Hopebeat Weekly: May 28, 2024
Hopelessness Predicts Suicide
Depression doesn’t predict suicide.
Hopelessness predicts suicide.
The single, consistent predictor of suicide is hopelessness, not depression.
I visited my mentor of 20 years last week, Dr. Maurizio Fava, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Massachusetts General Hospital, and he reminded me of this by sharing this paper. These little nudges from the universe remind me to keep going, to ensure all know what hopelessness is and how to get to hope.
I am different from other hope scientists because I look at hope from the lens of hopelessness. Our programs teach people how to hope in moments of hopelessness. I created The Hope Matrix to easily illustrate how this works, as we move from the lower left quadrant to the upper right quadrant. That is the goal; hopelessness to high hope.
Hopelessness is defined by both emotional despair and motivational helplessness, so to prevent suicide (and all the other adverse outcomes associated with hopelessness like addiction, violence, anxiety, and depression), we need to teach all. And we all have moments of hopelessness, all the time, which is why I believe it is impossible to predict who will die by suicide. And why we must teach everyone ‘how’ to hope (not to mention 57% of teen girls in the US are persistently hopeless).
My heart breaks each time I read about another death by suicide. This week we lost a young PGA Golfer Grayson Murray; he was recently engaged and had a full life ahead of him. He struggled with addiction and depression; however, it is likely he was never taught about hopelessness and the skills to move toward hope. Hopelessness is what ended my dad’s life; it almost ended my life; I believe it also ended Grayson Murray’s life.
There are two truths about hopelessness:
Emotional despair always ends. It might take a while, yet you can’t be sad, angry, and afraid forever. It just feels that way at the moment.
There is always a way from helplessness to action. You might have to change directions, or come up with a new goal, and let go of what you can’t control, yet there is always a way to move forward. There are skills to know ‘how’.
People don’t want to die (have you read Kevin Hines’s first thoughts after jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge?). People want their moment of hopelessness to end. And here is my message; it always can, though you must learn the skills for ‘how’.
I created a $25 Hopeful Mindsets Overview course that teaches the framework for learning the skills to hope in 90 minutes. I aim to ensure all take the course, learn the skills, and teach others so that all are equipped with the skills to identify hopelessness, manage those moments, and get to hope. The course is video-based and licensable for companies, communities, or individuals. Please consider taking it, and sharing with others.
As suicide prevention starts with hopelessness and ends with hope.
I dive into this concept more in my interview this week with Leslie Weirich, who knows a bit about hopelessness and hope. She is a suicide prevention advocate and author of “The Gifts of Grief.”
Leslie lost her son Austin to suicide, and she shares how these experiences have shaped her perspective on life and hope. She also talks about how she uses the SHINE framework to navigate her loss and shares more about her work on grief and why it is important for hope.
We all need these skills. So, if so inspired, please consider taking our Hopeful Mindsets Overview course to learn more about this critical subject so you can teach others. Don’t wait until you lose someone to get motivated. Believe me, you don’t want to have to have a ‘story’ to care about hope. I’m sure Leslie, and Grayson’s family, would agree.
Thanks for helping us spread the message with the world. Hopelessness always ends. And hope is teachable.
Keep Shining,
Kathryn
Kathryn Goetzke, MBA
CEO & Chief Hope Officer, The Shine Hope Company
Author of The Biggest Little Book About Hope
Founder of International Foundation for Research and Education on Hope (iFred)
Creator of Hopeful Cities, and Hopeful Minds
Creator of Hopeful Mindsets Overview, Hopeful Mindsets in the Workplace Overview, and Hopeful Mindsets on the College Campus Course
Podcast host of The Hope Matrix
Chief Mood Officer, The Mood Factory (taking a break, for hope!)
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Events and Engagements
We are thrilled to announce that our Chief Hope Officer and CEO, Kathryn Goetzke, will be speaking at the GlobalMindEd 10th Anniversary Conference in Denver this June 17-19! She will be sharing that all we are doing to activate hope on campuses and in schools around the world. GlobalMindED’s Global Classroom Sessions gather leaders from across the country and world to address challenges and opportunities concerning learning and earning, mentoring and global skills. Find out more.
Email activate@theshinehopecompany.com if you’d like to invite us to speak at your event.
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