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Health & Fitness

Healthwise: Reversal of long-standing suicidal behavior offers new option for treatment From: mycentraljersey.com

By Valerie Minard
When Dr. Harold Koenig, met with one of his long-term suicidal patients, he did something most doctors might not do-- he prayed for his patient-- imploring God to help her make it just one more day.   But instead, he got more than he bargained for.  Her mental illness cleared completely and she stopped taking medication.  “By golly, a miracle occurred,” said Koenig, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.
Although there are over 9 million suicide prevention programs listed on the Internet, suicides have only increased.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “More people now die of suicide than in car accidents.”
Similarly, the suicide rate for U.S. military rose to a record of 349 deaths.  This surpassed American combat deaths in Afghanistan during the same year.  In a recent report, the Army concluded that a service-wide mental toughness suicide-prevention program serving over 1 million members has not been effective.
Given those sobering statistics, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at how Dr. Koenig helped his patient. Prayer has been used by many individuals to find relief from deep grief, depression or other mental trauma throughout the ages. In fact, using prayer to combat suicidal tendencies goes all the way back to the Bible.  When the Prophet Elijah felt overwhelmed with fear of failure and guilt--thinking death was his only option -- prayer lifted him out of that mental darkness, and he discovered divine strength to forgive himself and go forward with his life.
Perhaps that divine connection may be just the necessary ingredient to dispel the dark demons of suicidal thoughts today.  It shifts thought above the morbidity of matter-based thinking to the divine -- highlighting man’s spiritual nature as inseparable from divine Life, God.  What ever one’s concept of God, is it too much of a stretch to think that this divine power can speak to our heart, remove the darkness that blinds us, and reveal specific solutions to life’s insurmountable problems?

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