I’ve lost 5 friends to it. I joined 1 of the 6 children’s response teams in the country and was floored at how inhumane I felt the “standardized” response we (society) continue to deploy. There is no intermediate response, so I wanted to empower everyone with the same skill that professionals have so they can [...]
Every night, I would wish that the next morning I would wake up dead. Of course this is technically impossible. It was however a reflection of the deep emotional pain, anguish and hopelessness that I felt for so many years. Waking up dead did not mean waking up with the sudden ability to turn off [...]
It is 8 am. I shower. Dress in black. Get in the car. Smoke. I’m shaky. A little nervous. I tell myself I’m not. Deep breathes. Focus on driving. Getting closer. Maybe 20 minutes. I’m just a person. I am nobody. Am I safe? Do I trust my doctor? Do I trust these people? Do [...]
Okay, so September is Suicide Prevention Month. There are a lot of months, weeks and days reminding us to pay attention to various things – usually they are things we should be paying attention to all the time. What happens when the month is over? In the case of suicide prevention, there are a lot [...]
For the last fifteen years, I’ve been “out” as a suicide attempt survivor. I’ve shared publicly what it felt like to be unable to live in my own skin, and what it was like to be a patient receiving treatment after suicide attempts. I’ve shared countless times about how the systems that were supposed to [...]
“Why?” As a suicide attempt survivor I can’t tell you how many times I have sat with people and tried to give them an answer to that question. When doctors would ask I would become frustrated, because they should be the ones with the answers. When family would ask I would feel guilty, because anything [...]
