Exercise and Suicide.....are they worth it?

For the past 2 years I have been on something called "FEP", short for Fitness Enhancement Program. A couple years ago I failed the navy bi-yearly fitness test and I was put on that stupid program. It is designed to help you get back within standards, but who are they kidding? I was on it for over a year before I made any progress and even then it was because I decided to go on Weight Watchers. My failure was on the running portion. I just don't like running....or any other form of exercise for that matter.....and to top it off I have arthritis on both my knees which makes running physically painful. So.......today, over two years after starting this stupid program.....I am done. Mind you, the ideal way to get off the program is by passing two consecutive PRTs (that's the name for the Navy's fitness test) and that is not the case with me. I am getting out of the Navy in 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days (who's counting???) and I start checking out of my command next week. So I am taking the easy way out of it, they have to let me go by default. Let me tell you, I am so glad I am done, it's just a pain in the butt having to figure out how the hell you are gonna make 3 sessions a week when you work up to 5 twelve hour shifts just Monday through Friday. For my last session ever I did the lazy thing.....I went to the walking session. There was no way I was gonna put any more effort than ABSOLUTELY necessary into it. From now on I vow to be a couch potato and never, ever, ever run again.......ever. It's not worth it! Well, maybe I'd reconsider if I was being chased by a hungry lion or a pissed off dog.

When you work in an ER, you see a lot of things. It is not particularly busy where I work, nor do we see a lot of real emergencies, as a matter of fact, emergencies are rare our emergency room. Most of those things you just forget about, others you just don't understand. Today a man brought his 16 year old daughter in because she had swallowed a bunch of Tylenol. In case you don't know, Tylenol is very toxic and to be honest, not the easiest way to die. People that die from a Tylenol overdose die a very slow and painful death, from liver failure. But anyhow, apparently the issue behind the suicide attempt was a boy. The girl had a boyfriend and her father forbade her to see him again. Father and daughter fought, daughter tried to kill herself......in a nutshell. This is not the first time I take care of a suicidal patient, but it is the first time under those circumstances. I am not going to condemn her or anyone else who has attempted suicide because you never know really goes on but I still don't get it. I was a teenager too, and I remember having fights with my parents about boys, and I got dumped, and I got my heart broken. I thought about moving away (once I was 18), I thought about a lot of things, but I never, ever, ever even toyed with the idea of killing myself. I refuse to believe that is EVER the only way out of something. In this girl's case for example....assuming she wanted to kill herself because she wasn't allowed to see the boy she loved (can you really be in love at 16 though?)....she didn't succeed, so now she has a much bigger problem in her hands. Not only is she still not allowed to see the boy but now she's also on very bad terms with her parents who will keep a much closer eye on her.....so much for independence. Had she succeeded, she still wouldn't have been able to see the boy....who would have gotten over it and found someone else. I know that no man is worth your life, but are they indeed worth any of the troubles, tears, broken hearts, etc that we as women endure? Had it been the other way around, do you think the guy would have tried to kill himself? Just some food for thought.