Save Lives and Bring Hope to Those Affected by Suicide
This June marks my fifth year participating in the Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk — an extraordinary event where participants from all over the country join together to walk 16 miles over the course of one night. My first year was in NYC, then Washington DC, Boston, New York again, and this year, Chicago. I do this in loving memory of Di Ana Pisarri and to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
AFSP is the nation's largest private funder of suicide prevention research, with more than $30 million invested in research this year alone. Every dollar raised supports research, advocacy, survivor resources, education, and crisis response — including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which received over 4.3 million calls in 2025. In 2024, nearly 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide. That number decreased slightly from the year before, which tells us that prevention works — and that we have so much more work to do.
I also walk to bring awareness to perimenopausal depression and psychosis. The highest suicide rates among women are in the 45–54 age group — the very years when the hormonal upheaval of perimenopause hits hardest. Research shows that women in perimenopause are up to seven times more likely to experience suicidal ideation than women who are pre- or post-menopausal. Seven times. And yet most women — and too many of their doctors — don't know this.
If I had known about this earlier I believe it could have saved our Di Ana's life.
My mission now is to make sure that every woman knows how serious perimenopausal depression and psychosis is — that it's not "just hormones," that it can be life-threatening, and that there is treatment. If you are a woman in midlife, or if you love one, please learn about this. Talk to your doctor. Talk to your friends. This conversation saves lives.
Thank you for your support in a cause I believe in. Together we can save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide. Learn more about AFSP here.
