Roger is a 52 year-old business owner in Massachusetts who has struggled with bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation through much of his life.

"When you're in that suicidal place, everything is black around you. The only way you see out of that place is to check out completely. I've found that the key to preventing suicide is to realize that there is another option to that ever-blackening closing-in-on-you feeling of despair and desperation. You have to see that there is a pleasurable way out-- some pleasurable way of engaging the mind in such a way that you cannot think of anything other than that. For me, this activity is photography. The first thing I do is to grab my camera and I start taking pictures. This completely absorbs my thinking. When I finish shooting for the day I might feel depressed, but I don't feel suicidal. When I'm feeling that black feeling, therapists have helped me by showing me that suicide is only one option and that there is another way out. They've said, 'Wait a minute, you're headed down the wrong path. I think the path you want to go down is this one.'"