“You either have someone come flush the pills for you or I have to call an ambulance,” my therapist tells me after a recent failed suicide attempt. It is the middle of April and I have been quarantining in a studio apartment alone with two friends down the hall, people whose phone numbers I list as emergency contacts in case things escalate. Outside quarantine, inpatient means time spent in a hospital under the watchful eye of medical staff. Inside quarantine, inpatient means taking time away from health-care workers dealing with COVID-19 around the clock.
“In eastern Europe there was this orphanage with a lot of kids and only a few nuns to run it and these children had their diapers changed, they were fed,” says Katie Augustyn, a clinical social worker situated in Chicago. “Their basic needs were met but nobody cuddled them and what they found was these kids stopped crying, became listless, started to lose weight, and eventually some of them died.”
With the world in midst of hellfire and despair, marginalized people are especially likely to feel the weight of suicidal ideations. Currently, there are many free resources accessible for those wishing to silence negative thoughts. Howard Brown Health Center offers free workshops for the LGBTQ community in Chicago, Psychology Today has a list of support groups on their site, and the first transgender suicide hotline is now up and running. As the future remains unclear regarding many people’s employment statuses, health-care professionals are trying to make resources accessible for many who need it.
