A Letter to My Future Suicidal Self

Barry, You have opened your sealed envelope because suicide is now an option. Through no fault of your own, you were drawn here by your illness and circumstances. As your past rational, cogent and lucid self, I don’t know exactly what led you to this point. To fall this far, something has happened to all you have learned in therapy and by practicing various skills. Your confidence that you are strong enough to survive this is shaken, if not completely absent. Know this, Barry: you have survived the fearsome specter of suicide before. You cannot control the events that brought you here; with courage and support you can alter your responses to the events. You can choose to survive. Many times you have stood alone on the banks of your black river called depression with its dead and gnarled trees along the banks with green meadows in the distance. You chose not to enter the river then. Something made this time different. Perhaps it is not beneficial to focus on the path taken but to focus on the path forward. Where are you now? Are you ankle-deep in the slow-moving waters near the safety of the riverbank? Or, have you loaded your pockets with stones, turned your back on the safe haven of the bank and moved into the swiftly moving neck-deep water in the center? Have you been carried downstream by events and emotions, past the safety of the accessible riverbanks to where the river’s edge now meets the vertical canyon walls, making an exit seemingly impossible? Even so, it is no...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Depression Disorders General Loneliness Personal Stories Psychology Suicide self help Suicidal Ideation Suicide Prevention Source Type: news