Suicide survivor tells HYPE audience: 'Be Here Tomorrow'
Storyteller, author, filmmaker, suicide survivor. The dynamic Kevin Hines was on campus Thursday to share his story of hope, healing and recovery from the mental anguish that almost cost him his life.
Hines was the final keynote speaker in this year’s HYPE Career Ready® Program.
“I have now lived 15 years past the day I was supposed to die,” said Hines, who in 2004 jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to take his life. That suicide attempt followed years and years of burying the lethal emotional pain that was ruling his life.
Through stories he often punctuated with humor, Hines told of his journey that led him to the Golden Gate Bridge. Hines said he first felt emotional pain in the fourth grade when he began to heard voices in his head.
A string of traumatizing circumstances – infant neglect, abuse in the foster care system, bullying in school and losing several loved ones to suicide – led to psychiatric care in his late teens, when Hines said he “pretended to be well but was falling apart at the seams.”
“On September 24th, 2004, I could bear the brunt of my depression no longer. I was in immeasurable pain. I felt useless, worthless, like I had no value and I had to die,” he said.
March 27, 2019
