Hard Conversations: Preventing Suicide

I (Dr. Hunt) recently joined Natasha Helfer on her podcast to talk about one of the hardest——and most important——topics in mental health: preventing suicide. It was an honest conversation. We didn't stay in the clinical weeds the whole time. We talked about what actually pushes someone towards suicide, how generational trauma keeps showing up across families, and why so many people (especially those who've been taught to hide parts of themselves) end up carrying pain they were never meant to carry...and worse generally carrying it alone. You can listen to the whole episode here (or watching it below).

Why This Conversation Matters

Suicide is not a single-cause event. It doesn't come from one bad day or one painful experience. In my nearly two decades of studying suicidality——as a researcher, a clinician, and someone with deeply personal experience——I've come to see suicide as the end point of patterns. Patterns of intergenerational trauma. Patterns of emotional suppression. Patterns of hiding who you are because the cost of being seen felt too dangerous.

My oldest brother died by suicide when I was eight. My youngest brother (still 14 years older than me) was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I was sexually abused. Then this same year, my own suicidal thoughts began. For years, the only strategy I had for survival was hiding: my pain, my emotions, my identity. Because the world I grew up in made it very clear that those things were not welcome.

That strategy kept me alive. But it also kept me profoundly alone, depressed, and convinced that no one could ever love the real me.

Intergenerational Trauma and Suicide:
Seeing the Patterns

One of the things Natasha and I explored in depth is how intergenerational trauma creates the conditions for suicidality. Trauma doesn't stay in one generation. It moves through families in the form of unspoken rules, emotional disconnection, rigid expectations, and the quiet message that your feelings don't matter.

When I finally started studying suicide academically——through my doctoral work and years of clinical practice——the patterns became impossible to ignore. The families I was working with weren't dealing with isolated crises. They were living inside systems of pain that had been passed down for generations: unprocessed grief, unacknowledged abuse, impossible standards of who they were supposed to be.

And here's the thing that changed everything for me, both personally and clinically: you can't heal what you can't see. Identifying those patterns——really naming them——is what finally allowed me to believe that I didn't deserve my trauma. That my emotions mattered. That I mattered.

Authenticity as Prevention

If hiding is what keeps the cycle going, then authenticity is what breaks it. That's not a bumper sticker — it's something I've watched happen in my own life and in the lives of clients at Olive View Therapy.

When someone who has spent their entire life suppressing who they are——their sexuality, their emotions, their needs ——finally finds a space where they can stop performing and start being real, something shifts. It's not instant. It's not magic. But the weight starts to lift. The depression that felt permanent starts to loosen. The suicidal thoughts that felt like the only logical conclusion start to lose their grip.

This is especially true for LGBTQ individuals, who often carry the compounded weight of familial rejection, religious trauma, and societal stigma on top of whatever intergenerational patterns were already in place. On the podcast, we talked about how these layers interact and why affirming, identity-safe therapy isn't a luxury——it's a lifeline.

What I Want You to Take Away

If you're someone who has been hiding I want you to know that the hiding itself is part of what's hurting you. Not because you're doing something wrong, but because the patterns you inherited taught you that hiding was the only option.

It's not.

And you don't have to figure that out alone.

We specialize in helping people identify and break the cycles of generational trauma, depression, and emotional suppression that keep them stuck. Whether you're dealing with suicidal thoughts, the aftermath of childhood abuse, the weight of family expectations, or the exhaustion of never being fully yourself we're here for that work. One

If any of this resonated, reaching out is the hardest step——and you've already started by being here. Give us a call / text at 801-960-2116 or email at info@oliveviewtherapy.com or book yourself on our calendar here or from the Make an Appointment button above.