And Counting

And Counting

Affirmation, Stigma
Content Warning: suicide, and a tiny bit of blood I have been living on borrowed time for twenty-nine years. It was today, twenty-nine years ago, that I cut deep across my wrists with a razor blade, hoping that I would drift pleasantly off to sleep and not wake up. So, obviously, that didn't work out. But it might have, and so I have a blessing to count today. I was mocked for my attempt. I know this, because my suddenly-ex-boyfriend told me so. Word had gone around at school that I hadn't really meant it, because I cut crossways, and not lengthwise. Well, what did I know? I was eighteen, and that's always how they did it on television. Believe me when I say that I was sincere. Although I…
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We should talk about this

Stigma
Today I noticed that the Twitter hashtag #MyMentalHealthIn5Words was trending. I had a look at what people were posting, and then made my contribution: We should talk about this. Mental health and mental illness both seem to be in the news a lot these days. Just this morning, the radio told me that the suicide rate in Bhutan is going up. (Sorry, I can't find the programme reference to point you to.) We're hearing constantly about the opioid crisis in Canada. We're hearing about our military veterans and their families, struggling to cope with what they've been through. And yet... we're not talking. We're talking in broad terms, of course. Like, Wow, there's an epidemic of depression / addiction / PTSD out there and we should really do something about…
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