World Suicide Prevention Day.
I’ve begged my daughter to stay during her attempt in 2024.
I’ve watched that same daughter grieve the suicide of her friend just a year prior.
I’ve survived two attempts of my own.
I’ve sat beside people as they learned they had lost their child, their partner, their parent, their friend to suicide.
I’ve taken my brother down in the middle of an attempt.
And I’ve found my best friend too late after his.
We are the people you pass on the street every single day and would never know we almost weren’t here.
We laughed.
We loved.
We joked.
We went to work.
We took care of our families.
We showed up for everyone else.
We were called “strong.”
Because suicide doesn’t have a face.
Suicidal ideation doesn’t always look like crying, isolation, or someone visibly falling apart.
Sometimes it looks like the funniest person in the room.
The dependable one.
The parent.
The sibling.
The friend who always answers when you call.
The person everyone swears is “too strong” to ever do something like that.
Please stop saying someone “didn’t seem suicidal.”
Please stop saying they “seemed happy.”
Please stop saying they were “stronger than that.”
Pain can exist beside laughter.
Hopelessness can exist beside love.
And someone can desperately want the pain to end while still deeply loving the people around them.
Check on your strong friends.
Listen without judgment.
Take people seriously when they tell you they’re tired.
Make it safe for the people you love to say, “I’m not okay.”
And if you are the person silently fighting to stay:
Please stay.
There are people walking this earth today who once believed they wouldn’t make it to tomorrow.
I am one of them. 💜🩵
#suicideprevention