Suicide - Be a Fork in the Path

It’s tragic, really, all these suicides we are hearing about these days, what’s even more tragic is people’s response to them.  I’m deeply saddened when I hear people referring to victims of suicide as cowards because suicide is far from a cowardly act, it takes a lot of courage to reach a point where you actually take your own life.  They are victims just as certainly as if someone had taken their life from them, because they slipped through the cracks of society, of a broken mental health system that is hard to access, and of their own mental health issues.

Unless you’ve personally walked the path of major depression, you just can’t understand that suicide is not about the break-up, about the financial collapse, about the loneliness, or about the fear of facing something, it’s about walking an endless path of despair, looking desperately for that fork in the road that may lead to some comfort but the fork never appears.  Suicide is never about one let-down, it’s about a series of them, it’s about intense pain brought on by the act of living, and about believing, delusional or not, that nobody cares.  I know, I walked that path and I reached that point, but fortunately for me, it didn’t end in suicide.

I am absolutely grateful, and always will be, that a benevolent soul recognized my suffering and put a fork in my path which led me out of despair and into the arms of people who cared.  I still suffer from depression today, but I was given tools to help me cope with the bumps in the road, and for the most part, I have a pretty good life today.

Suicide is preventable but only if we put aside the stigma of mental health and reach out to people instead of pushing them away, don’t tell people to get over it, help them get over it, and be an active part of their mental health treatment.  Be that elusive fork in the path for someone!

Love you all!

Luc