JD Schramm: Break the silence for suicide survivors — Transcript

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1. 0:15From all outward appearances,
2. 0:18John had everything going for him.
3. 0:21He had just signed the contract
4. 0:23to sell his New York apartment
5. 0:25at a six-figure profit,
6. 0:27and he'd only owned it for five years.
7. 0:30The school where he graduated from with his master's
8. 0:32had just offered him a teaching appointment,
9. 0:34which meant not only a salary,
10. 0:36but benefits for the first time in ages.
11. 0:40And yet, despite everything going really well for John,
12. 0:43he was struggling,
13. 0:45fighting addiction and a gripping depression.
14. 0:50On the night of June 11th, 2003,
15. 0:52he climbed up to the edge
16. 0:54of the fence on the Manhattan Bridge
17. 0:57and he leaped to the treacherous waters below.
18. 1:02Remarkably --
19. 1:04no, miraculously --
20. 1:06he lived.
21. 1:09The fall shattered his right arm,
22. 1:12broke every rib that he had,
23. 1:14punctured his lung,
24. 1:16and he drifted in and out of consciousness
25. 1:18as he drifted down the East River,
26. 1:21under the Brooklyn Bridge
27. 1:23and out into the pathway of the Staten Island Ferry,
28. 1:26where passengers on the ferry
29. 1:28heard his cries of pain,
30. 1:30contacted the boat's captain
31. 1:32who contacted the Coast Guard
32. 1:34who fished him out of the East River
33. 1:36and took him to Bellevue Hospital.
34. 1:39And that's actually where our story begins.
35. 1:42Because once John committed himself
36. 1:44to putting his life back together --
37. 1:47first physically, then emotionally,
38. 1:50and then spiritually --
39. 1:52he found that there were very few resources available
40. 1:55to someone who has attempted to end their life
41. 1:57in the way that he did.
42. 2:00Research shows
43. 2:02that 19 out of 20 people
44. 2:04who attempt suicide
45. 2:06will fail.
46. 2:09But the people who fail
47. 2:11are 37 times more likely to succeed
48. 2:14the second time.
49. 2:17This truly is
50. 2:19an at-risk population
51. 2:21with very few resources to support them.
52. 2:24And what happens
53. 2:26when people try to assemble themselves back into life,
54. 2:29because of our taboos around suicide,
55. 2:31we're not sure what to say,
56. 2:33and so quite often we say nothing.
57. 2:36And that furthers the isolation
58. 2:38that people like John found themselves in.
59. 2:43I know John's story very well
60. 2:45because I'm John.
61. 2:49And this is, today,
62. 2:52the first time in any sort of public setting
63. 2:55I've ever acknowledged
64. 2:57the journey that I have been on.
65. 3:01But after having lost a beloved teacher in 2006
66. 3:04and a good friend last year to suicide,
67. 3:08and sitting last year at TEDActive,
68. 3:11I knew that I needed to step out of my silence
69. 3:14and past my taboos
70. 3:16to talk about an idea worth spreading --
71. 3:19and that is that people
72. 3:21who have made the difficult choice
73. 3:24to come back to life
74. 3:26need more resources and need our help.
75. 3:30As the Trevor Project says, it gets better.
76. 3:33It gets way better.
77. 3:36And I'm choosing to come out
78. 3:38of a totally different kind of closet today
79. 3:40to encourage you, to urge you,
80. 3:43that if you are someone
81. 3:45who has contemplated or attempted suicide,
82. 3:49or you know somebody who has,
83. 3:52talk about it; get help.
84. 3:55It's a conversation worth having
85. 3:58and an idea worth spreading.
86. 4:01Thank you.
87. 4:03(Applause)