After National Mental Health Day, Alive and Running shares insights for maintaining health

Last Saturday was National Mental Health Day. The national holiday is to help raise awareness of Mental Health.

Ryan Nesbit, who helps Alive and Running said, “I am not a therapist or counselor, but I get to talk to people frequently that are having some mental health struggles.  We all will have mental health struggles, even me, and I think many people just need someone willing to listen to them.”

In 2023 between the ages 10-34 the second most leading cause of death was sucide. It was the fourth most leading cause of death for ages 35-44. It was the fifth most leading cause of death for ages 45-54. 

The hardest part of mental health is sharing, Nesbit said, “I fear that many humans think that asking for help with mental health shows weakness and that others will make fun of them or look down on them.  We all will need help with our mental health.  Asking for help is actually a sign of strength.”

In 2024, suicide replaced Covid 19 for the 10th leading cause of death. The first three causes were heart disease as number one, cancer as number two and unintentional injury as number three. There was an estimated 2.2 million suicide attempts, an increase by 1.5 times from 2023. The amount of people that had taken their lives were 48,824. 

The most confusing part of mental health, Nesbit said, is “mental health includes anxiety, sadness, feeling depressed, anger and fear, but mental health also includes joy, excitement, laughter, etc. Too many people think that mental health is just the ‘negative’ things on the list.”

Something that most people don’t know about mental health, Nesbit said, is “that every single human has mental health and that we need to take care of our mental health the same way that we take care of our physical health.  Mental health is actually more important than physical health.”

In 2025 their was a total of 49,069 deaths of suicide in the United States. The top locations were Texas with 4,417 suicides, California with 3,936 and Florida with 3,594 sucides. There were 554 suicides in Iowa.

Reasons people want to commit suicide, Nesbit said, “are different for each person and age/stage of life.  Some of the main reasons are a relationship ending, money issues, hopelessness about the future, being bullied, struggling to find any joy or hope in life and that they feel they are just a burden to their family/friends.”

The Trevor Project is one of the many non-profit organizations that was founded to pervent suicide. The Trevor Project helps people that are apart of the LGBTQ+ community that are suffering with mental heath, suicidal thoughts or crisis situations. 

Nesbit said, “Sometimes people die by suicide and those left behind are shocked because it appeared like that person had the ‘perfect’ life.  Many people that we admire and want to be are deeply struggling with their mental health.  Maybe they feel enormous pressure to be successful or popular. Sometimes there are no warning signs.”

Another organization to help pervent suicide is 988 Lifeline. The 988 was decided on July 16 2020 because it was an easy three digit dial to be able recall in a crisis and accessible to type in quickly. The hotline is also available 24 hours a day seven days a week. Since July 2022, the 988 hotline received 23.3 million contacts—15.8 million people called, 4.2 million people texted and 3.4 million people chatted.

Nesbit said, Alive and Running approaches a suicide situation by “always recommend that people call 988, the national suicide prevention lifeline. We also sometimes tell people to call 911 if the situation is life threatening.  We constantly tell teens that they should have five adult mentors that they would open up to emotionally if they are struggling.  We value every single human life and will do whatever we can as part of a team to help save lives.”

Nesbit’s favorite quote about mental emotional health is “I like me!” 

“That’s from John Candy in the movie ‘Trains, Planes and Automobiles.’  Everyone should watch that movie.  The quote essentially means that one of the keys to joy and happiness in life is if we actually like ourselves.  I fear that most people, especially teens, don’t like themselves.”

Nesbit said he chose this career path because “my best friend died by suicide when we were age 15. That was 36 years ago. Losing someone to suicide is horrible, and we want to try and impact and help save as many lives as possible. I almost died myself by suicide multiple times, but now my life is awesome. Young people need to know to ask for help, stay one more day, and life might actually turn out to be pretty awesome.”

A speaker who has collaborated with Alive and Running is John Kevin Hines a suicide pervention speaker who attempted suicide in 2000 by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at the age of 19. He’s one of 35 people that has survived from falling off the bridge. After he had jumped, he felt regret. The falling had lasted about four seconds with the impact of falling about 220 feet at 75 miles per hour. When he surfaced, a sea lion helped keep him afloat. This experience cost him his T12, L1 and L2 vertebrae on his back being shattered and his ankle being fractured. He suffered with lower body immobility for seven months. After multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation, he gained back the ability to walk.

Johnny Crowder is a keynote speaker who presents by himself. He had an attempted suicide. Crowder is also a survivor of abuse. He said, “I’ve been diagnosed with every mental illness you’ve ever heard of, and even a few you haven’t.” He has gone to therapy and tried medications to help. He has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar. He had texted 32 of his friends the same message. They all read the message differently. He had a friend ask him how he knew that the friend had needed that message. Crowder didn’t know that his friend had needed the message; he just had sent the positive text. This made Crowder realize that he wanted to begin speaking to the public.

Annie Moss Rodgers has collaborated with Alive and Running. Moss Rodgers lost her son to suicide. She talks to the public about her son’s life and he shares his life story with others and her grief she struggled through.

Nesbit said, “I have done over 900 presentations/trainings/keynotes. I am always looking for new audiences.”

Nesbit said his job is stressful. “I am ‘on call’ 24/7 because the mental health of humans does not take a break for holidays, vacations or weekends, but I 100% believe the reason I am on this planet is to try and help people.”