Persephone Magazine

TW: Suicide and Self-harm

From the article:

I get it, I really do. At least to the extent that a person who has not experienced suicide can. But it isn’t usually considered helpful to say to someone in the midst or in the aftermath, “Well, I wouldn’t have done it!” Lovely, now excuse me while I slap your high horse on the rump. Enjoy the gallop. I hope you fall off. To those who say they would never do such a thing, I suggest they submit themselves to the studies on psychological resilience. Please, if anything, just go away. I realise that a lot of it comes from shock, from ignorance, from wanting to distance themselves from what they perhaps hope deep down they would never be capable of, from places I simply don’t know. On the “permanent solution” front, I am willing to believe there are some situations where this has worked, however, I’m also willing to believe the words came from someone with training or experience. In my experience though, the “permanent solution” point is lost on someone like Mr. Juniper, well, maybe not lost, so much as open to a different interpretation. In a lot of these cases, I would love for people to read the likes of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks, to help them realise how complex the brain is, that we aren’t the same and also, if they’re reading, they’re hopefully too busy to say something detrimental.

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