Suicide Prevention: One Thing You Can Do
Learn more about Tinu via this link —> Tinuola Olateju
To read relevant post regarding these topics check out the links and excerpts below. Click on the title to see read the full post.
Suicide Prevention Awareness Month:an excerpt
To anyone reading this who is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, I hope you have a moment of clarity before you make final decisions. I hope you know that NO matter what is going on, you can manage it. Some stuff sucks and some things are outside your control but ultimately you can set the course for your life. Every possibility and option is before you and if you focus on the here and now, just breathing you will see that you are alright.
You can find solace in god, in others, in anything that you want. But it’s actually in you. What you think you lack, what you think isn’t there is within you.
It may sound like mojo but during my darkest hours I wish I had known that pain dissolves and any problem is only temporary but if I stay in the now, I am ok.
Breathe Life into Every Moment: an excerpt
What we need to do is shift our focus on breathing life and love into every moment of every day. If we treat every moment as if it were sacred, if we treated every living thing as if they were holy…we’d leave little room for many of the mental illnesses and utter despair that people feel. If we were active listeners, let go of our own agendas, and spent time investing in each other, bringing light and enhancing each other’s energy, we’d know that even when tragedy struck, we did everything we could.
Think about every single person in your life. Your family. Your friends. Your teachers. Your colleagues. Your boss. Your pet. Yourself.
Do you treat everyone with grace, dignity and love?
This isn’t to say that Tinu was not treated the right way. Plenty of people loved her.
I am just saying, we will go down a rabbits hole trying to figure out the why. We are never going to know that even when hints and clues emerge. What we can focus on is treating every moment, every thing and every person as if they were sacred.
You may not want to hear this right now. I’m sure five minutes later, I will want to delete these words. But in trying to figure out how I heal from this, how I continue on…all I can think of is that I have to live a holy life breathing life and love into every moment. And if that is my focus, it leaves no room for me to give into depressive and self destructive tendencies.
What keeps you focused on those dark days?
A Perspective on Depression: an excerpt
I once had a Trojan Horse virus in the system restore of my computer back in 2005. This meant that any effort to restore my computer to any previously backed up state was a moot point. The virus lived in the system restore. My computer was fucked. Aside from my writings which were backed up online, I lost everything else.
In my experience, the same thing can be said for those suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts & tendencies. I can’t speak in generalizations. I can only speak for myself and those I have encountered. There appears to be a virus in your system restore. There is a deep rooted virus that has attached itself to your mind which then attaches itself to your body and your actions. Therefore even the way you look at things “logically” is blurred and sometimes you don’t even realize it.
I say all this to say from my perspective, you can try these generic methods to try and reach out to a depressed person if you want to. (My friends and family didn’t even know I was depressed or suicidal). However, before you try your methods you’ve got to understand there is a trojan horse virus in their system restore. Their mind has a cancer that has spread into almost every part of their being. You should understand that. I’m not offering any fixes or anything, I’m just giving another way at looking at a depressed person.
February 15, 1995 – May 29, 2010
Facebook Group: In Loving Memory of Tinuola Olateju
Facebook Group: R.I.P Tinu
Relevant issues, sites, & topics….
Out of Darkness Overnight Walk
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Association for Suicidology
Suicide Awareness Voices Education
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
The Samaritans of NYC (Suicide Prevention)
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
PDF 
Hi,
“What this does is take them out of their minds with these crazy thoughts and i forces them to be present” WOW
I was watching your video on youtube, which i followed from curlynikki (i don’t know, i just couldn’t stop staring at your face so i kept watching your random videos till i stumbled upon the one on suicide ), i poked around and found a link to your blog. I cried while watching that video and cried some more when i saw your friend’s sister’s names, and i’m like wow..she’s nigerian too.
For a couple of months, i’ve been under really really dark clouds, off and on. I did call my mum and flatly said, i’m depressed and she was just like…eh…pray..go to church. If you’re nigerian, you’ll likely get this kind of response. People don’t really think much of depression, they think its some ‘white people or western ish’.
I for one know i will ask my child to get on a plane and come home should i ever get a call like that. Anyway, i decided not to put any blame on her because, hell, she’ll deal with stuff the only way she knows how to; religion. Never mind that i can’t remember the last time i set foot in a church even though the depths i sunk to caused me to explore so many religions..from buddhism to all new age stuffs.
Now, my two cents on how to deal with depression, what has helped me so far, i know i’m not over it, it comes in waves and when it does come i don’t even leave the house because i fear what i’d do when crossing the road. DISTRACTIONS…i have set dates, i’ve thought of methods but i get distracted, one time it was my friend sending me extensions so i had had to wait for them the 4 days it took for my courier to get to me. That short period i had something to look forward to, took me out of my head. Another time it was my brother asking me to help me find something.
Since i noticed this trend, now i somehow manage to remind myself when i’m feeling all gloomy, that it passes and its never always gonna be this bad. People always assume depression is as a direct result of an obvious problem like bullying or financial difficulties. I can honestly say it feels worst when you can’t point a finger on why you feel down when ‘you should be happy’.
This is some long comment and i hope you get to read it. Thank you for that video. It distracted me once again tonight.
@Lisa THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your story here. I am grateful for that. I wish you well and I’m so glad you happened upon this video. Have you checked out my post “Trogar Horse Virus in the System Restore of Your Mind – A Persective of Depression” It seems like it would resonate with what you wrote!