Here in Australia and in other parts of the world, September is Suicide Awareness Month. You’ll see people talking about suicide this month, especially if you're following any organisations that work in the mental health space.
As Christians, we've often shied away from talking about suicide - we like to avoid the topic altogether. But the sad reality is that suicide affects people within the church just as much as it does those outside the church. So this month at Anxious Faith, we're going to be spending our time looking at suicide from a few different perspectives.
We’ll have three podcast episodes for you this month. The first is with a woman who sadly lost her teenage son to suicide, and shares her story of how she had to rebuild her faith from that point.
The second episode is with a young man in New Zealand who, when he was a teenager, got to the point of all but attempting suicide and was somewhat miraculously saved. He's got an amazing testimony of how his faith has grown since that point and how he’s learned to deal with his mental health.
And finally, in the last week of September, we'll be sharing an interview with author Al Hsu, who's written a book called Grieving a Suicide. Al sadly lost his father to suicide and talks about his journey through that grief, what he's learned in the aftermath, and also what he's learned from the Bible and how that's encouraged him to look at suicide.
Along with these three podcast episodes, we're launching a standalone resource page at anxiousfaith.org/suicide, which is going to have all of our suicide content and resources there for you to visit at any time.
On that page you’ll also find a few short videos with Professor Kuruvilla George (KG), who we recently interviewed. KG is a psychiatrist with more than 40 years of experience, from working in clinical practice to leading mental health programs for hospitals to serving as the deputy chief psychiatrist for the state of Victoria for 10 years.
KG has recorded several short videos with us that look at some of the big questions around suicide, such as What Is Suicide?, What Does the Bible Say About Suicide?, How Can We Help Those Struggling? and Is Suicide a Sin?, as well as how to create a ‘safety plan’ and other ways to support someone who might be contemplating suicide.
All those videos are available now at anxiousfaith.org/suicide, and we'll be adding more content as the month goes on. We'll also have new articles going up on the blog every week, as well as helpful content shared on social media - follow us so you don’t miss a thing.
Our hope is that as we start to talk about suicide this month, we’ll understand a little bit more about how to notice someone who may be struggling, how we can be better equipped to support them, and how we as Christians can be engaging in these conversations openly and honestly, instead of shying away from them. We also hope that the stories we’re sharing will encourage anyone who has considered suicide themselves, or knows someone who has. You’re not alone.
So please, come join our community on socials as we continue to tackle these big questions around faith and mental health.
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4 окт 2024
