July Blog Carnival
The July Edition of the blog Carnival Against Child Abuse is up, hopefully I’ll be able to get some time to read through some of the other entries!
Similar Posts
Non-Acceptance Kills People
While the people who claim to be trying to keep kids “safe” argue about all things that are supposed to be dangerous, LGBTQ people will continue to die needlessly.
This is what we shouldn’t accept.
Sharing Responsibly
Over on my other site this morning, I wrote something about a quote I heard on Seth Godin’s podcast. It had to do with how the internet has made us all distributors now, and how, with previous distribution, there has always been a responsibility to maintain some “standards.” Whether it was a TV network, a…
Ellie Williams Was News Because It’s Rare but that won’t Stop People From Using It to Dismiss Survivors
Ellie damaged the lives of people she falsely accused. She has also potentially damaged the lives of many more victims who will be silenced because of this.
Why I Took Part in the AFSP Virtual Overnight Event
It was the stories. It was all of those people doing this in memory of someone they lost. Or, like me, in memory of the fact that we are still here instead of leaving others to tell our stories. In our day to day lives, it’s too easy to forget how many people are impacted by suicide each and every year across the country, and the world. The further in time I get away from that time in my own life, the easier it can be to put it behind me and forget about it. But, that is something I never want to do. As painful as it is, I want to remember what it was like to no longer want to be alive. When someone is in that place, I want to be able to say, “I’ve been where you are”, to recall all of the details, and be able to sit and understand. Because that is how we save people. Not by talking in hushed tones about depression, or mental illness, but by sharing the stories of people who survived and healed, and of those we’ve lost.
Let’s face it, if you spend much time considering those losses, and listening to those stories, it is impossible to walk away without realizing that we have lost a devastating number of people to this disease. Many more than some of the diseases we all gladly talk openly about every day. Yet somehow, maybe because we don’t understand it, or are afraid of it, we keep silent. After all, it might make someone uncomfortable. Even I have, at times, kept the details to myself in fear of making other people uncomfortable, or risk having them worry about me. The more I read and heard these stories though, the more I realized that I needed to share my story, if only so that anyone who reads it would know, and maybe even understand a little bit, what it’s like to be so far down into the darkness of depression, that you don’t want to live any longer. So, with that said, let me share my experience with you, now that it’s been some 25 years, and maybe now people won’t worry so much about me. (Warning, this is about to get dark, and we will talk a bit about suicide, though I will keep those exact details out)
