MANY ARE CLOSE TO SUICIDE

By: Joy Le Page Smith, MA, BCC Years back Gary and I hired a man with great tree expertise to trim the trees about our home. We chatted frequently and he became a friend while beautifying our trees. He told of his “past life” as an executive with an o ce in a high rise within a big city. While sitting at his desk one day he looked from his 7th floor window and saw a tree-trimmer at work. He thought, “That’s the life I want to live.” So after studying how best to do this earthy art, he started this new endeavor of trimming trees–and became superbly good at it.  Then a disabling accident found him depending on a doctor’s prescription for pain medications. He functioned well although everything about life was hard for him.  Then came the time when opioids gained national attention due to their overuse by millions of people whose doctors were not closely monitoring the use of them. Many doctors, as well as our friend’s doctor, started warning their patients, as much as possible, about their prescription usage. & Our friend, now living on a “minimal amount” of the opioids as compared to what his...