How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person's Guide to Suicide Prevention
About this ebook
The statistics on suicide are staggering. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 1997 in the United States, more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. It is also an international epidemic.
Susan Blauner is the perfect emissary for a message of hope and a program of action for these millions of people. She’s been though it, and speaks and writes eloquently about feelings and fantasies surrounding suicide.
“The best suicide prevention manual for the suicidal thinker, suicide attempter, layperson, or professional.” —Iris Bolton, founder of the National Resource Center for Suicide Prevention and Aftercare
“How I Stayed Alive is like a Fodor’s guide that gets you from the depths of hell of depression to the paradise of a balanced life.” —Reese Butler, executive director and founder of the National Hopeline Network
“With neither hollow platitudes nor medical doublespeak . . . an extreme valuable and much needed tool for suicidal thinkers and their loved ones.” —Publishers Weekly
About the author
Susan Rose Blauner, MSW, LCSW, is a writer, motivational speaker, artist, singer, and educator who changes the way people think about suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior and mental disease. She is the 2002 recipient of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Survivor of the Year Award for Distinguished Creativity in Suicide Prevention and transformed eighteen years of suicidal ideation, three suicide gestures, multiple psychiatric hospitalizations and decades of therapy into the life-saving resource, How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person’s Guide to Suicide Prevention. Susan presents motivational keynotes and seminars throughout the United States designed to destigmatize mental illness; enlighten practitioners, educators, first responders and military personnel; and empower individuals and families affected by mental illness and suicide. She has appeared on Good Morning America, American Family, and in the documentary A Secret Best Not Kept. Following a 2008 breast cancer diagnosis, two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation, Susan went on to earn a master’s degree in social work from Simmons College in 2015, at the age of 50. She now lives in New England with her dog, Fiona, and continues to find ways to enhance her enjoyment of life. For more information, visit www.susanblauner.com.
