Many of us struggle or know someone who struggles with mental illness. It’s hard a path to travel. We feel alone and helpless. But there is help and hope.
People struggle to understand why someone would choose death over life. It is pain. It is pain so intense it consumes your soul. No one else can see it or feel it. From the outside everything looks fine. You function and go through your day with a smile, but inside you want to die.
There were many years I was sad when I woke up alive. I didn’t want to kill myself, but I didn’t want to live.
There is a saying that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It is true, but how long is “temporary?”
We feel alone until we start a conversation. Once we start that conversation, we learn we are not alone. There is hope for us. There is hope for your loved one who struggles. Have the conversation but understand that depression is a hard thing to explain. We need everything and nothing. Mostly we need to understand we matter. That we belong in the world; there is a place for us.
You are not alone.