NEWS
6
“ OUT OF THE DARKNESS”
Michael Doust, “ Mike” for short, is a Clackamas Community College student, veteran,
business owner, former union pipe welder and engineer and a suicide survivor. After an
uphill battle reached its climax when he attempted suicide in 2010, Doust has sought to
blaze a path to inform and empower others to aid those potentially considering suicide.
“ (I hope] that students start talking about it. Maybe put their Gameboys down for a
while. You know, [the article] starts a dialogue^ it starts something, and then let the
movement build its e lf.”
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BY VICTORIA DURLING
The Clackamas Print: What is the “ Out of the Darkness” project?
Doust: The thing about this project that I ’ m here to speak about,
th a t’ s on my m ind, is a student suicide outreach and awareness
project, I envision some kind of a project where the students have
taken ownership of how they’re going to reach out to other students,
how they’re going to deal with it, and give them the empowerment
to speak about the “ s” word, and to actually use it.
TCP: Is your mission through this program to educate others on the
signs and symptoms of depression?
Doust: Not that I can do it, but that if YOU see somebody, your friend,
and you’ve had some kind of introductory training perhaps, or however
CCC — the student body wants to set it up, that’ s what I want to see.
I want to see the program written and developed by the student body
so that way if you see something on social media that your friend
posted that just didn’t sound right, that way you can send a text, to the
counseling department anonymously, or however it’ s set up, however
it works for the situation of that student so there’ s no refrigerator
magnet - r one size fits all type o f thing, this way the students are
empowered — it’s the students’ thing. They’re the ones that write
it. They’re the only ones that know where the-other kids are that are
in trouble. Because I don’t know that, you know? My generation, we
read a text and we would just go ‘well I just don’t know what these
people are talking about’ and you guys would read the same text and
say ‘you know, that doesn’t sound right.’ The only people that can
solve it is the new generation — you guys, people your age.
TCP: Is it fair to say that our reactivity instead of our proactivity to
suicide is the problem?
Doust: I think it’s human nature. There’s just some things we don’t
want to talk about. We don’t want to talk about suicide, we don’ t
want to talk about substance abuse, you know, ‘oh that’ s just uncle
Joe, he was always a little crazy when he came back from the w ar.’
We don’t want to talk about PTSD, we don’t want to talk about the
fact that he attempted suicide or that he’ s got trouble. I think there’ s
a part of human nature there that makes us not want to talk about a
lot of things and that’ s not being fair to others. Somebody out there
gets hurt.
Clackamas Print
TCP: What would you say are some signs and symptoms -^things that
students can be looking out for before they even receive this training?
Doust: A change that doesn’t seem right, it’s a feeling kind of thing,
you can’t just read like a ten point chart and say ‘where are you on
this chart’ If all of the sudden your best friend who’s always happy is
over time not smiling anymore, or they don’t want to go out anymore,
there might be that there’s some family problems, or their dog died,
you don’t know, but you notice that and will probably be one of the
only people to notice that and they m ight be reaching out to you
through that mechanism, by sharing with you their feelings that no
one wants to talk about so that then you can go in at least and you
would feel comfortable enough taking them aside and asking are you
okay, are you really okay?
TCP: If somebody has approached a friend about this and they feel
like the situation hasn’t been neutralized, or is rather escalating,
what resources are out therefor those students trying to help others?
Doust: The best thing they can do, I would say, is to just go directly to
the counseling office. Don’t even make an appointment, track down
Stephanie, or Esther, anyone in the counseling office and say it’s really
important and ‘I think this is a problem.’ Not just, ‘I noticed this, can
I get some help, I need some advice,’ but, ‘ my best friend has really
changed and we really need you.’ They know how to approach that
person, and what to look for. They might solicit your help,.and ask
you to keep your eye on them while they look into it, but if something
changes, you call 911. You’re then empowered to do that.
TCP: Was there a singular event or was it in com ing to CCC that
inspired you to spearhead this project?
Doust: There were several events. I attempted suicide in June of 2010,
then November of last year, because I spent my life drinking heavily,
November last year I got sick, my Sister took me up to the veterans
hospital, I checked myself into the emergency room and within four
hours they had me in a private room. I had three doctors standing
around, and this was little over a year now, they told me I had four
days and I’d never walk out of that room alive. My liver had failed. It
was gone. Shot. So that was my last drink. That was over a year ago
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