I know its the end of the month, but I still wanted to bring up that September is National Suicide Awareness Month. When Robin Williams died, I saw in so many posts variations of if youre hurting, please talk to someone. This is a very shortsided view of suicide. Suicide and the ideation of it are not as cut and dry as life sucks, I want to kill myself. Its far more complicated and multifaceted than that and to presume to know what advice to offer those in a state of which youve never experienced and are uninformed is really insulting to those who suffer and also dangerous. It would be like me trying to tell a person with cancer, or ALS, or MS how best to deal with their afflictions. Another thing people dont realize is that although depression and suicide are overlapping conditions, they are not indicative of one another. So you dont have to be depressed to commit suicide and not all people who are depressed have suicidal ideations. But in the case of Robin Williams, his suicide was either a direct consequence or heavily influenced by his major depression. And surprisingly, the Academy (of all people/organizations) had probably the most apt and knowledge response when they tweeted a picture from Aladdin and just wrote, Genie, youre free. (I have it on my wall on Aug 13). If you scroll down to my post from Aug 11 with the picture and also read the thread of comments, it might help you better understand why saying youre free was the best response anyone could have given to his death. I am not saying there is nothing you can do to help someone who is suicidal, and Im definitely not saying all people who feel suicidal should go through with it because they have legitimate reasons and it will relieve them of their suffering- Im simply saying you cant presume to understand what they are going through (or their reasons if they attempt/commit suicide) and therefore you cant see them as being overly dramatic and not logical (like thinking if only Robin Williams had talked to someone, hed be alive, as if it was that simple), and you cant see suicide as a black and white issue. People who are thinking of committing suicide need your support, love, and friendship- what they dont need (and what their families dont need if they go through with it) is your judgement.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 02:45:46 +0000