Mental Health Needs a New Approach.

If you have kids in your life at all, this is an important read.

Meta’s promising safer Instagram feeds for teens—but is it enough? 🚨 Can we trust these social media companies to enforce these restrictions and bring about real change?

Check these slides for the content that Meta claims will be off-limits to users under-18. The more we know about what shouldn’t be in their feeds, the more we can keep an eye on those promises, and hold Meta accountable.

What else do you think needs to change? Is this only happening because of law suits stemming from families of loved ones who have been lost - where social media was a contributing factor? Will other social media companies follow Meta’s lead? So many questions. Share your opinions or feedback below 👇 - this is such an important topic to discuss:

#TeenSafety #InstagramChanges #Mentalhealthmatters #socialmediasafety #stopscrolling #parentalcontrols #keepkidssafe #SameHere🤙 #5in5

In 2021, I posted about country music star - Naomi Judd’s tragic suicide, recalling her 2018 words from the research she’d been shown, on how suicidal thoughts hijack “discrete circuits in the brain.”

3 years - at least - of her putting her own time, money, and advocacy toward research into why suicidal ideations happen & how we can stop them, & we STILL lost her to suicide. At the time, that was the most public example I’d seen, giving pretty clear evidence that people most often do not rationally choose suicide (they most often fight off the urges)…but it chooses them from an overwhelm of their nervous system.

Now, Dr. Nolan Williams, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford and Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab who pioneered SAINT, a rapid TMS treatment for treatment-resistant depression - someone fought for others while battling their own pain - was also just lost to suicide.

Dr. Williams had also researched psychedelics like ibogaine for mental health, yet died by suicide just a few days ago - and you can see some wise words about him from the Founder of TOMS on the 3rd page⏭️.

These stories show suicide is rarely a rational choice—it’s an overwhelming error message of the brain, born from unbearable suffering.

By sharing this truth, we can dismantle shame, but most importantly - inspire help-seeking.

#MentalHealthAwareness #SuicidePrevention #Depression #MentalHealthMatters #TMS #BrainHealth #TOMS #drnolanwilliams #standord #SameHere🤙 #5in5

In March of 2024 I shared a post about two former NHL players —Chris Simon and Konstantin Koltsov —who lost their lives to suicide on the same day! There were no front-page headlines. No viral outrage. Just whispers in sports corners, briefly, then forgotten.

Fast-forward to now: Arturo Gatti Sr., the unbreakable boxing legend, gone by suicide in 2009 at 37. His son, Arturo Jr., just 17 in chasing that same warrior legacy, was found yesterday - the exact same way in Mexico —16 years later, a haunting echo.

And where’s the wall-to-wall coverage? The global wake-up call? Sports is supposed to be the big stage where we bring these issues to light. Arturo Sr. was a HUGE name. His son, a talented up and comer wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps. But, crickets in the mainstream.

We’re numb, scrolling past these gut-wrenching losses like they’re just stats in our feeds. Public figures and now their kids - falling, yet the alarm bells stay silent. This has to change.

These aren’t isolated tragedies—they’re screams from an epidemic claiming 740,000+ lives globally now, climbing each year. Fathers. Sons. Mothers.
Daughters. Aunt. Uncles. Nieces and Nephews. Heroes whether in the ring on the ice or outside of sports or the public eye. We can’t let the numbness win.

Let’s demand better: Proactive suicide prevention education in schools like the L.I.F.E. Saver program (slide 3 ➡️) education in sports leagues, and communities everywhere. Fund the hotlines. Train the coaches. Normalize the convo before another kid or adult steps into those awful shadows.

If the passing of a son and father in the same exact tragic way doesn’t shatter us... what will?

#BreakTheNumbness #SuicidePrevention #GattiLegacy #NHLRemembers #wbc #MentalHealthMatters #SuicideAwareness #arturogattijr #arturogattjsr #wbc #SameHere🤙 #5in5

Two athletes.

Two stories flipped by truth.

Kyren Lacy lost his life, and false blame was at least partially a contributor. If you remember in April I’d shared a story about how we lost him to suicide a day before his grand jury trial was set to begin, where he was accused of fleeing the scene of a crash - that it was being alleged that he caused. Now video evidence has been released - of that crash, showing that he was 76 yards behind the actual crash itself.

Mark Sanchez went from victim to aggressor almost in the snap of a finger. At first we heard he was stabbed early Sunday morning, & was in critical condition. Tributes to him poured in from the sports & entertainment world (many of them taken down now). It was later revealed he was the intoxicated aggressor with a 69 year old delivery driver that he attacked, and that the driver was acting in self defense.

The reality is, we still don’t know the full story - but it doesn’t stop the projections & assumptions from happening & being shared - & individuals & families being at the center of it all.

As mental health advocates, let’s call for change: Pause before judging. Protect minds & lives as fiercely as we cheer games.

#KyrenLacy #LSUTigers #PresumeInnocence #AthleteWellness #MentalHealthAwareness #StopTheRush #AdvocateForChange #MarkSanchez #SameHere🤙 #5in5

On the last day of #SuicidePreventionMonth, Madonna’s story shakes us awake: Suicidal thoughts can hit ANYONE—not just those with a diagnosis. 💔

Her custody battle pushed her to the edge, showing how life’s storms can overwhelm us all. Shout out to how her song - “Live to Tell” released in 1986!! is so fitting here, given her reveal.

Swipe to see what the stats show as far as how ideations impact those with vs without diagnoses, further emphasizing how we’re all in this together.

We hope this helps you or someone you love not feel alone.

#Madonna #LiveToTell #MentalHealthMatters #YouAreNotAlone #SuicidePrevention #LiveToTell #SameHere🤙#5in5

Our mental health is under attack - and has been for a while.

Social media runs on division, and influencers profit by fueling it—urging us to call out ‘toxic’ parents, ‘narcissistic’ friends, or anyone who’s hurt us.

Human nature is to share their posts to vent, because that feels like a more immediate release than anything else…related to what we are so upset about.

But this just deepens the wounds and the gaps.

This is not to discount anyone’s experience. There are absolutely some people in our lives who have chosen to do us wrong…who have been given chances to come clean and to make up on things…even to apologize, and they have chosen not to. Totally understand cutting those folks off. I’ve had to with some. But do we have to post and share about it? Do we have to keep the toxicity going? Does it need to reach the feeds of the people who hurt us, just so we can feel like we got them back for what they did to us?

What if we stopped following the outrage and kept it to ourselves &/or therapists &/or close friends?

And what if in some of those cases where there was even an opening, we started listening instead of blaming? Understanding someone’s struggles or perspective can lead to healing, not division. Let’s choose growth over grudges where there is room to.

#BreakTheCycle #ChooseConnection #HealingOverHate #MentalHealthMatters #InfluencerTruth #GrowTogether #EmpathyHeals #ConnectionNotDivision #SameHere🤙 #5in5

Just days before we lost Rudi Johnson to suicide, he lit up the Chesterfield Hall of Fame induction with an uplifting video speech full of gratitude—thanking his coach, reflecting on his roots, and urging kids to “dream big, shoot for the stars, stay focused, never give up.”

His words were pure uplift (I gave a portion of it on the second slide), a reminder of the light he carried - that you could see on the field in the early 2000s in the NFL. Yet, tragically, Rudi died by suicide at 45.

This heartbreaking truth hits hard: so many who die by suicide DON’T WANT to leave us. They want to live, to fight, to be here. But like a heart attack - even when you know you’ve have cardiovascular issues & are monitoring your health, intense ideations can strike without warning, overwhelming even the strongest will.

Let’s shatter the notion that whispers suicide is always a “rational choice.” It’s not—it’s a thief in the night.

In Rudi’s memory, let’s honor his hope by talking openly, normalizing help seeking without shame, supporting each other, and reaching out.

#RudiJohnson #bengals #auburn #MentalHealthAwareness #SuicidePrevention
#MentalHealthMatters #YouAreNotAlone
#DreamBig #SameHere🤙#5in5