Suicide Is Not a Choice: Mental Illness and Those Losing The Battle To It Deserve More Compassion

The Pretty Uncomfortable Podcast

In the same way that death comes when someone loses their battle with cancer, so too does death come when someone loses their battle with mental illness.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which is a topic that lives close to my heart. I have had this episode on my mind since even before Pretty In Kink launched it's first episode in January. I wasn't ready for it. But the whole point of this podcast is to show you that when we discuss the uncomfortable things, we get more comfortable.

The conversations that surround a death by suicide are interesting. They are unlike any other. When I lost my mother to an unexpected illness I was surrounded by comforting words. She fought so hard. She held on for so long. Heaven got an angel. She was so strong. She was such an amazing woman. When my brother died from suicide, I was told that he would burn in hell. That he was a terribly selfish person. That he thought of no one but himself. How dare he? What was he thinking? Our small town high school outright refused to lower the flag in his memory due to his death being from suicide.

How can we ever expect people to feel safe to come forward and discuss their struggles, to reveal the level or darkness they are sitting in, if they run the risk of being vilified? Of being looked down upon as if they are weak. The conversations that we have, the judgements we lay upon people struggling with mental illness, have got to change. Mental illness is an illness that kills just as fiercely as cancer does.

We need to start having compassion for those that are struggling. When we lose someone to mental illness their memory deserves the same level of compassion as those that die of any other illness. The words we choose live on. People hear them. And when they are grasping onto life, those words that they once heard do not give them comfort. They remind them that they are bad. It feeds the illness further and they become more and more reluctant to reach out. And the ones left in the aftermath? Those harsh words push them deeper into their grief isolation. They are mourning a very complicated loss while essentially being told that their person is bad for this tragic action.

In this episode I share my personal experience with surviving the aftermath of my brother's suicide, the way the words of others hurt me, and my evolution from feeling anger turn to compassion.

"The problem with how many are talking about tWitch's death" by Mel Robbins

***SUICIDE PREVENTION RESOURCES***

Never be afraid to reach out for help- it’s the bravest thing you will ever do…

Suicide Hotline- CLICK HERE

Suicide Prevention Resources- CLICK HERE

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