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Dearest DV family I am very saddened at the loss of one of one of my managers, at one of my jobs. I reached out to him on Tuesday morning and on Wednesday he decided it was time to be with our lord in heaven. I wrote him a text that he will never get to read, but my heart had to tell him and let him know how sad I am and how much I will miss him, and how I felt at the loss of such a good, kind and generous man. Sometimes your demons convince you it’s the only path left to take.... I will miss you dearly for the rest of my life Darren (aka Mr. Fix-it) God speed and may you finally enjoy peace in the arms of your angels. p.s. I asked my dad to fix a fine Italian dinner to welcome you in to heaven. Love Mary

Because of our history, there has never been a stigma in my family about seeking help from an expert, including a psychotherapist, a life coach and a hypnotherapist Amy Molloy Sun 8 Apr 2018 06.00 BST ‘ I have spent decades building a toolkit of rituals, strategies and coping mechanisms that arm me against the challenges of adulthood.’ Illustration: Andrea De Santis/Observer https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/08/i-never-took-my-mental-health-for-granted-now-im-reaping-the-rewards

In a tragic and disturbing trend, veterans are resorting to suicide on the grounds of VA facilities, VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin said last week. "As some of you may know, veterans tend to come to a VA -- either drive a car or come to the VA -- and actually suicide on our property," Shulkin said last Tuesday, stressing the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to do more to curb veteran suicides, estimated at 20 daily nationwide. "There are a number of reasons, not all of which I completely understand," for veterans to choose to end their lives at the VA, he said, "but one of them being they don't want their families to have to discover them." They know that if they're discovered at a VA, that we will handle it in an appropriate way and take care of them," Shulkin said in his opening remarks at the VA's annual "Innovation Day" at Georgetown University. Shulkin, who has made curbing veteran suicides his top clinical priority, did not state how many suicides are occurring at VA facilities, "but every day I am notified of more and more of these that happen. So we just have to do more, we have to do better, we have to innovate" in seeking out and assisting at-risk veterans. VA officials also did not put a number on what is known in the veterans community as "parking lot suicides." Shulkin "was referring to a number of tragic incidents that have been in the news," a VA spokesman said in an e-mail. "His point was that VA has more work to do when it comes to its suicide prevention efforts." Dying at the VA In an August 2016 incident reported by the Suffolk County police in New York, a 76-year-old Navy veteran died by suicide in the parking lot of the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, where he had been a patient. Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, Long Island, who also was a former police officer, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside Building 92, the nursing home at the medical center, police said. The reason for the suicide was not immediately known, but The New York Times reported that two people connected to the hospital who spoke on grounds of anonymity said the veteran had been frustrated he was unable to see an emergency-room physician for reasons related to his mental health. The Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center later said Kaisen had not been denied treatment. In November 2016, the body of John Toombs, a former Army sergeant and Afghanistan veteran, was found hanged in a vacant building on the grounds of the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Toombs left behind a video in which he said, "Earlier today, I was discharged for trivial reasons. They knew the extent of my problems. When I asked for help, they opened up a Pandora's box inside of me and kicked me out the door." In February this year, the body of 63-year-old Navy veteran Paul Shuping was found in the parking garage of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Carolina six days after he took his own life. Police said Shuping used a .22-caliber rifle to kill himself inside a parked car in the garage. Of particular concern to the VA was the death in March this year of Hank Brandon Lee, 35, a former Marine lance corporal who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He fatally overdosed on fentanyl while under lockdown at the Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatric facility in Brockton, Massachusetts. His family has demanded to know how he obtained the drugs. Risk of Opioid Abuse Last week, the office of the VA's Inspector General released a report stating that veterans using the VA's Choice program allowing private-sector health care face a "significant risk" of opioid abuse in the treatment of chronic pain. Policies in place at the VA to reduce the number of opioid prescriptions do not necessarily apply to private-sector doctors, the IG said. In a report titled "Opioid Prescribing to High-Risk Veterans Receiving VA Purchased Care," the IG said there is an overall lack of communication between the VA and private-sector doctors on what drugs should be prescribed. "Veterans receiving opioid prescriptions from VA-referred clinical settings may be at greater risk for overdose and other harm because medication information is not being consistently shared," said VA Inspector General Michael Missal in a statement. "That has to change," he said. "Health-care providers serving veterans should be following consistent guidelines for prescribing opioids and sharing information that ensures quality care for high-risk veterans." The report highlighted the main problem: "Under Choice, prescriptions for veterans who are authorized care through Choice are required to be filled at a VA pharmacy," but "a veteran can choose to fill the prescription outside the VA and pay for the prescriptions with his or her own funds." The report said, "With the expansion of community partnerships, a significant risk exists for patients who are prescribed opioid prescriptions outside of VA." However, Shulkin said last week at the Innovation forum that "the fundamental way to fix the system is to give veterans more choice." Extending Choice On Saturday, Shulkin joined President Trump at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club for the signing of a $2.1 billion bill extending the Veterans Choice Program for another six months while Congress and the VA work on reforms. Shulkin said last week that the veteran suicide rate is "absolutely unacceptable" and briefly outlined the VA's commitment to bringing the rate down. In 2013, the VA released a study on suicides from 1999 to 2010, which showed that roughly 22 veterans were dying by suicide per day, or one every 65 minutes. The report relied on data from 20 states. In August 2016, the VA released what was billed as the "most comprehensive analysis of veteran suicide rates" ever conducted, which examined more than 55 million veterans' records from 1979 to 2014 from all 50 states. "The current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 veterans a day died from suicide" -- or one every 72 minutes, the report said. The data also showed that only six of the 20 veterans who die in the U.S. each day are enrolled in the VA and only three are in active treatment, indicating a need for more outreach by the VA. The VA's report said that about 65 percent of all veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older, and veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults, a decrease from 22 percent in 2010. Increasing Suicide Rates Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. "After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans," the 2016 report said. Since 2001, the rate of suicide among veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent, the report said. The report went on to list a number of new measures on suicide prevention that the VA had in place or planned to implement before the end of 2016. The steps included a toll-free Veterans Crisis Line (1-800-273-8255, press 1); the placement of Suicide Prevention Coordinators at all VA Medical Centers and large outpatient facilities; and improvements in case management and tracking. The VA was also working to ensure same-day access for veterans with urgent mental health needs at more than 1,000 VA facilities by the end of 2016, the report said. In fiscal 2015, more than 1.6 million veterans received mental health treatment from the VA. In addition, the VA was hiring more than 60 new crisis intervention responders for the Veterans Crisis Line. Each responder was to receive "intensive training on a wide variety of topics in crisis intervention, substance use disorders, screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment," the report said. Richard.Sisk@Military.com http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/08/14/parking-lot-suicides-roil-va-hospitals.html?ESRC=dod_170818.nl

Prescriptions have doubled in a decade, but very little is known about the effect of taking SSRIs for years and years. Is it a lifesaver or a happiness trap? Aida Edemariam Saturday 6 May 2017 08.30 BST https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/06/dont-know-who-am-antidepressant-long-term-use

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-10/guest-post-smoke-and-mirrors-running-out Guest Post: The Smoke And Mirrors Are Running Out Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/10/2013 13:17 -0400 Originally posted at Monty Pelerin's World blog, Those who believe the economy is recovering are ignorant of the facts. Other than the Great Depression no US recovery (and I don’t believe we are in a recovery) taken longer. Eventually it may take more than a decade like the 1930s. Or perhaps it will be like Japan which is in its third decade of “recovery.” Politics and Economics The truth is that our economy is spent, exhausted and filled with misallocations and distortions made much worse by government interventions. There is no recovery, nor will there be one until a massive purge (usually referred to as a depression) occurs. This event will result in bankruptcies that release scarce, misallocated physical capital from unproductive and unwanted areas to places where it is needed and can be utilized efficiently. Rather than allow this pre-condition to an economic recovery and a growing, efficient economy, politicians want to prevent it. They use smoke, mirrors and propaganda (lies) to hide the reality of our sick economy. Their obfuscations continue, but the effective life is limited. What politicians do to the country beyond their term in office means nothing to them. Their concern is only for themselves and the short-term that exists between elections. As a result they rob from the future to hide the true conditions of the present. Those still unborn will be paying for their criminal economic charade. Economic Conditions So how bad is the economy? Michael Shedlock, “Mish” is among the more prolific as well as more incisive financial analysts on the web. His site is always worth reading, but a recent post is essential. To impress upon you the seriousness of the situation and to encourage you to read his post, I quote some of his points (anything in red is my emphasis): … we’re doing the same thing that led to the 2008 blowup — we’ve learned exactly nothing. In real terms our GDP is in fact contracting by about $500 billion a quarter, after adjusting for debt expansion — that’s $2 trillion a year, more or less. In terms of debt and inflation, Mish determined that: … we’re contracting in purchasing power adjusted for new debt at more than 10% over the last four quarters. The debt to GDP ratio reached the highest in history just before the 2008 collapse. It remains in this record territory and is just as unsustainable now as it was in 2008: … the absolute level of debt to GDP, however, refuses to go under 350%; it has now started rising again but is entirely coming from two sectors — business credit and the Federal Government. Consumers reduced their debt levels, although probably not enough. They are still strapped with more debt than many can properly service. Consumption, as a result, has dampened as more income goes to debt service and less debt is added. That appears to be a condition that should prevail for several more years. Remember, the announced reason for the loose Fed policy was to drive consumption. As Mish observed: … this so-called “expansion” driven by ZIRP and deficits has a use-by date that has expired and we are now trying to evade the fact that the fish is well into the “stinks up the joint” stage. Obviously, it has not worked. Read Mish’s article to view most of his observations in chart format. Desperate Government Although Mish does not make this point, I believe it is a relevant one. Government continues to borrow and spend in an effort to hide the truly rotten condition of the economy. This action was begun under the guise of stimulating a recovery. It is obvious that it has not worked. It was obvious to some that it could never work. Despite its obvious failure, theft from future generations continues. There are two main reasons for this, in my opinion: To hide from the people how desperate the economic situation truly is. To enable government to continue its current level of spending which cannot be funded via tax revenues or real market Treasury sales (certainly not at current interest rates; perhaps at no reasonable interest rate). Government has exhausted its faux solutions. Nothing they do, except reduce spending, can help the economy. Reducing spending means another Great Depression and the exposure of the economic scam they have been running. Thus, spending will likely continue as will the Federal Reserve enabling, euphemistically called quantitative easing. A Fly In The Ointment There is a limit on how long the fraud continues. The government is in what is known as a debt death spiral. They must borrow money to repay prior debts. It is as if they are using their Visa Card to make an American Express payment. The rate of new debt additions dwarf any rate of growth the economy can possibly achieve. The end is certain, only its timing is unknown. Once interest rates begin to rise, and they will, it is game over. Short-term Treasury interest rates are normally 3% with no inflation. In an inflationary environment, a premium for expected inflation is tacked on to that 3%. Under today’s conditions, ST Treasuries could easily rise to 6 – 9%. The low end of the range represents a rise in rates of more than 5.5%. If the debt outstanding, most of which is short-term, is $17 Trillion, that would been a rise in interest expense of close to a Trillion dollars annually. That would be added to deficits which are expected to be around a Trillion dollars per year. The high end of the range would produce a deficit in excess of $2.5 Trillion per year. At the low end of the interest rate range, deficits would exceed more than 10% of GDP, putting us right up there with the sick European countries. At the high end, we would be like Greece without its glorious history and climate. It gets worse than the above numbers convey. When interest rates rise, the economy will contract and probably severely. Then cries for more stimulus would be heard. An additional Trillion dollars or so would likely be added to the deficit, although many would want multiples of that. In either case, we become Greece on steroids. Another Fly In The Ointment There are those who say the US government cannot go broke because it has a printing press. They argue that the level of deficits don’t matter because the US can just print more money. Monetary fraud, which this is, also has a limit. Only paper and ink limit the amount of currency the government can print. However, government does not control the value of the money which is determined by the public. Printing money depreciates the value of money (otherwise known as inflation). Market forces (economic actors) determine what this value is via supply and demand interaction. When money is expected to buy less tomorrow than it does today, people will spend it sooner. This drives inflation even higher. Ludwig von Mises described this end phase as a crack-up boom: Credit expansion can bring about a temporary boom. But such a fictitious prosperity must end in a general depression of trade, a slump. The boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited. The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration. Mises spent much of his life studying money, the business cycle and inflation. He correctly identified the choice that now stands before our political class (my emboldening added): There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. In the event of the total catastrophe, savings and fixed income become worthless. The middle class of a country is wiped out in terms of wealth. Poverty abounds except at the top where those with large wealth and insider information are able to protect themselves and enhance their real wealth. Inflation does not destroy wealth; it merely redistributes it. How Does It End? Neither ending is attractive, but opportunities for one or the other have been squandered. Sadly, the decision as to which route is taken is in the hands of our criminal political class. Their behavior suggests that they will do whatever it takes to continue the charade. They want to maintain their scam for as long as they can.. If they are successful, a crack-up boom is coming. History shows this ending in most all countries in our condition.