All the Things We Never Knew (43 page)

THE CONTINUUM OF MENTAL HEALTH

“Thanks to early detection”

Insel, Thomas. “Toward a New Understanding of Mental Illness.” TEDx Caltech, January 2013.
www.ted.com/talks/thomas_insel_toward_a_new_understanding_of_mental_illness?language=en
.

Insel, Thomas R. “Translating Scientific Opportunity into Public Health Impact: A Strategic Plan for Research on Mental Illness.”
Archives of General psychiatry
66, no. 2 (February 2009): 128–133.

Insel, Thomas R., and Remi Quirion. “Psychiatry as a Clinical Neuroscience Discipline.” National Institute of Mental Health: My Blog.
www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/bio/publications/psychiatry-as-a-clinical-neuroscience-discipline.shtml
. Accessed March 19, 2015.

AFTER SUICIDE

40,600 people completed suicide

Smolin, Ann, and John Guinan.
Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993, p. 115.

CHILDREN AND GRIEF

The American Academy of Pediatrics describes

Mishara, Brian L.
Impact of Suicide
. New York: Spring, 1995.

Bailey, S. E., M. J. Kral, and K. Dunham. “Survivors of Suicide Do Grieve Differently: Empirical Support for a Common Sense Proposition.”
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
29, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): pp. 256–271.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10531638
. See also:
http://johnjordanphd.com
, especially under Publications.

THE ESCAPE THEORY OF SUICIDE

Florida State University psychology professor Roy Baumeister analyzed suicide in terms of motivation to escape

Baumeister, Roy F. “Suicide as Escape from Self.”
Psychological Review
97, no. 1 (1990): 90–113.

HEALING FROM TRAUMA

About 40 percent of American children

Perry, Bruce, M.D., Ph.D., and Maia Szalavitz.
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook
. New York: Perseus, 2006, p. 1.

Franey, Kris, Robert Geffner, and Robert Falconer, eds.
The Cost of Child Maltreatment: Who Pays? We All Do
. San Diego, CA: Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute, 2001, pp. 15–37.

See also R. F. Anda, et al “The Enduring Effects of Abuse and Related Adverse Experiences in Childhood: A Convergence of Evidence from Neurobiology and Epidemiology.”
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
256, no. 3 (April 2006), pp. 174–186.

BABY BOOMERS AND SUICIDE

The surge in the suicide rate among middle-aged Americans

Sullivan, Erin M., et al. “Suicide Among Adults Aged 35–64 Years—United States, 1999–2010.”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,
May 3, 2013. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm
. Accessed March 20, 2015.

SUICIDE PREVALENCE

One in 41,149 suicides in the United States that year, making suicide the nation's tenth leading cause of death

Xu, Jiaquan, et al. “Mortality in the United States, 2012.” NCHS Data Brief no. 168 (October 2014). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Suicide is now the second leading cause of death in the armed forces

Corr, William P. “Suicides and Suicide Attempts Among Active Component Members of the U.S. Armed Forces, 2010–2012: Methods of Self-Harm Vary by Major Geographic Region of Assignment.”
Medical Surveillance Monthly Report
21, no. 10 (October 2014), p. 2. A publication of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.
www.afhsc.mil/documents/pubs/msmrs/2014/v21_n10.pdf
.

See also “Defense Department to Do More to Assist Warfighters with Mental Illness.”
Health.mil
: The Official Website of the Military Health System and the Defense Health Agency (March 20, 2015).
www.health.mil/News/Articles/2015/03/20/Defense-Department-to-do-More-to-Assist-Warfighters-with-Mental-Illness
.

SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT

Dr. Katherine Dunham

Bailey, S. E., M. J. Kral, and K. Dunham. “Survivors of Suicide Do Grieve Differently: Empirical Support for a Common Sense Proposition.”
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
29, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): pp. 256–271.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10531638
.

Acknowledgments

Portland is a writer's town, and before David died, my favorite evenings were spent at a Pinewood table in Joanna Rose's home. The writers I met there continue to inspire me with the depth of their talent and the generosity of their hearts. Scott Sparling offered so many tender comments and suggestions about this book, I cried over the notes he wrote in the margins. Laura Stanfill helped me edit a second draft while her new baby, Trixie, slept in her arms. Stevan Allred gobsmacked me with every new poem and short story. Suzy Vitello, at another table across town, offered poignant advice on loss and love, even as she came to terms with her own magnificent loss.

I began this book in the year after David's death. The manuscript might have stayed on the top shelf of my desk if not for the tenacity of my agent, Sandra Bishop, who never, ever, ever gives up. My brilliant editor at Seal Press, Laura Mazer, prompted me to go back over the manuscript with a reporter's eye to reveal the signs and symptoms I'd missed and share my research on mental illness. For that idea, and a thousand others that make this book more relevant and accessible, thank you.

And to David's family: Thank you for your support. We have changed names to protect your privacy, but your family's legacy is still very much alive in Zasha, aka the amazing Soph.