Silence Does Not HelpPin

Silence Does Not Help

My wife sent me this clip of “Kristoff St. John’s ‘Y&R’ Co-Star Eric Braeden’s Emotional Reaction to His Friend’s Death”

She also sent me this message and I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

And this is why you do actually need to talk about things and check on people

I have to admit. This is painful to watch. Please be advised.

 

https://youtu.be/jgIh2XKI5Ag&w=500

That moment, when Eric realizes how not talking about it was a mistake, and the utter despair at not knowing what he could have done instead, shook me. This is where we are as a society. We don’t want to talk about hard things, we don’t understand the pain and despair people feel, especially after a loved one takes their own life the way Kristoff’s son did, and we don’t want to think about it. We don’t know how to fix it, or what to say. It’s sad, it brings us down, it’s negative stuff, and my life ain’t got time for negativity. But it’s real pain, and our inability to sit with our own pain, let alone someone else’s pain, with them, keeps us from reaching people who need it the most.

If we can’t sit with their pain, who will?

Who will sit with us in our pain?

If the answer continues to be no one, we have learned nothing.

Similar Posts

  • |

    We All Have Mental Health Issues

    Imagine frowning upon someone taking ibuprofen for a headache because they should “tough it out.” Or talking about how the common cold affects people “over there” and not your group. 

    It’s nonsense. Yet, when it comes to talking about mental health, people start that same nonsense as if they have never had a day where they struggle with anxiety or need to take a break from the stress of day-to-day life. 

    I think it’s time we started looking at mental health the way Dr. Lee describes it. We all have mental health issues of some form or another, just like we all have different physical ailments at times. Stigmatizing people who need mental healthcare and being unable to provide it is a failure for all of us. 

  • World Suicide Prevention Day 2021

    So, the thing I want us to talk about this year is not just encouragement to call a hotline or to reach out to a friend for help, or even to tell our stories and erase the stigma around mental health issues. I want us to consider doing more than that. I want us, as a society, to figure out how to provide hope. As much value as there is in all of those other things if I can’t provide some hope that things will get better, that we are working and advocating for things to get better across all areas of our culture, then I can’t honestly say that there is a reason for someone to hope, and at the end of the day, the thing that truly prevented me from taking my own life when I was at my worst, was the hope that life wouldn’t always be that painful.

    As it turned out, my life wasn’t always that painful, and even in times of pain, I can look back and remember that.

    How do we provide that hope for others who have been beaten down and worn out with life right now? Where does their hope come from?

  • |

    Social Media can Be Good or Bad For Our Mental Health, Depending on Who We Follow

    (ed note, updated in Dec 2020) I write often about the connection between social media use and mental health. If you’ve seen any of my previous posts, you know that I tend to be doubtful of there being any direct tie between simply using social media, and being depressed. Rather, I think it really depends…

  • Wil Wheaton Discusses His Mental Illness

    Originally spotted at the AV Club site. One of the things I really took away from Wil’s discussion about how he sought help and how he’s been affected by mental illness was his description of waiting so long because he didn’t realize anything was wrong. He spent years battling the “noise” in his head without…

  • Bright light treatment

    Thanks to a link from Doug Klippert, I found this article about something called “Bright Light Therapy” which can be used to effectively change the timing of the body clock. “Probably the greatest use of bright light therapy is for the treatment of winter depression, especially in very northern countries which have little sunlight in…

  • Sharing secrets

    Marj, from the Survivors Can Thrive blog, left a comment and let me know about a new project she has started called Silence the Shame, which she describes as a secret-sharing space. I think it’s an interesting idea, creating a place for anyone to share their secrets and get support. Check it out for yourself.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)