Suicide Prevention Saturday - What do you want to ask Jake?
In this 15‑minute live stream, host Brooke Cheney opens Suicide Prevention Saturday by highlighting that two‑thirds of gun deaths are suicides and stresses the need for focused prevention. She cites recent spikes in suicide rates, substance abuse, and violent crime since 2020, linking these trends to economic stressors such as rising gas, food, and property taxes, as well as pandemic‑related social isolation. Brooke shares personal coping tools—breathing exercises, regular outdoor activity, the 75‑Hard challenge, and daily reading—while urging viewers to stay informed about mental‑health resources. She lists crisis hotlines (800‑273‑8255, text TALK to 741741) and mentions the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, QPR training, and veteran‑specific programs (VA, Aiming for Zero, Great Cedars). The stream includes a roll‑call of chat participants, a brief discussion of media influence and anti‑gun rhetoric, and an invitation for viewers to submit questions for an upcoming interview with “Jake,” who will discuss veteran suicide prevention, clinical perspectives on recent trends, and possibly mask‑related topics. Brooke closes by announcing a longer, hour‑long session next week and encourages the community to stay engaged and supportive.
Chapters
All right, it is Suicide Prevention Saturday, and I'm like a second or two late. I don't know, the thing said, oh, it's time. Um, so as always, uh, hi G-Webs, hi Tara, hi DJ. Um, Suicide Prevention Saturday, why? Because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are suicides, and if we really want to save lives, we need to focus on suicide prevention. So Every Saturday, or at least most of them since 2019, sometimes Sunday because life does not always go according to plan, I pop on for 5, 15, 20 minutes and talk about possible— just bringing up the awareness of suicide prevention. There are tons of programs out there. Uh, down below is— hopefully you're not watching on an itty-bitty tiny phone— but, um, crisis call line. 800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741. Um, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is just one of the many groups out there that is all about helping you if you need help. Now, life is hard, uh, life is a challenge, and sometimes you can call a line like this if you're trying to help somebody else out. Because some people call me, and I'm not a counselor. I don't— I mean, I can offer advice, but I'm not trained or anything like that. Well, I am trained. I did the QPR stuff. If you don't know what QPR is, you can look it up. It's question, persuade, refer. So just like I'm referring y'all, if you have issues, to call this number or text it, um, This is how we can help other people, because when you're in crisis, it's very hard to reach out. And when you reach out, sometimes you don't know where to grab. So these are the things to, uh, consider how we can help prevent suicide prevention, how we can help prevent suicide. So let's talk about suicide.
It—
over the last 2 years, The suicide rate has skyrocketed. Now, the other thing that has skyrocketed is substance abuse skyrocketed. Because one of the things I follow is also violent crime. The last 2 years, violent crime has also skyrocketed. For those of you don't know, if you look at the FBI crime statistics and you look at violent crime since around 1999, '98, Crime, violent crime has actually gone down on a regular basis, and it has for the past two decades. Then we had 2020 and a lot of things changed, and violent crime is up, suicide is up, overdose is up, um, substance abuse is up. Did I already say that one? But I mean, drugs versus alcohol, I guess, is what I'm trying to think about. So if we look on the past two years Why aren't people talking about this more? This is worse than— it's taking more lives than COVID. And I know everyone's been focused on the C-word, and I even hate saying the— those words, so I'm not gonna, because that's my show, so I can do what I want.
Ha!
So anyway, um, what has happened over the past 2 years? Well, right now our economy has some challenges. And one of the things, when you look at violent crime, crime goes up when our economy tanks. So these are the things that are broad, broad strokes on what's happened and why. What else have we done? Well, we've locked ourselves away in our little tiny homes with masks on our face and, uh, lost our sociability. Lots of things have been stopped. Now we're trying to restart, but how do we restart faster? And how do we get out and do more things that will help our economy? What can we do to help people with drug addiction? What do we do to help people with alcohol addiction? How do we help these people? Well, first check in, find out if you're one of those people. Uh, I don't do drugs, I don't do alcohol really. And it doesn't mean that I don't have issues though. I still have anxiety. I still worry. I still have days where life is hard, right? All of us do. How do we cope with those? One of the best things you can do is always make sure you're learning more. I've done this thing called 75 Hard, which is a task list of 4 to 5 things every day, and something like working out twice a day, one indoor, one outdoor. Um, you can do 2 outdoors, but the idea is to do something outside. Read 10 pages a day. Little did I know, making that little change of reading 10 pages a day, I've read like 5 or 6 books in the last year. And for some people that's not a lot, but for me that's a ton. I hadn't been reading any books at all. So grow your mind, make it more important. Um, what else can we do? Pay attention to what's happening around you. Right? What else has changed over the last 2 years that has tanked our economy? What has stopped our supply chain? Why are we so broken? Um, I don't know if you've been shopping lately, but whether you're shopping for a refrigerator, a stove, a car, um, I don't know what your real estate's like where you are, but in Connecticut it's insane. People cannot buy, first-time buyers, 'cause all the houses are crazy expensive. So most of us have cars. We've all tried to put gas in our car as of late, and it's crazy expensive. The other part of this is when fuel's expensive, it makes everything else expensive. As taxes rise here in Connecticut, it makes it harder for other people to make money. So our gas tax has risen. Uh, we have food tax that has risen. Everything has gotten more and more expensive over the past 2 years. Now, correlation versus causation. If you haven't had that conversation, it's basically just because one thing occurred at the same time something else occurred does not mean that that is what caused it. But there's lots of pieces and parts over the past 2 years that have changed our society, and right now not really for the best. Um, lots of people are scared, lots of people are afraid, lots of people are struggling to put food on the table, lots of people are struggling to put gas in their cars. So how do we fix these things? I'm not here for all the answers. I wish I had them and I could easily give them, but this is where we as a community have to come together and figure out how to fix stuff. Here in Connecticut, unfortunately, uh, they keep taxing and taxing and taxing and taxing, and they're not taxing the rich. We when they're adding taxes to our gas, they're adding taxes to everybody. And why am I talking about finances versus mental health? Because if you're struggling to put food on the table, that's causing you stress. And if you're stressed, you're less likely to be able to fight infection. If you're less likely to fight infection, then you're going to get sick. And it snowballs. And it's from something as simple as price of gas going up, which causes everything else to go up. So when you want to look at mental health as a holistic thing, look and see the things that you can take part in. What can you do? One, take a breath. Oh my gosh, it's a lot of stuff going on right now. Oxygen to the brain helps you relax a little bit. Two, exercise, move, do things that make you happy, uh, Exercise, as much as most of us hate going to the gym, helps release endorphins. Do it outside, go for a walk, that sort of thing. Does this affect the price of gas? No. However, it can help your brain work better and faster to figure out, oh, what really will help us, um, make an impact that we can regain a positive economy that does not trash the entire— no matter where, where you are in the stratosphere. So that's what I've got for you for mental health stuff, is look around, see what's really happening. I know the news wants to talk to you about all sorts of crazy stuff, but think about the stuff that generally actually truly impacts your life. Economics is number one. And why is that? All the reasons I just said, right? Then what can you do about it? I know it sounds silly, but by going for that walk, taking those breaths, and, you know, continuing on. Oh no, DJ, did I just disappear completely? I just lost you.
No, you're still around, Brooke. You're still there.
All right, my screen went black and I'm like, oh no, what happened? Um, So, uh, yeah, so what else, what else? So yeah, sorry, it went black and I'm like, oh crud. So anyway, that's my, that's my thought for today, is pay attention to what really truly impacts our lives. Um, try to turn off the news and ignore them because for the most part all they're doing is trying to get you more emotional over stuff that may or may not actually affect your job, your life, and so on. All right, so, uh, DJ is feeding me, uh, questions and answers, but DJ, why don't we do a quick roll call now? Because I know I've seen people pop in and pop out.
So I'd be pleased to do that. Yeah, Gun Websites, uh, was out there just after I entered the room, right? Tara Smith's Kitchen is out there as well. Uh, CMT Designs and Arms, uh, his usual greeting is contained therein. Uh, Smeggy42 has joined the room. PNW Woods checking in from the Pacific Northwest. And, uh, on the YouTube— I'm sorry, on the Facebook side, Jonathan Berger has joined the conversation.
Are we allowed to call him Jonathan Berger when he's on Facebook and only call him Barbecue when he's on YouTube? Is that how this goes?
That is how it works. You're in charge of the program. And Guns and Barbecue amazingly has also joined the text chat out there.
Well, it makes it look like I've got more people watching me, so I appreciate that because I do that on Bullet Society Podcast. All right, so since G Webs has asked about Walk the Talk America, um, so the reason I put up the thing of what do you want to ask Jake is because on Monday morning I'm going to have an interview with Jake. So I will ask him if they are working with veterans orgs who are focused on awareness and prevention. And here's the thing, I don't know if you all have seen the movie Fight Club, but if you have not, here's a short version. Fight Club, once you get in, the first rule of Fight Club is to not talk about Fight Club, and the second rule of Fight Club is to not talk about Fight Club. So I have found now that I'm sort of dabbling in the whole suicide prevention, that once you get in, there's so many places to go for suicide prevention.
The—
excuse me, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which is a little scrolly thing down here, is just one of many suicide prevention programs out there. Veterans specifically have a lot of resources. The challenge is, if you're a veteran and you're looking for suicide prevention, how do you get there? The VA is one, and they have resources, but then there are things like Aiming for Zero, which is underneath, right? Um, oh my gosh, I forgot the name of their parent, but, um, that is really bad. So anyway, um, there's lots and lots of veteran, uh, groups and veteran organizations. I know Mario, who was on last week, I think, uh, he was going something like called Great Cedars, which is also a veteran suicide prevention program. So I will ask Jake, um, if they are working with veteran orgs or not. I know just like DC Project, we're kind of reaching out to as many people as we can to at least get the information out there, like working with Second Amendment foundations and groups that, you know, help educate, not legislate. For those of you who don't know, DC Project, educate, not legislate, is one of our, you know, first taglines ever. Because having spent time in DC, one of the most distressing things is listening to people on the anti-gun side just really, really, really show that they're just anti-gun and they don't have any actual desire in saving lives. And the worst part of that is the people who support anti-gun people don't realize that they're not really doing anything to help save lives. Um, and so I'll try not to go down the rabbit hole over there, but there is that. So, all right, any additional questions that you want me to ask Jake on Monday? Um, because Jake and I have not picked out a topic to talk about, but we can absolutely talk about veterans. My desire is to see what his opinion is on the rise over the past 2 years of suicide, violent crime, from a clinical point of view. Because like I said, I have my, my opinions about it, but, um, I think for him actually having his own practice and listening to people who come to him for problem solving, um, perhaps he will have a different idea on things. So, all right. That's kind of all I got for tonight. Um, oh my goodness, one of these days I'm going to get a map so I know where everybody is from. All right, so now, now I'm going back through everything that y'all are, uh, um, writing here and there. Or I don't know if I should or not. DJ, should I?
Well, absolutely. I'm going to go ahead and bring this up from Smeggy42 out there. Let's see.
Yeah.
He's saying, uh, there was a guy on Joe Rogan back in the day talking about depression in third— in the third world, and he said he gave a village a cow, depression went way down. That ties in with your comments on food supply, taxes, and distribution. That's fair.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, without a doubt. And this is just— it is— this is also, like I said, because I, I studied the violence prevention stuff, and it's just like when the economy is up, violence is down. And right now, unfortunately, our economy is down, and we've got additional problems going on with COVID measures, uh, being kept home, masking, that sort of thing. I did look back at the other interview I did with Jake, and we did talk about masking a little bit, but, um, one of his comments was 2 years ago, prior to COVID, he said we'd have a much different conversation about people who want to wear masks all the time. And I feel like I might poke that bear a little bit on Monday. Um, I have them for an hour. If y'all are watching the replay or if you think of something later, just drop the comments either down here below in Facebook or YouTube. That's right, they go below no matter where we're at. So, um, I don't know. All right, we got anything else? DJ, or did I cover everything and we can be done in 15 minutes?
You have solved prevention and awareness in just a single program, but also you've also, you've also hit that, uh, 15-minute mark, so your 15 minutes of, uh, September Suicide Awareness Fame can conclude right here.
All right, and also obviously heads up, warning, next Saturday is going to be full hour because I've got Jake and I know that he and I can talk for at least an hour, um, and I'm pretty sure I only have an hour with him So, you know, clear your calendars for next week because it's going to be a long one. Uh, it will be a replay because I'm— like I said, I'm recording it Monday morning. However, I will be there to, you know, use my little keyboard as you all chat about stuff. And, um, PN Woods, you are welcome. So yes, and like I said, one of these days I want to create a map that has like where y'all from, because like DJ knows where some of you are, but I forget. So, all right, ladies and gentlemen, have a spectacular rest of your Saturday evening. Uh, make it the weekend, land fun. And if you're like here in New England where it's all cold and you need to be snuggled, maybe warm and toasty. Um, and have a lovely week, and I will see you all next Saturday.
