I’m at the At-Home Dads Convention here in Denver (darn convenient, being just 30min drive from my house, quite thoughtful of them to plan it here) and the opening speaker is Jarrod Hindman from the Colorado Department of Public Health. His talk is about the men’s suicide prevention Web site called ManTherapy.com and if you haven’t checked it out, you should.
Why? Because the statistics about suicide are alarming. In 2012 alone here in the state of Colorado, there were:
45 HIV deaths
205 Homicides
457 Motor Vehicle Deaths
585 Breast Cancer deaths
796 Diabetes deaths
1053 Suicide deaths
So while other potentially fatal diseases gain visibility through good marketing efforts or commercial sponsors, fact is suicide here in Colorado is one of the ten most common causes of death. And of that, 56% are men between 25-60 and you don’t need an advanced degree to realize that men in that age range are not 56% of the Colorado population but quite a bit less.
It’s one of those problems that we guys have: an inability to ask for help.
Heck, I’ve written about this before on the blog and I see it not only with the other men I interact with on a daily basis, but even sometimes within myself. Is it cultural programming or gender destiny? Does it matter?
It’s a problem. And if you’re having a tough time or know someone else who is finding the day to day of life more than he can handle, I encourage you to check out the witty and thoughtful ManTherapy.com site, hosted by fictitious therapist Dr. Rich Mahogany (Denver actor John Arp). Sure beats the alternative.
The pain of “loneliness” is very real. It is a human “side affect” as we evolve. Just as dogs and cats desire skin to skin contact, so do we.
Each newborn child needs our touch as much as possible. We cart our newbies away into a hospital waiting room and we regulate our baby to her crib in the dark of the night. Noooooo… this is not natural.
The first book I read when my daughter was in-vitro was Jean Liedloff’s “The Continuum Concept”. It is the bible of the “Attachment Parenting” craze.
It’s a good place to start.
My favorite philosophical book with a deep bent on psychology and poetic justice is Dr. Maria Montessori’s “The Absorbent Mind”. I give this book to our friends expecting, expecting nothing in return… because they can not process the heaven within each word… but maybe in time…
I know the feeling of wanting to kill one’s self. I just found out my wife is having an affair and although I’m trying to cope, I thi nk I’m at the end of my rope.
Gawd, I hope the last post isn’t referring to actor John Arp, who plays Dr. Mahogany in this anti-suicide campaign and is having an affair with a married woman . Kind of hypocritical but I guess he’s just playing one on TV- oh well.
[…] in Denver and was shocked by the suicide stats for fathers. I wrote about it a while back – Men and Suicide –but after trying for months, finally got a chance to interview Dr. Rich Mahogany. Hold on, […]
This jerk who plays Dr. Mahogany is a fraud and should be fired for his fake doctor bit, especially when he slept with a married guy’s wife ( another actor ) and callously helped ruin this guys marriage and happiness while posing as a guy who helps men with depression. What a hypocrite , as he takes $$$ for this role while behind the scenes actively destroying innocent men’s lives by being a homewrecker and a mean-spirited destructive person. FIRE HIM!!!!
You can, of course, back up your claims with proof, right Tom?