Wow, the overflow of positive feedback for my post has been incredible. :) I was a bit worried after I posted... not about what I wrote, but the fact that for a moment, lost somewhere in my passionate feelings for the subject, that I am actually posting on a dating site. LOL... I thought, yep, that is for sure a great way to meet someone... NOT... haha... just spilling out all my baggage before a "hi, how are you"....
But the truth is, I do feel so passionate about this subject, not only because of my own experience, but because of the wonderful people I have met during the course of my illness, who are experiencing this excruciating pain and are still beautiful people, beneath the horrible illness.
I know I am young, and have thought at numerous times over the past few years about doing something to do with mental health for a career. I have started a social work degree, but due to my lack of motivation at studying externally, and lack of income to study full-time without working, I have had to postpone for a while.
If I could do anything with my life, and money was no issue, I would love to go around talking to people about mental illness... a positive spokesperson I suppose you could call it, and bring it out of the shadows, and you know what? Even if it didn't bring it out of the shadows for everyone, because I know that is a long way away yet, if at all, but I just wish I could make a difference to people suffering right now. If by speaking out about my experience, I managed to save just one person from heading down the road of suicide, everything I have been through would be worth it.
I would never choose to have a mental illness, however, as contradicting as this sounds, I am not upset that I have suffered. Everything I have been through has served a purpose. I have met some great friends along the way, and I have become a better person. A more supportive person... a person that is loving and open-minded. If I could have my life over again I am not sure that there are too many things I would actually change.
Kudos to you for bringing up this subject in a forum. Suicide is a taboo subject in the world today, and families are often making up other reasons as to how their relatives passed away to avoid the judgement of others.
I have personally experienced suicide - from both ends... both my uncle and my cousin have committed suicide. It is a horrible feeling... and for those closest to them you often wonder what you may have done to change the horrible outcome... The regret from not spending more time with them and realising something was wrong... :(
I have also had numerous suicide attempts between the age of 18 - 23ish... Luckily for me, each time someone has found me and I have been hospitalised and recovered... I can see that now... but at the time, I really thought there was no other way to end the depression that I felt... the emptiness, the loneliness, the fear that I was going to feel that way forever... and I got into the distorted view of thinking that my family would suffer less if I was dead, as then they would grieve and move on, and wouldn't be dealing with me and my baggage every day...
For those of you with the stats posted, yes the majority of completed suicides are male. However, there is a much larger percentage of attempted suicides being female. The logical reasoning for this is that males tend to choose more quick acting, definite methods, for example, hanging, shooting, etc, whereas women will a lot of the time take an overdose or something that takes a while to work as it is less messy.
I'm not here to give you an education about suicide, but I believe that there should be more information out there. The fact of the matter is that this IS an issue in today's society, and by sweeping it under the carpet we are never going to deal with it. I know some people argue that by talking about it we may be triggering other people into going through with a plan of suicide. I disagree, by educating the people, by making mental illness and suicide less of a taboo, we will be encouraging people to get help before it's too late.
Depression has come a long way in the last 20 years in respect to acceptance in the community, but there is still soooooo far to go... and as for other mental illnesses, the public knowledge and understanding is very minimal. So many people judge the mentally ill, which is why so many mentally ILL people do not get HELP before it is too late.
Mental illness is exactly that... an ILLNESS... people need to stop the judgement, and encourage people to seek HELP for their ILLNESS... a lot of the time, mental illness can be managed with medication and monitoring. If only the world would open their eyes, stop judging and allow these people to live to their full potential...
Kat1985 Forum Posts (2)
RE: getting older
Wow, the overflow of positive feedback for my post has been incredible. :) I was a bit worried after I posted... not about what I wrote, but the fact that for a moment, lost somewhere in my passionate feelings for the subject, that I am actually posting on a dating site. LOL... I thought, yep, that is for sure a great way to meet someone... NOT... haha... just spilling out all my baggage before a "hi, how are you"....But the truth is, I do feel so passionate about this subject, not only because of my own experience, but because of the wonderful people I have met during the course of my illness, who are experiencing this excruciating pain and are still beautiful people, beneath the horrible illness.
I know I am young, and have thought at numerous times over the past few years about doing something to do with mental health for a career. I have started a social work degree, but due to my lack of motivation at studying externally, and lack of income to study full-time without working, I have had to postpone for a while.
If I could do anything with my life, and money was no issue, I would love to go around talking to people about mental illness... a positive spokesperson I suppose you could call it, and bring it out of the shadows, and you know what? Even if it didn't bring it out of the shadows for everyone, because I know that is a long way away yet, if at all, but I just wish I could make a difference to people suffering right now. If by speaking out about my experience, I managed to save just one person from heading down the road of suicide, everything I have been through would be worth it.
I would never choose to have a mental illness, however, as contradicting as this sounds, I am not upset that I have suffered. Everything I have been through has served a purpose. I have met some great friends along the way, and I have become a better person. A more supportive person... a person that is loving and open-minded. If I could have my life over again I am not sure that there are too many things I would actually change.
xx