Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2024

63 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com We are living amidst an epidemic of loneliness. Phones and modern technology have us falsely believing that we are more connected than ever, but as a society, we’ve slipped further away from genuine connections and true friendships and replaced it with surface level, ‘picture perfect’ and desperately shallow interactions. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, loneliness has health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes a day. Further, loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30 percent, and about half of American adults have reported feelings of loneliness. But why now? Why are we talking about loneliness in this issue of Mount Pleasant Magazine? Because September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and it’s a month that means more to me than I wish it did. You see, when I was 17, I became a suicide survivor. To share my story, I’ve included an excerpt from an article I wrote for CharlestonMoms.com: ‘The month of my 18th birthday, my dad went missing. His phone went straight to voicemail even though we called repeatedly. Daily. His truck wasn’t parked at his house. His neighbors hadn’t seen or heard from him in weeks. He had seemingly disappeared. After my parents’ divorce, my sister and I saw our dad as often as we could and did our best to call and check in between our busy school work and extracurricular sports and activities. But we failed to truly see his loneliness, his isolation, his addiction and ultimately, his depression. My dad had a girlfriend at the time and would frequently go on trips and cruises where he would be unreachable. The first week or two of 2007 didn’t seem too unusual. We had spent a wonderful Christmas with our dad, and I can vividly remember telling my mom, “He seemed better than ever.” But after three weeks, a sinking feeling set in as everyone exhausted all resources trying to find him. And then one day, it happened. I walked in from high school and my mom said, Bridging the Gap BY KATIE FINCH health and wellness Editor’s Note: This article talks about suicide and may not be appropriate for all audiences. Suicide prevention: A daughter’s perspective

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