My Experience With a Loved One Who’s Attempted Suicide

Unfortunately, I've had two personal experiences with loved ones who have attempted suicide.

Let me be brutally honest with you, my son EJ attempted suicide in his late teens. At the time, he was taking three different doctor prescribed medications, Concerta for ADHD, an anti depressant, and a mood stabilizer drug. In the middle of the night he had come upstairs and washed down about thirty 64mg Concerta tablets. That's 1,920mg of Concerta, which is an amphetamine, the doctor's drug of choice for individuals with ADHD. In the morning, we saw pill bottles opened and scattered around the kitchen counter. Imagining the unthinkable, we ran downstairs to his room and found him in bad shape and immediately called 911.

Were there warning signs you might ask? As described in my three blogs I previously wrote about EJ dealing with his addictions and mental illness, his stressors exceeded his coping abilities to deal with his mental illness which led to his attempt. I will tell you this, had he taken 30 Vicodin or Percocet, or a more powerful prescription pain killer, he would no longer be with us.

I'm telling you this story because coming up on September 18, 2016 is the Out of the Darkness Walk in conjunction with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Danbury's walk will be at Tarrywile Park with registration beginning at 11 am. I've been given the honor of representing I-95 at this year's walk and will proudly be in attendance to support all of you taking part. The walk will begin at 12:30 pm through some of the beautiful trails at Tarrywile and end by 3 pm. We're asking for your help and support. Click on this Out of the Darkness Walk link to find out how you can help by walking with us.

Listen to Ethan Carey on the Ethan & Lou Show weekdays from 5:30-10AM on 95.1 FM. You can listen online at i95rock.com/listen-live/ or by downloading the radioPup app for your mobile device.