Talking is one of the easiest, yet one of the most difficult things we do. Imagine you’re an airplane pilot coming in on landing amid a heavy cloud cover. Your instincts tell you you’re coming correctly, but when you break through the cloud, you’re upside down. Amid that cloud, you lost your bearings and had those clouds below hanging, something disastrous could have happened.
This is similar to the human mind impacted by depression. Thoughts can build up that may seem logical – such as how ending your life can be rationalized – but in actuality, that mind has lost its bearings.
This is why we MUST talk.
Talking takes these thoughts from the mind and brings them to people who will support you. That openness can provide the perspective needed to avoid suicide.
My dad committed suicide on Feb. 24, 1996, when I was 18.
The letter he left made a rational argument for why our family was better off without him. He was wrong, but he never talked, and he had unequivocally lost his bearings.
If he had talked, things might have been different. Several weeks ago was National Suicide Prevention Week but every week is a week to be thoughtful of loved ones who could be contemplating suicide.
I implore you to talk to the people you love and to ask the people you love to talk to you. By talking, we can make breakthroughs.
For more resources, please visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at http://www.afsp.org/ or the Suicide Prevention Action Network (Georgia) at http://www.span-ga.org/span/.
Would you like to share your story? Please get in touch with Kate's Club! KC has free grief support with grief resources, grief counseling resources, grief training, and volunteer work in Atlanta and surrounding places in Georgia. Kate's Club is a growing nonprofit in Atlanta with grief specialists for kids and young adults going through bereavement. Our goal is to make a world where it is okay to grieve.