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As a nurse working in the emergency department, I frequently see people come in for suicide attempts. I’ve noticed there’s a stigma surrounding some attempts, and many colleagues agree there’s a difference in the way patients are treated depending on the type of attempt.
From what I’ve seen, a patient whose attempt is more “serious,” with visible life-threatening injuries or potentially deadly pathology results, is more likely to be treated with understanding, compassion and patience. It’s as if serious injuries validate the mental illness, making the inner turmoil visible to the outside world.
But the “less serious” the attempt is (for example, taking a non-lethal amount of medication or self-inflicted injuries that aren’t fatal), the less sympathy I’ve seen patients receive. This can also be said for patients who have repeat suicide attempts. I’ve heard these patients referred to as “time-wasters,” “attention-seekers,” “taking up beds,” and they’re described as “crying out for help.” Although it’s acknowledged as wrong, there’s still anger and frustration felt towards the patient. I’ve heard many question the reason for their behavior. But I believe anyone who intentionally puts themselves in harm’s way needs help, regardless of the intended outcome, and are still entitled to be treated with dignity, understanding and kindness.
When I was 23, I tried to jump off a cliff after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital. I have bipolar affective disorder. I rarely call this a suicide attempt, although I would’ve jumped if it weren’t for a person walking past.
On Thursday, John Green announced his new book, “Turtles All the Way Down,” which comes out later this year, is inspired by his own experiences with mental illness, namely obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Green is best known for his book “The Fault in Our Stars,” which was turned into a movie in 2014.
Green said in a statement that he has been working on “Turtles All the Way Down” for years and that “this is my first attempt to write directly about the kind of mental illness that has affected my life since childhood, so while the story is fictional, it is also quite personal.”
Green has been open about his experiences with anxiety and OCD in the past and has been an advocate for the destigmatization of mental illness.
I was only ten when my drug use started. Both of my parents are active addicts, so it was my mom who got me into it. She’s always acted like a teenager, more like a friend than a mom, and she gave me pills for the first time. I was living with her back then and I started using consistently—taking a bunch of pills, smoking weed, and drinking a lot. The pills were my main thing: Percocet, Vicodin, a lot of downers. I struggled with depression and my parents’ physical and verbal abuse, so then I started abusing myself with the drugs, cutting, bulimia, anorexia, and the guys I kept bringing in and out of my life. I started acting out like your typical teenage drug addict, stealing and sneaking out at night, but it was all pointless because my mom was high all the time and didn’t even notice.
By age 13 I was living in a shelter with mom and my youngest sister. The cops found me there and took me back to my dad’s. He was very abusive and his own drug of choice was uppers, so I started doing a lot of coke, meth, and ecstasy those next three years. Those became my drugs of choice. In July of 2009 I ran away from where I was living with my dad in south Texas. I don’t remember all of it, just that I took Xanax, woke up in downtown Houston, and never went home again. At that point I didn’t have a “drug of choice” anymore—it was just whatever anybody had, whatever was in your hand.
In Houston I contacted an old using buddy and started staying with her and her mom. Her mom and my mom used to get high together, so when I was living with them we’d all get high together. A few weeks later my grandparents found me and got custody of me, so I moved in with them. The very next day I snuck out, bought a bunch of drugs and did them all: coke, pills, liquid codeine…all this crazy stuf
1. What they are and why I’ve been prescribed them. It’s surprising and pretty scary the number of doctors who will flippantly say, “Do you want to try X?” or “I’m putting you on Y,” without telling you what it is or does. In the hospital I’ve been written up for medications without being told I have been, as an outpatient I’ve had doctors think out loud about various drugs that might help without telling me anything about them, and on more than one occasion I’ve gone home, googled my new prescription and have been left puzzled as to why I was put on an antipsychotic or beta blocker for anxiety because no one told me that off-labelling was a thing…
2. Off-labelling is a thing! Basically, drugs do more than they say on the tin, and can be beneficial for other illnesses, as well as the ones they were designed to treat. Quetiapine (an antipsychotic) can be used as a mood stabilizer, Olanzapine (an antipsychotic) can be helpful for anorexia, lithium (a mood stabiliser) can be used in treatment resistant depression, Amitriptyline (an antidepressant) can help with pain, and Propranolol (a beta blocker) can actually help ease symptoms of anxiety. Who knew? So don’t be alarmed or put off by strange names or descriptions on your pill packet — and ask your psychiatrist if you’re not sure why you’ve been prescribed a specific medication.
3. Side effects. Before I was put on lithium, side effects of various mood stabilizers were explained by one psychiatrist, but that was the first time in six years of being on psychiatric drugs that side effects were ever mentioned. I get that sometimes being aware of side effects beforehand can put people off taking certain medications.
A Step by Step Guide: How to Cite a Website in MLA 8, Retrieved March 9, 2019, easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/how-to-cite-a-website-mla/
To make an MLA 8 citation for a website, you will need the following pieces of information:
Place the author’s name in reverse order, the last name first, followed by a comma, and then the first name followed by a period. The title of the web page or article is placed in quotation marks, with a period before the end quotation. The title of the website is written in italics followed by a comma. If the name of the publisher differs from the name of the website, include it after the title. Immediately following the publisher is the date that the page or article was published, or posted. Finally, end with the URL, permalink, or DOI.
Sometimes, websites do not state who wrote the information on the page. When no author is listed, you may omit the author information from the MLA citation for the website and begin, instead, with the title.
How to cite a website with no author in MLA 8:
When citing a web page that does not include a formal title, it is acceptable to include a description of the page. Do not place the description in italics or quotation marks. Follow the description with the name of the website.
In an increasingly digital world, social media platforms have become one of the most popular sources students turn to when writing a research paper. When citing social media in your work, follow the same format as an MLA citation for a website. Here are some examples of ways you can cite various social media platforms in your work:
To cite a tweet, you will begin with the account holder’s twitter handle, followed by a period. After this, in quotations, you should enter the full text of the tweet, including any hashtags. The publisher, Twitter, is then listed in italics, followed by the date in Day, Month, Year format and the time the tweet was posted. Finally, include a URL to the tweet followed by a period.
To cite an Instagram post, begin with the account holder’s name or username. In quotations, list the title of the photo, if it is given. If there is no title, write a brief description of the picture but do not place it in italics or quotation marks. The publisher, Instagram, is then listed in italics. Any other contributors (such as the photographer, if it is not the same as the account holder) are then listed, after which you will add the date and URL.
To cite a Facebook post, begin with the account holder’s name or username. In quotations, list the title of the post, if it is given. If there is no title, write a brief description of the post but do not place it in italics or quotation marks. The publisher, Facebook, is then listed in italics, after which you will add the date, time posted, and URL.
Citing the comments left on social media or a website begins with the commenter’s name or username. To indicate that you are citing a comment, follow the name with a period and then the words Comment on, followed by the title of the source (for example, the name of the article) in quotation marks. This is then followed by the title of the website in italics, and the publisher, if applicable. The date and time stamp are then listed, followed by the URL, permalink, or DOI.
How to Cite a Website in APA, March 16, 2019, Retrieved from http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/website
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How to Cite a Website in APA, March 16, 2019, Retrieved from http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/apa-format/how-to-cite-a-website-apa/
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