The Lion's Pride Volume 10 (Spring 2018) | Page 41

with it on their own until the darkness is unbearable, and they take their
life. As I later read, “a survey of more than 4,000 first responders found
that 6.6 percent had attempted suicide, which is more than 10 times the
rate in the general population, according to a 2015 article published in
the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. Friends, family and
coworkers reported 132 first-responder suicides nationwide in 2016 to
the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, an Arizona-based nonprofit
that promotes better mental health support for first responders. The
voluntary reports are some of the only data available on the deaths and
likely capture only about 40 percent of them” (Venteicher).
I thank God for that argument. Had that horrific battle not taken
place my husband would not be here today.
We stayed married on the condition that he would seek professional
help. Getting a counselor that actually understood him was a challenge.
While a lot of them specialize in the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) for veterans, they are not able to grasp the intensity of the
situations that the firefighters are expected to cope with on a daily basis.
Over the next year my husband started antidepressants and while that
helped stabilize his mood, it did not calm the storm that was raging
inside of him. Two years later my husband responded to a call that
shook him to his core and once again made him question his existence.
There were other calls in between, but between the antidepressants and
myself becoming his therapist things improved. I knew that something