This is a teachable moment. Stephen, people commit suicide because they are mentally ill. Mental illness is an affliction that our society wishes to sweep under the rug. Mental illness is not a choice and yet it is treated as such. Despair is not a choice. Despair is made worse by self- medication (alcohol, drugs). Despair encompasses a person so wholly that one sees nothing but darkness for the days ahead. People in despair can be surrounded by love, they are just unable to see it or they are in such emotional pain that ending their life is they only way they perceive they can obtain peace While your story is a lovely one, it continues the idea that mental illness is not an illness at all.
On Sep 23, 2012 Wendy Ward wrote:
This is a teachable moment. Stephen, people commit suicide because they are mentally ill. Mental illness is an affliction that our society wishes to sweep under the rug. Mental illness is not a choice and yet it is treated as such. Despair is not a choice. Despair is made worse by self- medication (alcohol, drugs). Despair encompasses a person so wholly that one sees nothing but darkness for the days ahead. People in despair can be surrounded by love, they are just unable to see it or they are in such emotional pain that ending their life is they only way they perceive they can obtain peace While your story is a lovely one, it continues the idea that mental illness is not an illness at all.