Via Deborah Teramis Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A long piece with a simple message: human connection makes a difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Originally shared by ****<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think people die when they feel completely alone.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most pivotal response was sent by a study participant who lived in an apartment in San Francisco\u2019s Haight-Ashbury district. The man, who 18 months earlier had written a \u201ckiss-off\u201d letter, now described himself as a broken vase held together by his own hands. His letter spanned five single-spaced typed pages and read as if it had taken days to write. Forty years later, Motto could remember the first sentence: \u201cYou are the most persistent son-of-a-bitch I\u2019ve ever encountered, so you must really be sincere in your interest in me.\u201d There it was, a perfect encapsulation of the study\u2019s aims. Motto called it \u201cthe bingo letter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n After about four years, Motto and his team had enough data to determine that their work was unprecedented in the history of suicide research. In the first two years following hospitalization, the suicide rate of the control group was nearly twice as high as that of the contact group. And it wasn\u2019t only that no other experiment had ever been able to show a reduction in suicide deaths. Motto had also demonstrated something more profound: People who attempted suicide and wanted nothing to do with the mental health system could still be reached.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n