Speaker 1: By Bill Cunningham, the Great American, of course. So I
Speaker 1: had a talker gone last week about young American's nineteen
Speaker 1: year old trying to commit suicide. It was an incredible
Speaker 1: story in which this nineteen year old was extremely depressed,
Speaker 1: seemingly on drugs, and he jumped off the Golden Gate
Speaker 1: Bridge in San Francisco, hit the water at about seventy
Speaker 1: five miles an hour, fell about two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five feet about twenty two story building hit the water,
Speaker 1: and because of the intervention of a sea lion, confirmed
Speaker 1: by the coast Guard, the sea lion picked up his
Speaker 1: body and kept it afloat till they arrived. The unbelievable story,
Speaker 1: but it brought up the fact that April twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: in the month of April is Fentanyl Awareness Month is
Speaker 1: declared by the FEDS. And a person that deals with
Speaker 1: the falloff from all this is our fine Hamlety County Coroner,
Speaker 1: Doctor Lastmi Somarco and doctor Samarco. Welcome again to the
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham Show. So, first of all, you have available
Speaker 1: to tell you facts and statistics about suicide, not just
Speaker 1: in Hamilton County, but because you do autopsies you're pick
Speaker 1: from around the other counties. Tell the American people the
Speaker 1: facts about so many Americans committing suicide.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this is a really touching, difficult topic
Speaker 2: to discuss, whether you're talking to parents or school groups
Speaker 2: or anybody. But I think that, you know, the more
Speaker 2: information we have, the more we can help these kids.
Speaker 2: And we noticed March we had an unusual number of
Speaker 2: suicides come to our office. Most of them were from
Speaker 2: Hamilton County, but we did have a couple from our
Speaker 2: adjacent counties. And what's really disturbing about it is is
Speaker 2: I think we average about eight suicides a month overall.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're usually in the range of about one
Speaker 2: hundred a year, but this was seventeen, and that's double
Speaker 2: our normal number. And the age spread was a lot
Speaker 2: younger than we normally see. Yeah, we had a twelve
Speaker 2: year old and a fourteen year old and we're looking
Speaker 2: at a thirteen year old as we're not sure if
Speaker 2: that's a suicide or not, but it was gunshot related
Speaker 2: and most of I think we had one person in
Speaker 2: the fifties and one person in their forties, but everybody
Speaker 2: else was younger than that. And that's alarming because that's
Speaker 2: that's not what we usually see. And you know, we
Speaker 2: talk about mental health issues, and I would just love
Speaker 2: to get rid of the whole stigma around mental health,
Speaker 2: because you know, your brain is an organ just like
Speaker 2: any other organ in your body, and it can develop
Speaker 2: chemical imbalances or electrical imbalances, and you know, how is
Speaker 2: that going to manifest. Maybe it'll manifest like a seizure,
Speaker 2: or maybe it'll managas like mental health issues. So we
Speaker 2: had to just start calling it brain health. And I
Speaker 2: heard this. I didn't coin this, believe me. I heard
Speaker 2: this at a pediatric lecturer I went to once, and
Speaker 2: I really really resonated with me. And you know, my
Speaker 2: dad practiced psychiatry in this area for fifty years, and
Speaker 2: you know, we've we've talked about this, and I've talked
Speaker 2: to him about the suicides and the depression and clinical
Speaker 2: depression and what we're seeing and and he said, you know,
Speaker 2: kids nowadays have a lot different but a lot more triggers,
Speaker 2: and and he just shakes his head sometimes and you know,
Speaker 2: I think, you know ects. We've talked about treatments for
Speaker 2: clinical depression. Most psychiatrists that I have talked to have
Speaker 2: said nothing works as well as ECTS in those intractable
Speaker 2: clinical depressed people that they've treated for years pharmacologically but
Speaker 2: haven't been able to make a breakthrough. But this all
Speaker 2: goes back to, you know, what are the triggers for suicide?
Speaker 2: And for so many people, they're so different, you know,
Speaker 2: and the different age groups. I mean, we talked about
Speaker 2: social pressures and social media and things that have really
Speaker 2: caused some distress for young people. We've talked about job
Speaker 2: related things, We've talked you know, we looked at COVID.
Speaker 2: COVID to you know, four years ago, five years ago
Speaker 2: was an incredibly isolating period of time for this country
Speaker 2: and for the people of this country. And you know,
Speaker 2: those people that were that were already sort of on
Speaker 2: the edge and needing the extra help and then being
Speaker 2: isolated made it very difficult for them. And you know,
Speaker 2: we've had so many kids in their twenties this month
Speaker 2: and twenties and thirties, and you look back you think, well,
Speaker 2: you know, how old were they five years ago, And
Speaker 2: were they seniors and juniors in high school? Were they
Speaker 2: freshmen and sophomores in college? And you know, my son
Speaker 2: was a senior in high school and he had no graduation,
Speaker 2: and he had no senior prom. He started as a
Speaker 2: freshman in a college in a dorm where six people
Speaker 2: were supposed to be in the suite and there were
Speaker 2: only two of them. And the dining halls had one
Speaker 2: share per table. You couldn't even sit with anybody to
Speaker 2: have a meal. There were no clubs, there were no
Speaker 2: intermural sports. There was nothing. And you had to wear
Speaker 2: a mask even when you were outdoors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's ridiculous, now, is there? When you think about
Speaker 1: America today, I hear about cyber bullying, I hear about
Speaker 1: revenge porn. I hear about young teenagers, twenty somethings isolated.
Speaker 1: I was watching I went out to dinner the other
Speaker 1: night at a downtown restaurant.
Speaker 3: I looked to my right.
Speaker 1: There was three couples sitting there, seemingly late teens made
Speaker 1: they might have been sixteen years old. And I watched
Speaker 1: them for a few minutes, and they were all on
Speaker 1: their phones in front of them and weren't communicating. I
Speaker 1: guess they were on a date. It looked like a
Speaker 1: dressed the girls are wearing. They might have been seventeen
Speaker 1: years old, and there's little communication sitting at a table
Speaker 1: looking at each other. And the way to communicate today
Speaker 1: is not about picking up the phone and talking where
Speaker 1: one can understand the nuances of a conversation, accepting, not accepting,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. And now young people are told
Speaker 1: by the culture that there's good and bad, right and wrong.
Speaker 1: However it's taught through social media. What role does social
Speaker 1: media play and the idea that you're isolated, you're stupid,
Speaker 1: you're fat, you're ugly, whatever term might be used. And
Speaker 1: the person, especially maybe girls who are going through lots
Speaker 1: of things in their life anyway in their teenage years,
Speaker 1: that they can start to believe that my life's worthless.
Speaker 1: It'd be better if I wasn't alive anymore. That wasn't
Speaker 1: the case ten twenty thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: Correct, No, absolutely not. I think I think everybody that's
Speaker 2: talking about it is really hitting it on the head,
Speaker 2: which is social media is isolating because a lot of
Speaker 2: these people are looking for validation on the number of
Speaker 2: likes they get or you know, the number of people
Speaker 2: that have viewed their posts, and that somehow validates them
Speaker 2: and what they're doing. Instead of hanging out with their
Speaker 2: friends and having conversations and you know, I found that
Speaker 2: out in my own house when when my daughter was
Speaker 2: younger and they were in high school. I remember the
Speaker 2: over friends came over. They were sitting on the couch,
Speaker 2: the three of them, and they were all three of
Speaker 2: their phones.
Speaker 3: And I was like, will you do it?
Speaker 2: You get your friends over, You're supposed to be hanging
Speaker 2: out talking to each other. What are you doing all
Speaker 2: your phones?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And I took the phones away. So it was not
Speaker 2: a very popular mom, but I took all three posts
Speaker 2: away from them and I said, enjoy your time together,
Speaker 2: because this is what you get. But honestly, it's it
Speaker 2: is a huge problem across the world. I just came
Speaker 2: back from India and you know, everybody has a cell
Speaker 2: phone there there. Work show drivers have a cell phone there,
Speaker 2: and they have massive networks, and they're all on their
Speaker 2: phones and they're looking at their social media and they're
Speaker 2: on their Internet and they're getting their tidbits of information
Speaker 2: here and there, right or wrong, from the inner and
Speaker 2: from social media. And it's just scary because it's not
Speaker 2: just our country, it's across the world and we have
Speaker 2: just radically changed how we all communicate or don't communicate.
Speaker 3: You know, and I think it's unchangeable.
Speaker 1: I can't maybe every now and then, you were there
Speaker 1: for those three girls saying, take away your phones.
Speaker 3: Talk to each other. They don't know what to say.
Speaker 3: That's not going to change.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's accelerating when I see moms and dads
Speaker 1: buying nine, ten to eleven year old's devices where they
Speaker 1: communicate through the device and they don't communicate with human beings,
Speaker 1: which causes an array of socially debaucherous condition including the
Speaker 1: fact that dating doesn't take place. Boys live in a
Speaker 1: world of porn and online gambling, and girls resist getting
Speaker 1: a relationship because they're hurt and there's no dating going on.
Speaker 1: Girls get married at the age of thirty and boys
Speaker 1: get married at the age of thirty two, which used
Speaker 1: to be you know that that was old.
Speaker 3: Now it's young.
Speaker 1: And so doctor Somarco County Corner, Is there a way
Speaker 1: to correct this or is it simply arming people with
Speaker 1: the information? May God grant me the patience to accept
Speaker 1: the things I can't change, the strength to change the
Speaker 1: things that could be changed, and the wisdom to know
Speaker 1: the difference. And so if we can't change the culture
Speaker 1: and change society, that's not gonna I would like to
Speaker 1: think we could change it.
Speaker 3: I don't think we can.
Speaker 1: What can you equip parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: with to stop the suicides from happening? When a person
Speaker 1: feels so low and their life is meaningless, what do.
Speaker 2: You do in it? Well, first of all, there's no
Speaker 2: going back. I mean that horse has long left the gate,
Speaker 2: and I wish I could go back to flip phones,
Speaker 2: I mean, just foot phones. You can still make your
Speaker 2: phone calls and do some crude texting, but you can't
Speaker 2: get on social media and one another. That's not gonna
Speaker 2: happen anymore. But so we have to figure out how
Speaker 2: to deal with this, and we have to do it
Speaker 2: quickly because there are more and more and more apps
Speaker 2: being offered. There are more and more, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: we have dating apps. And we were dating, you know,
Speaker 2: when we were going out with people, and now people
Speaker 2: meet their partners on dating apps. And I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that's necessarily wrong or worse than meeting somebody at a
Speaker 2: bar or something, but you know, if you meet somebody
Speaker 2: at the gym, or if you meet somebody at a
Speaker 2: social event, you're you've got face to face time with them.
Speaker 2: You can read body language, you can you know, feel
Speaker 2: the inflection of their voice when they're talking. I mean
Speaker 2: there's a lot more parameters, a lot more variables that
Speaker 2: you can decide if somebody's right for you or if
Speaker 2: you want to see them again, versus just swiping left
Speaker 2: or swiping right. And I think we as parents are
Speaker 2: afraid to set rules anymore. And I and I've put
Speaker 2: myself in that too. I mean, there are times when
Speaker 2: I want to say something and but you know, thinking, well,
Speaker 2: you know they are adults. Now do I say something?
Speaker 2: Do I not say something? And I think you have
Speaker 2: to go with your instincts as as a parent and
Speaker 2: say is this going to benefit your child? Is this
Speaker 2: going to help them think it through? And have to decide.
Speaker 2: And you know, having grandparents in your life, I think
Speaker 2: is really important. Having other family members that can show
Speaker 2: that they care about you and stay connected with you,
Speaker 2: even at a periperal level, just to know that you've
Speaker 2: got a network of people that you can go to,
Speaker 2: if not just your coaches and you know, your religious
Speaker 2: leaders in your community, or you know that that person
Speaker 2: that's in your music class or your dance class or
Speaker 2: something I think that having kids more involved with and
Speaker 2: I know there's soccer, there's hockey, there's all these other
Speaker 2: sports too, but I think some of the arts are
Speaker 2: are important just for a balance and for kids to
Speaker 2: be exposed to people with different interests and different temperaments.
Speaker 2: And I don't have a solution. I just know that
Speaker 2: we've become we've become more isolated, and it's showing. And
Speaker 2: these are young people. These are young you know, people
Speaker 2: that have the capability of being really productive members of
Speaker 2: our society and you know, possibly even the next president,
Speaker 2: but we won't know if we can't get them to
Speaker 2: the finish line.
Speaker 1: So the answer is, the answer is communication. And the
Speaker 1: idea of a twelve year old or a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old or eighteen year old or nineteen year old killing
Speaker 1: themselves decades ago that simply didn't happen except if you
Speaker 1: were profoundly mentally ill suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with effective components.
Speaker 1: But today it is you're sounding the alarm this afternoon
Speaker 1: because you're saying, is it is a problem that's accelerating
Speaker 1: in southwest Ohio, that it's going to get worse before
Speaker 1: it gets better.
Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, it looks that way right now, and I
Speaker 2: hope that this is just a weird month and we're
Speaker 2: not going to have any more months like this. But
Speaker 2: we already have two suicides in the month of April,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's only been a few days. So
Speaker 2: I'm raising the alarm because I think that bringing awareness
Speaker 2: to people looking around at other people, those who you
Speaker 2: work with, those you go to school with, those you
Speaker 2: live with, I think, just take an extra look, just
Speaker 2: you know, put yourself in their shoes, see if there's
Speaker 2: something you can do to lighten the load for some people,
Speaker 2: or you know, just talk. Just be there so that
Speaker 2: they can communicate with you if they communicate. That's the
Speaker 2: other thing. You stop looking at your phone. Yeah, a
Speaker 2: lot of friends and people around you that you can
Speaker 2: look up. Don't look down, look up, look up and
Speaker 2: around you. I mean, you know, look at the flooding
Speaker 2: out there today. Talk to people that are being affected.
Speaker 2: I mean, volunteer. There's a lot going on in your community.
Speaker 3: Get out there, volunteer.
Speaker 1: I could not imagine when I was eight seventeen or
Speaker 1: eighteen years old on a date with little Penny Asbroc
Speaker 1: that I'd be on I'd be looking down and not
Speaker 1: communicating with her, and girls want communication. I think girls
Speaker 1: have a lot more problems in life than boys. I
Speaker 1: think it's much harder to be a girl or a
Speaker 1: woman than a man or a boy. That's my that's
Speaker 1: my sexist opinion. It's hard to be a woman and
Speaker 1: a girl compared to a boy or a man.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. I think we're sounding an alarm.
Speaker 1: That suicides are way up and that it's a big problem,
Speaker 1: and parents have got to look to the left, look
Speaker 1: to the right, pick up cues from their child and
Speaker 1: from the loved one that something's amiss, something's not right.
Speaker 2: And the message you know, to you you were talking
Speaker 2: about the social media and these kids, and you know
Speaker 2: how some of these kids have committed suicide because of
Speaker 2: what's posted about them and whatnot. You know that also
Speaker 2: comes from a sense of self worth And what's happened
Speaker 2: to that? Have we not armed our children with a
Speaker 2: sense of value and instead they're looking for social media
Speaker 2: for this validation. Do they not have a sense of
Speaker 2: their own worth? And where along the way has we
Speaker 2: missed that ball? And how do we go about fixing
Speaker 2: it so that we're arming our kids with confidence and
Speaker 2: the sense of I am a good person who's going
Speaker 2: to do great things in this life. I just need
Speaker 2: a chance.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And of course fentanyl is another thing. It's terrible fentyls
Speaker 1: and drugs that that the little pill may say xan x,
Speaker 1: but it may not be xanax unless you get it
Speaker 1: from Adrian pharmacy, and that the fentanyls in marijuana powder, cocaine.
Speaker 3: That's another issue.
Speaker 2: Well, that's another thing though, is that people reach for
Speaker 2: these escapes, you know, when when they don't when they
Speaker 2: can't find it on their own and in their in
Speaker 2: their own little environment, and they're looking for a way
Speaker 2: to escape some horrible situation or feeling. And you know,
Speaker 2: drugs are drugs are an easy way to escape. Alcohol
Speaker 2: is an easy way to escape. And you know, of
Speaker 2: course those things just make depression worse. I mean, alcohol
Speaker 2: is a depressant, So I mean that doesn't it's it's
Speaker 2: not a you know, it's not a it's not a
Speaker 2: long term fix. And you know, we always say suicide
Speaker 2: is is a very impulsive most of the time, it's
Speaker 2: not even a solution, but it's an act that you
Speaker 2: can't come back from. You can't fix it. You know,
Speaker 2: whatever might be the problem, you never get a chance
Speaker 2: to fix, so solution for a long term problem, and
Speaker 2: I think that I think I just wanted to make
Speaker 2: sure people were aware that, Hey, you know, we're kind
Speaker 2: of seeing this out there in the community. And you know,
Speaker 2: if you look at some of the statistics about high
Speaker 2: school kids, you know, one in twelve either has attempted
Speaker 2: or considered suicide. I mean, that's an alarming number. And
Speaker 2: that's an old number. I don't know what it is
Speaker 2: even now. That was from five years ago, and you know,
Speaker 2: and that in itself ought to be alarming to everybody.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think it's I think it's even
Speaker 2: a smaller number now unfortunately, or a bigger number however
Speaker 2: you want to look at it at the ratio. But
Speaker 2: here it is. We've got young adults in our region
Speaker 2: who are taking their own lives and are desperate enough
Speaker 2: and find this world a horrible place to live in
Speaker 2: that they don't want to be here anymore.
Speaker 1: Doctor Samarca, you're the best of what you do. Thanks
Speaker 1: for being there, and once again, thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Willie God bless it.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with more. If you have a classroom with
Speaker 1: twenty five, for example, there's two or three kids on
Speaker 1: average in that classroom who thought about killing themselves. Let's continue.
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham, News Radio seven hundred WLW