Project Breaking Taboo aims to do just that- Break the Taboo surrounding Mental Health & Suicide Prevention while providing accessible education and Saving Lives. Project Breaking Taboo will aim to do just that— Break the Taboo surrounding Mental Health Issues. We Provide accessible Education to the public on mental health and suicide prevention. We Create modern, digestible information through a
variety of mediums on a variety of mental health subjects. We Inspire open, compassionate conversations on sensitive or otherwise "taboo" topics- while teaching people how to do so. We Transform the way Mental Health is being treated, viewed, and talked about. We believe that in order to solve a problem, we must focus on the root cause: its a taboo subject that people are afraid or ashamed to even discuss. In order to save lives, we must kill the silence, and in order to kill the silence we must break the taboo. By promoting awareness on mental health and suicide prevention we save lives! We actively encourage conversations instead of stigmatizing them. Our mission is to educate and provide practical tools everyone can use including survival, step by step application, help, information, and resources. These tools that can save lives in times of crisis. Tools that people can take away with them to gain better mental health every day. Tools that inspire others to live a life without shame and frustration. Our message is that mental health is just as important as physical health, and should be treated that way. We are creating a world where help is accessible for everyone who wants it without taboo. A world where we can talk about our emotions and mentality. We encourage real discussions, conversations, and education around mental health. We work with our communities and schools while pulling research and providing education & awareness through a variety of platforms in order to solve the challenge of bringing important, life saving knowledge to the public. Through a team of dedicated and passionate hearts, we aim to bring about a wave of social change and to serve as an inspiration to the entire world.
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A FEW FACTS:
--- 1 in 4 individuals are diagnosed with a mental health condition.
--- Many people with mental health conditions remain undiagnosed and untreated.
--- In the latest CDC figure over 40,000 suicides were reported.
--- Someone in our country dies by suicide about every 12 minutes.
--- Suicide continually outranks homicide, meaning, more people are killing themselves than killing each other.
--- Second only to "accidents", Suicide is the second leading non-medically related cause of death. (However, many "accidents" are potentially unreported suicides.)
--- Suicide is a phenomenon that does not discriminate. It hits all age groups, genders, ethnicities, and cultures.
--- These numbers have not gotten any better, and in fact, have been climbing throughout history.
--- The only year suicide numbers remained steady was year 2020.
--- Many mental health conditions and suicides go unreported.
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It might be hard to hear, but it is happening all around us. Do not turn a blind eye. For some reason, there seems to be have been a hesitancy or incapability from society to DO SOMETHING. In the USA, a society seemingly obsessed with improving health and prolonging life, suicide appears an anathema. The reason may not lie in the fact that our society as a whole does not want to do something about Suicide, but it is that MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW THAT 90% OF SUICIDES CAN BE PREVENTED. Yes, 90%. The public holds a surprisingly avid amount of myths surrounding this controversial topic, due to a general lack of education. MOST OF US DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT SUICIDE, OR THAT WE CAN DO SOMETHING TO PREVENT IT, OR THAT IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO TALK ABOUT IT. There is too much we do not know about this topic --- but we need to start. We need to start speaking out instead of bottling things up and shutting down in silence. Silence is not the answer. Why the silence? Because of another truth of our world today: The topic of “Suicide”-- even “Mental Health” in general, suffers from an incredibly biased taboo.
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Dictionary definition:
"ta·boo
təˈbo͞o,taˈbo͞o/
noun
a social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing. synonyms: prohibition, proscription, veto, interdiction, interdict, ban, restriction"
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So far, the problem is, people are afraid of this topic. They do not know how to approach it, even though we all know someone or know of someone who has suffered it. We may have silently suffered from it ourselves, and if so, then we are the lucky ones still surviving. But others were not so lucky. Including some people you may have admired: Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain, Tony Scott, Hunter S. Thompson, Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway, to just name a few of the many celebrities, a few out of the millions of humanity that have gone. Many more may still go unreported and undiagnosed. Perhaps you have lost someone personally, and if not, it is more than likely that someone in your life is suffering from suicide depression-- and you may be missing the signs, or if you suspect something, you may have no idea where to start in order to offer them guidance and help. Everyone needs a little help, every now and then. The question is, DO YOU KNOW HOW TO HELP? Hindsight is always 20-20, but I for one am sick of going to memorial services, and hearing too little too late. I never want to hear anything like this again: "Now that I think about it, it seemed that he might have been depressed, but I wasn't sure, and I didn't know what to do." The power of ONE conversation can SAVE A LIFE, but we must be willing and ready to have that conversation. ARE YOU AWARE? Are you aware of all of the signs, all of the resources, all of the steps to take? Would you be ready to help, if/ when this occurs to someone in your own life? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone knew this? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was a common fact, taught in school systems and passed around as common knowledge? Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a difference in the lives of our friend, colleague, child, parent, stranger—anyone out of the millions who may be going through this? Think of the social change it would bring, the potential lives it would reach, and ultimately, save. Do you know what to do if you are feeling such things yourself? It's okay. We are all human. We will teach you how. That is the goal of BREAKING TABOO.
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Right now, suicide is a monster that no one wants to break—but, it is only through de-mystifying the monster by speaking out & banding together as a team that we can break it! Only through awareness can we SAVE LIVES. Because… Silence Kills. It is time to Break the Taboo. Sincerely,
Team Breaking Taboo
"Kill Silence. Save Lives." Project
