A woman shares her eighteen-year struggle with suicidal thoughts, explains the brain functions behind those thoughts, and offers tricks to overcome them. The statistics on suicide are staggering. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 1997 in the United States, more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. It is also an international epidemic. Susan Blauner is the perfect emissary for a message of hope and a program of action for these millions of people. She's been though it, and speaks and writes eloquently about feelings and fantasies surrounding suicide. "The best suicide prevention manual for the suicidal thinker, suicide attempter, layperson, or professional." —Iris Bolton, founder of the National Resource Center for Suicide Prevention and Aftercare " How I Stayed Alive is like a Fodor's guide that gets you from the depths of hell of depression to the paradise of a balanced life." —Reese Butler, executive director and founder of the National Hopeline Network "With neither hollow platitudes nor medical doublespeak . . . an extreme valuable and much needed tool for suicidal thinkers and their loved ones." — Publishers Weekly