochemical factors and temperatures," as well as other factors.
It is also false that talking about suicide "plants the idea in someone's head," she said. "We cannot put ideas in people's heads. However, by having conversations and talking about difficult things, we open up opportunity for people to have conversations and seek help."
Reece said it is predominantly untrue that most suicides happen "suddenly and without warning."
"A lot of times, people who have survived will often say 'There were no signs.' I heard that quite a bit about my father, in fact. I have to tell you that there were signs," she said.
"I also find that after we've lost someone to suicide, a lot of people come together and they start talking about the pieces of the picture that they've seen, where very few people have that entire picture. So it's almost like a puzzle we're trying to piece back together, and when you look at that, you see the whole picture."
Reece showed brain scans of depressed and non-depressed individuals that illustrated the differences in brain activity and chemistry.
She encouraged the members to educate themselves on suicide prevention and to utilize available resources, and ended her presentation with an update about her organization.
She said the group currently has a Facebook reach of 2-3 million people globally, but hopes to increase that number to 10 million in the next year.
"One thing that we are working on is a mental health reserve corps, so we will be offering standardized programming through multiple state agencies on Jan 10-11," Reece said. She said the programming would be free for "any type of traumatic event within a community."
"These volunteers will be able to go in and help in regards to the mental health wellness for the community or the school," she said.
"What we want to do is use grassroots efforts that educate them so that they're doing things in a safe and approved manner."
Local on 11/05/2019