September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and to commemorate that, the Community Arts Center hosted Kevin Hines, best selling author, mental health advocate and suicide survivor with the support of NAMI North Central Pa. and the Doherty and Kelley family.
“I had heard about him through the grapevine and then I thought, ‘this is one,’ and he was so excited to come to our community. He said he’d been here before, which is also kind of, you know, that helps seal the deal.”
Hines attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in September 2000.
Roughly, 95% of people who have jumped die on impact, and less than 35 people total have survived, according to Bridge Rail Foundation.
“The millisecond my hands left that rail, I felt instantaneous regret for my actions and the absolute recognition I just made the greatest mistake of my life, and it was likely too late,” Hines said of the exact moment he leapt from the bridge.
Though a heavy-handed subject such as suicide is a difficult one, Hines portrayed poise and courage, along with a strong dose of humor throughout his speech.
Kevin’s early childhood is one of heartbreak, as he recounts two biological parents who loved him and his brother dearly but were unable to care for him, and his brother who tragically died of bronchitis, immediately leaving Hines with what he calls “a severe detachment disorder from reality, and abandonment issues that follow me until right now.”
But, his luck would turn around at nine months old, when he was adopted by Peter and Deborah Hines.
“The fact that the Hines took me in, and they made me their son, it was the greatest gift anyone had ever given me,” Kevin said.
While he was successful in school, football and was on both the debate and swim teams, for a very short amount of time, by his own, humorous admission, he was struggling mentally.
“I had been unraveling mentally for some time. I’d been having things like hallucinations, auditory and visual,” said Hines, who had also been suffering from paranoid delusions and wild swings from mania to depression.
After an episode on stage during a high school performance, during which he was overtaken by an unshakable belief that the entire audience wanted to kill him, he was taken to one of the best psychiatrists in the San Francisco area.
Not long after, Kevin’s theater instructor and his first psychiatrist lost their respective battles with substance abuse.
Peter stressed to his son that he had a loving family and people who cared about him, and to never consider such an act on himself. Kevin agreed at the time, knowing he would never want to hurt his family in such a way.
But, with mounting mental anguish, it started to become too much.
“I couldn’t take it. My back was breaking, my body was bending. I was being destroyed from the inside out,” he said.
Kevin’s struggles mounted following his parents’ divorce, leading him to the bridge the day of his attempt.
Standing on the bridge that day in tears, he was approached by a lady with a big smile. He thought this would be the person to save his life by asking if he was alright.
In reality, she simply wanted her picture taken and walked away. Feeling that no one cared, Kevin jumped.
As he fell, Kevin’s instant realization that he didn’t want to die led him to turn his body to land feet first, saving his life, but shattering his back, narrowly avoiding severing his spinal cord.
Since that day, Hines has devoted himself to making sure that no one ever feels alone in this world.
He worked with members of congress and local organizations to get safety nets installed on the Golden Gate Bridge to ward off would-be jumpers and advocated for mental health education starting at the fourth-grade level.
Kevin strongly advocates for family dinners every night, with electronics put away, to have an honest conversation about how each other is feeling and if they need help getting through anything they are currently struggling with.
Listening is key, as he says if there is any inclination at all that they are considering suicide, ask them directly, “are you thinking of killing yourself? Have you made plans to take your life? Do you have the means to take your life?”
“Taking the means away from the situation — putting gun locks in the home, putting the knives in places they can’t get to if they’re considering suicide — [take] all the other means that are possible out of the equation when you learn of someone’s ideation,” Kevin said.
“I will look into a mirror, and I will say to myself out loud ‘my thoughts do not have to become my actions, they can simply be my thoughts,’” Hines said. “The second thing I do is I find the closest person to me and ask for help.”
“I need you to hear me, my friends: Don’t stop asking people around you for help. I don’t care if you’re the toughest person in every room, tell the truth about your pain to one person willing to empathize.”
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift — that’s why we call it the present,” Hines says.
“Suicidal ideations are the greatest liars we know,” he said. “You don’t have to listen to them. Stop listening to them.”
“My new friends, begin in love every day. You are valued, you are loved, you are worthy. Everyone in this room matters. And you matter to me. We need you here. Keep on fighting,” Kevin said.
Following his engagement, Hines stayed in the lobby, where a line quickly formed to speak with him, get autographs and selfies.
Many were seen weeping as he warmly embraced them, as they shared stories of their own mental health struggles.
In 2022, 49,449 American deaths were attributed to suicide, a 2.6% increase over the previous year, according to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC).
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S., with one death occurring every 11 minutes, according to Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE).
Lycoming County has seen 18 suicides in 2023, according to Charles E. Kiessling Jr., Lycoming County Coroner, “so we’re pretty consistently above the national average.”
Kelly Gordon, CASSP coordinator with NAMI North Central Pa., says anyone who is suffering a mental health crisis should reach out immediately.
“If they’re in immediate risk or facing a crisis, they should contact our Center for Community Resources. That acronym is CCR, and they are a local contracted county crisis line, at 800-950-NAMI (6264). Or they can contact the number 988.”
“NAMI also holds a Lycoming peer support group on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., and that’s at the West End Christian Community Church,” Gordon added.
For more information on services provided by NAMI, please visit their website at www.nami.org/Home.
And, for more information on Kevin Hines’ story, please search @kevinhinesstory across all social media.
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