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B1G1 PLUS

I missed Mental Health Awareness Day (it was last Sunday, October 10th).

Now, I’ll bet you are saying to yourself, “That’s a weird thing for a financial blogger to say.” And, under normal circumstances, you would be right. But we are living in times that are anything but normal, wouldn’t you say? Yeah–me too.

So today I’ve decided to deviate from regular scheduled programming to bring you something special. Don’t worry, I’ll do a two-for-one post next week to get us caught up on the financial calendar. Speaking of two-for-one, today we’re going to combine two seemingly-unrelated subjects: prevention, specifically on how it relates to mental health, and Christmas. Bear with me.

Prevention is HUGE in the financial world. Let’s take the dentist, for example. (Did you know that if you ignore your teeth they WILL go away?) Toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss are relatively inexpensive. And yearly dental x-rays and biannual cleanings aren’t horrifically expensive and are covered by most insurances. If you brush 2 times daily for 2 minutes, floss once a day, and get your teeth cleaned every 6 months then you are less likely to have serious (and seriously expensive) problems. Like abscesses. And gingivitis. Then missed work and expensive emergency dentist visits. Ouch.  

Suicide prevention (as well as drug-use prevention, alcohol-use prevention, and the like) work in similar fashion. Supporting suicide prevention efforts is not only fiscally prudent, it also benefits individuals and families mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and any other measurable state of being that ends in -ally. I am sure you know how expensive (monetarily and otherwise) it can be to reestablish stability in those areas once they have been lost. Prevention is the BEST answer in protecting our overall well-being.

“Ok, I’m with you,” you say, “but how does this apply to Christmas?” (You know Christmas is just around the corner, right?). Glad you asked.

My Discovery Destination! and The Discovery Family Coalition, both big advocates for suicide (and other) prevention, are offering some AWESOME Christmas ideas at EXTREMELY reasonable prices. Plan a little early and order Santa Notes for the children in your life.  Check out the idea of a Discovery Hunt for your social-distance-friendly (or not) Christmas Party (or ANY party, really). Both of these clever and unique soon-to-be-new-holiday traditions support suicide prevention. AND when you support them, YOU support prevention as well (remember the two-for I mentioned?).

And who doesn’t like a two-for-one? I mean, you really CAN spend the same dollar twice!

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