Yes, most of my blogs are either marketing myself or lighter stuff, but tonight, I’m serious.
Suicide has never really touched me until now. Robin Williams…no one expected it. But while I know of him, and admired his talent, I didn’t know him. Chris Cornell? I like Soundgarden and their music, but he was someone I didn’t follow closely. And in the entertainment industry, so much is attributed to drinking or drugs.
But that works both ways. Drinking and drugs are often tools to mask pain, loneliness. To forget. And when they fail, what’s the next option?
Now it’s hit closer to home. Someone I knew, someone I used to talk to fairly frequently, and never would have guessed that they had deeper issues. That they struggled, or suffered. This person was upbeat, willing to help or go the extra mile. This person adored their kids. Could have been a friend to any of us, day in and day out, a coworker, a neighbor, a relation near or far, blood or not. With gentle, smiling eyes that masked a soul in pain.
So what’s my point? Not my pain. My pain of losing a friend in such an unforeseen, horrible manner, my pain of not realizing someone near needed help. Not even my own everyday pain that leads to my own depression, which I can thankfully say has never taken me to those depths.
My point is to cherish everyone around you. Let them know you need them. No, you won’t always know someone is in turmoil, but maybe, just maybe, if they understand that they can share that burden with someone else, that they are loved, appreciated, that someone DOES care and DOES want to know and WILL help, maybe their thoughts won’t sink that far.
I’m not completely against posting phone numbers for help on social media. It’s a step above the “type amen if you agree” and “like and share if you hate cancer”…can’t tell you how much I despise that shit. It’s a hundred shades of ridiculous with a side of stupid. The phone number, that’s something a little more tangible, and hey, if one person is helped because of it, it’s completely worthwhile. I just feel that, much like the addiction hotline ads, the people who need that help the most are the ones who won’t respond, because they’ll think it doesn’t apply to them, or they don’t deserve it, or any of a dozen other reasons.
So reach out. I know you care, you know you care, make sure THEY know. Be there in every way you can. For yourself, for each other.
azbaelus 