{"id":8508,"date":"2025-09-15T19:52:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=8508"},"modified":"2025-09-15T19:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:53:25","slug":"counseling-center-spreads-suicide-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/09\/15\/counseling-center-spreads-suicide-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy campus recognizes Suicide Prevention Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 The month of September is nationally recognized as suicide awareness month and while not everyone struggles with suicidal thoughts, they are an extremely common issue, especially among college students.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe American College Health Association<\/a> has indicated that approximately 33% of college students struggle with suicidal ideation at some point their academic career\u201d\u00a0said mental health counselor Benjamin Arnold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month<\/a> is dedicated to creating an open conversation for people struggling with those thoughts to ask for help without any unnecessary shame or fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuicide and mental health is such a taboo topic; people don\u2019t really want to talk about the realness of it” said Trojan Outreach peer educator, Sam Lawson. “I think if we just get away from that stigma of all of the awkwardness of it and actually talk about it, then it would be so much easier to deal with.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troy University\u2019s Student Counseling Center <\/a>allows students to receive help from a mental health professional, without the price and possible fear of a therapist from an outside source, but with all the same experience and benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are an objective third party, so we\u2019re not directly involved in the situation” Arnold said. “We can often provide perspective that family members and friends and roommates may not be able to do as easily.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although professional help is always encouraged, Arnold said having people in your personal life that you trust to open up to can be equally important.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAMPUS COVERAGE: Parking on campus: Is it as bad as some say? Students, TUPD weigh in<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe as counselors, we can’t follow our clients around 24\/7 so I encourage all of my clients to reach out to family, friends, significant others, roommates, professors, any kind of support system that they already have built into their lives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone who has a friend, family member, or loved one in need of help, Arnold and Lawson said there are several ways you can help.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe aware of the signs and don\u2019t jump at them don\u2019t try to push it down their throats but be direct with them and don\u2019t beat around the bush,” Lawson explained. “Being a listener and being there for people and opening that door but then being able to point the person who is struggling to the proper resources, like professionals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t feel like you have to give advice, just sometimes being there and just listening and accepting and supporting that person unconditionally can be the biggest catalyst toward healing\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To contact Trojan Outreach you can go to their instagram @trojan_outreach<\/a> or email them at trojanoutreach@troy.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 The month of September is nationally recognized as suicide awareness month and while not everyone struggles with suicidal thoughts, they are an extremely common issue, especially among college students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American College Health Association has indicated that approximately 33% of college students struggle with suicidal ideation at some point their academic…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":8516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[2494,2495,1937,2496,2092],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-suicide-prevention-awareness-month","tag-troy-university-benjamin-arnold","tag-troy-university-counseling","tag-troy-university-student-counseling-center","tag-troy-university-trojan-outreach","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8519,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions\/8519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=8508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}