{"id":2102,"date":"2023-02-15T17:39:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T17:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aldiatodayusa.com\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2023-02-15T17:39:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T17:39:54","slug":"sports-gave-her-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/15\/sports-gave-her-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Sports Gave Her Hope<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By: Renee Ruffin-Price<br>For: AL DIA TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renee and I became friends my junior year in high school.\u00a0 Everything about her was perfect, externally.\u00a0 And everyone envied her from afar.\u00a0 Renee opened as we became friends and she shared that she struggled just like everyone else.\u00a0 She shared that because of some really difficult situations she began to wish that she was no longer here.\u00a0 She explained that the scars on her wrist were daily reminders that she did not want to go back to the life she once lived.\u00a0 She credited her ability to look at life differently to Coach Thompson, our basketball coach.\u00a0 Her coping mechanism switched from hurting herself to shooting hoops until the wee hours of the evening.\u00a0 Sports gave her a reason to push on.\u00a0 Sports gave her hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the National Institute of Health Journal (2005), suicide is the third leading cause of death among US adolescents aged 15\u201324, with males incurring higher rates of completion than females. Although the suicide rate in the United States has remained stable over the past 40 years, the estimated rate among adolescents and young adults has nearly tripled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story of Renee is not uncommon, the studies have shown millions of US adolescents participate in school-based and community sports programs and, furthermore, athletic involvement is ostensibly associated with protective factors that have been generally found to reduce suicide risk among young people: e.g. lower rates of illicit drug use, greater social supports, reduced risk for depression (NIMH, 2005).<br>Start the Conversation by being there for someone in crisis! STOP. ASK. LISTEN. ACT.<br><br>Warning signs can be found at\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fsuicidepreventionlifeline.org&amp;sa=D&amp;ust=1532887374477000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHc7TskUxtO7Kt_ytvRD9hQUVBzxw\" target=\"_blank\">suicidepreventionlifeline.org<\/a>. Crisis lines are available 24\/7! Just dial 2-1-1, call 1-800-TALK (8255), or text \u201cStart\u201d to 741-741.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Melissa Patton<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President, Victory Kid Sports<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.victorykidsports.org\">www.victorykidsports.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Impacting Kids Through Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By: Renee Ruffin-PriceFor: AL DIA TODAY Renee and I became friends my junior year in high school.\u00a0 Everything about her was perfect, externally.\u00a0 And everyone envied her from afar.\u00a0 Renee opened as we became friends <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/15\/sports-gave-her-hope\/\" title=\"Sports Gave Her Hope\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aldiatoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}