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Expert on suicide speaks with emotion on NMU campus

Call it a symptom of a troubled world, call it the result of stress, pressure, depression and anxiety, call it something near an epidemic but it seems just about everyone knows someone or knows of someone who has taken their own life.

Nearly 46,000 people died by suicide in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Put another way, that’s one person every 11 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This is why The Mining Journal was supportive last week of a national speaker appearing locally on this troublesome topic.

In an event sponsored by the Women’s Center of Marquette, the Marquette Housing Commission, Great Lakes Recovery Centers, NMU Center for Rural Health, NorthCare Network and Sail Disability, David Bartley spoke at the Northern Center on the Northern Michigan University campus for two hours, sharing his personal journey with mental illness, depression and thoughts of suicide, a Journal story in the issue stated.

Matters came to a head, he recalled with emotion, standing on a bridge in California, preparing to jump. His life was saved by a police officer who literally talked him off the edge.

“(The officer) created connection. Connection creates hope, hope is a weapon and hope saves lives,” Bartley said, adding he was then admitted to a psychiatric care facility.

“In a place that I would have never expected, my life changed in the most extraordinary way,” Bartley said. “When people found out I was in a psych ward, to say they were confused would be a radical understatement. People didn’t see me as suicidal. People didn’t see me as crazy, deranged, as depressed. If you’re looking for what mental illness looks like, it wouldn’t be me. I didn’t look that way. People had no idea.”

Isn’t that often the case? Someone will commit suicide and his or her friends will all say they had no idea this person was in trouble.

Bartley says that there are three key aspects to creating that connection.

“Recognition, understanding and expression.”

He says that something as simple as remembering someone’s name can create that a connection with an individual who may be struggling.

“You’re going to remember somebody’s name on a day that, unbeknownst to you, that person is suffering, that person is heading down a dark path,” Bartley said. “That moment can make all the difference in the world.”

For more information about David Bartley, his journey, videos of his speeches and information about upcoming speaking engagements, visit his website at www.davidwoodsbartley.com.

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