Whenever any of us find ourselves tormented by suicidal thoughts and feelings: we need to remember that as terrifying as these thoughts and feelings are – they are temporary.  

·        Suicidal thoughts and feelings are terrifying – it can feel like you are being haunted by demons - but they are temporary.

Moreover, according to the world’s professional mental health authorities our suicidal thoughts and feelings are ‘treatable’

·        Because our suicidal thoughts and feelings are treatable – our condition is treatable.

Being treatable doesn’t mean that we are our condition - because we are not – however, when the condition is suicide; it is one condition we cannot afford to become.

Our greatest danger NOW is that we allow our suicidal thoughts and feelings to overwhelm and replace all of our other thoughts and feelings.

When this happens a highly dangerous obsession emerges pushing us ever closer to oblivion

·        In this phase, help is vital – do not attempt to survive a suicidal obssession face alone.

DANGER WARNING DANGER WARNING DANGER

Our ever-intensifying level of suicidal probability also  rises dramatically when we allow our embarrassment to prevent us from asking others for help.

• When our pride allows us to stop ourselves from telling others about what we are going through.
• When our shame allows us not to share with family and friends. Nor speak with anyone face-to-face or even by telephone.

When we allow ourselves to do all of this, we not only cut ourselves off from others; we also cut ourselves off from any possibility of help from others.

When we allow this – we  deny ourselves any possibility of recovery. We deny ourselves ………the chance of life.

To survive, we need to communicate with someone as a matter of some urgency. We urgently need to  find someone that we can trust and talk with. 

Your life is at stake - tell them straight - but tell them truthfully. It is too late in the day for anything other than straight talking. Tell a family member, a close friend, a counsellor, a doctor, a priest etc. The choice is yours. But please choose someone.

If you cannot do this. If you are unable to speak with others face-to-face, or even on the telephone. Don't despair and don't beat yourself up.

You are in the shadow of death and going through what you are going through is scarey. It's perfectly normal for us feel too confused, too nervous, too anxious, too  afraid, too vulnerable and too threatened to tell someone else what we are going through.

It really is asking the world to expect us to open our wounds and reveal our true thoughts, our true hearts our true feelings, our true selves and weaknesses etc.

The prospect of simply telling others can seem like being a humiliation too painful to survive. Given this humiliating choice some of us deliberately choose to remain silent and end up dead rather than be judged badly by others.

As painful as it is to fear the disapproval of others. We can survive their disapproval. We cannot survive our deaths.