Mindfulness For Warriors. Kim Colegrove

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СКАЧАТЬ is your mental, emotional, and physical health? What about your personal life, your relationships, and your social life? Are you happy, healthy, and thriving? Or do you operate in some version of survival mode, putting one foot in front of the other in a joyless existence?

      I’ve met a lot of veteran and retired first responders who have been divorced more than once, drink too much, suffer from chronic health problems, and have adult children who won’t speak to them. So, if your plan is to give everything to your job and then be happy when you retire, consider this. When you retire, assuming you live that long, all the garbage that you’ve stuffed down and held in will still be there. It doesn’t magically disappear. It rots and festers. And, the day after you retire, the job goes on as if you never existed. Which means the job is just fine, whether you’re there or not.

      Are you willing to give everything to a job that will not miss a beat when you leave?

      And now I want to address leaders and commanders.

      It is imperative that you immediately initiate and execute policies to end this stigma. This is a top-down situation that can only be fixed by the people at the top showing real leadership and compassion. Old-fashioned, outdated thinking must be tossed out the window. It’s time for the old-guard, “suck it up” leaders to retire and step aside if they are unwilling to embrace empathy and understanding.

      If I hear about one more boss saying they don’t believe in PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), I think I will likely explode. If this is your mindset, it is time for you to hang it up, madam or sir. The world has passed you by and, not only are you standing in the way of progress, but your misinformed and misguided rhetoric and decisions are killing people.

      Ripple Effects

      I would be remiss in speaking to first responders and commanders if I didn’t address the ripple effects that occur when someone does make the choice to end their own life.

      I’ve heard from people who have considered suicide, and some who have even attempted it, that at the point of choice, they believed everyone in their lives would be better off without them. Somehow, in the midst of feeling like they’re drowning in pain, fear, anxiety, depression, and despair, people who are suicidal rationalize that death is the only answer—the only relief. I’m sure there are many different versions of this, but as I understand it, it goes something like this: I am a mess, I am so tired of feeling like this, nothing helps, I have become a burden to my friends and family, and everyone will be better off with me gone. They’ll all be fine eventually and my suffering will end. This is just for the best.

      While this is hard for most of us to understand, I believe some people reach a point where they have lost all memory of what it’s like to feel okay, and they are so exhausted from suffering that they convince themselves death is their only path to peace and freedom.

      If you have considered or are considering suicide, I’d like share with you some of the ripple effects that occurred and continue because of my husband’s choice to end his life. The truth is, every person who knew David was negatively impacted in some way. Nobody is better off without him. Not one of us.

      David has parents and two sisters who miss him. He has children and stepchildren who miss him and will forever carry heaviness, regret, and pain regarding his choice. He has friends who were shocked, stunned, saddened, and confused by this tragedy.

      He had a nephew named Nico, with whom he was especially close. David taught Nico how to fish and use tools. They bonded over “guy stuff,” bad jokes, dumb movies, and Just Dance on the Wii, which was the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen.

      Nico struggled with some emotional difficulties in adolescence, and Uncle David was someone he could always talk to. When he found out his uncle had killed himself, he was devastated. We worried about Nico a lot in the days, weeks, and months following David’s funeral. Nico made the trip from St. Louis to Kansas City several times in those days to spend time with us. I think being in his uncle’s home was comforting somehow. Nico and I were close, and he was close with my kids, especially my son.

      On an early Sunday morning in June of 2015, after Nico had spent the night at my house, I talked to him over coffee. I told him I knew he missed his uncle, and that I understood he had been experiencing a rough patch in life. I assured him that I would always be there for him and that he was welcome at our house any time. And then I mustered the courage to say what I really wanted to say, which was, “I need to know you’re never going to consider killing yourself. I know life gets hard, but you have so many people who love you and this family cannot take another tragedy.”

      Nico looked me right in the eye and said, “I’ve seen how much David’s death has hurt everyone and I would never consider doing that to my family.” I was so relieved.

      On July 2, 2015, seven months after David ended his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Nicholas “Nico” Hundelt did the exact same thing. He was twenty years old.

      Also on that day, David’s best friend in the whole world, his sister, Julie, had to face the devastating reality that she had lost her brother and closest friend, as well as her youngest child, in the span of less than a year.

      The ripples continue.

      Nico has a mom and a dad who miss him terribly and will never stop grieving. He has two brothers who loved him so much and have to face each day knowing their little brother is gone forever. He had a girlfriend when he died. He had more friends than you could count, and at least a couple of them have since experienced their own darkness, depression, and even suicidal ideation.

      Did you know that suicide can be contagious? There is something called “suicide contagion.” It’s a phenomenon that occurs in families and peer groups. Basically, exposure to suicide has been shown to increase one’s potential to consider suicide.

      After Nico’s death, the entire family went into a tailspin of emotional and mental anguish and paranoid vigilance. Some family members struggled more than others, and we found ourselves terrified that whoever was not doing well at any given time would be the next one to kill themselves. And I’d be lying if I told you we’ve stopped worrying about that.

      Every one of us has indelible and unshakeable memories of how and when we found out about each of these deaths, and now many of us are triggered by the simplest things, like late-night phone calls, calls from a family member at an unusual time, or a knock at the door. We were each shocked, stunned, and devastated by the deaths of these men we loved so much.

      So, if you are someone who is considering suicide, know this. If you choose suicide, and you have children, you have just modeled for them that suicide is an option when life gets hard. When those children encounter dark times in life, and they are searching for answers, help, and relief, they are much more likely to consider suicide. Is that the legacy you want to leave behind? And it’s not just your kids you might unwittingly be giving permission. Friends, family members, and colleagues might also be more likely to follow suit.

      Suicide does not end suffering. It simply passes suffering on to others.

      Silent Suffering

      David was a police officer for eight years, from age twenty-one to twenty-nine, and then he joined a federal agency and worked as a Special Agent and a SAC (Special Agent in Charge) for twenty-two years. I believe most of his buried trauma occurred during the eight years he was on patrol. In my travels with the PauseFirst Project, I’ve met many people who worked with David over the years. They have all been generous in their praise of his police work and investigative skills.

      My СКАЧАТЬ