For National Suicide Awareness Month, many have been reaching out and opening up about their personal struggles with mental illness and suicide. Al Fox Carraway is not one of those people. She has not experienced thoughts of suicide, but still she has decided to speak out on this topic. "Even in my ignorance, I know that silence is the worst thing and I don’t want my inadequacies to stop me anymore," Carraway wrote on Instagram, sharing the following powerful message:
SUICIDE: I’ve gone in circles for a very long time (years) to know how to talk about this appropriately when I never struggled with it myself. I know that it’s very hard. I know that it is very, very real. But I also don’t fully understand it because I haven’t gone through it.
So, the thing is—even in my ignorance, I know that silence is the worst thing and I don’t want my inadequacies to stop me anymore.
I receive way too many emails from people on the verge of taking their life, and I, too, have been impacted by those close to me struggling or have taken their life.
And if I can say anything at all, it’s this:
STOP THINKING YOU CAN’T TELL YOUR PARENTS. Or your friend. Or your spouse. Or a hotline (1-800-273-8255). Or anyone at all.
The most important thing you can do is REACH OUT.
It’s heartbreaking to hear when someone struggles w/ this, but it’s more heartbreaking to hear they are too afraid to tell those close to them & continue to struggle alone. Absolutely do not think you are alone, or that no one cares or that help is not there, or that you are a burden, or God looks at you less! It profoundly just isn't true.
Something that IS profoundly true is this:
THE WORLD WILL NOT BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU.
Quoting my friend @saltyrachel 's post: (shortened)
“IF U R THINKING ABOUT SUICIDE: I know the upside-down underworld you are living in. I know the chilling blackness you feel like you'll be trapped in forever. I know how alluring it can seem to just want everything to end, to make the hurting stop. I know b/c I've tried. More than once. ...I promise that help is not as scary as the hurting you know so well. I promise that depression is a nightmare that you can wake up from. I promise that just b/c you cannot see a path through the darkness, doesn't mean there isn't one... One day sun & saltwater will kiss your skin again. One day your smile won't be a lie & you'll realize that despite the darkness in the world, there is light too, and that light is you.”