Let's talk about suicide - because it is literally killing us.

Is suicide the new "S" word?
A word only to be spoken quietly, or even hushed?

I do get that distinct feeling...
Why? Because nine people die from suicide every day in Australia.
Do you recall the last headline mentioning any of them?

If you don't, there is a good reason for it, because there is a media black-out on suicide.
Yes, because you see, if we don't talk about it, it won't happen, right?
Because apparently people get encouraged into suicide by reading about it.

To me it looks more like people are still committing suicide in large numbers (it's more than twice the number of deaths from traffic for comparison), despite it never being mentioned.

So I'm saying, let's talk about it. Let's bring it out in the open.

There is one message I would like to get across.
As long as there is life, there is hope. 
The only thing that cannot change is being dead.

As long as you are alive, there is hope that your life will get better.
Or, in the case of depression, that your outlook on your life will get better.

Things change, they are always in flux. What was despairing for my 17-year old self is by now little more than a footnote to my 44-year old self. What nearly broke me as a 25-year old, is only a (bitter-)sweet memory now.

My pastor at boarding school, when quizzed on suicide had this nice answer: "whenever I get so desperate that I think about suicide, I make a deal with myself to first sell all my possessions, and cycle around the world for a year. I can always kill myself later".

I like that, because it is a reminder that what we feel is so difficult in our life, our circumstances, can be drastically changed by so many other actions than suicide.

One of those actions is to reach out to others. To pick up the phone (to a friend, or to Lifeline), or even to turn up on someone's doorstep (someone we know, or even the local church), with our despair in tow. Because what do we have to lose when we are already considering suicide? Nothing.

If you consider suicide, please put it off.
You can always do it later, and maybe by then you won't need it anymore.

Things do change. You can change them.
Help is available.

Please reach out.

charlotte.stapf@yahoo.com
www.blackdoginstitute.org.au
www.beyondblue.org.au