Suicide, a symptom not a choice


We are all very much aware of the recent death of the much loved actor Robin Williams. Robin Williams death as sparked much conversation in the media regarding suicide and more specifically reasons as to why people believe Robin Williams took his own life but I am not here to write about that as I know all to well from first hand experience that there are many different reasons as to why people take their own life, something which is not a choice nor is it a cowards way out. In light of his recent death my brother sent me an article which was written regarding his death stating that Robin Williams did in fact not die by suicide but he died from depression, a mental illness which has the power to control your life, invade your thoughts and make living a chore.

This article ( http://www.umbrelr.com ) is thought provoking and really do make you think about things, even I found myself changing the way I think about suicide despite myself at times in my life attempting to take my own life on a number of different occasions. Had I succeeded in taking my own life people would have said I was selfish, I was a coward and that I was stupid to have not asked for help and taking such a drastic measure which will have prevented me from ever facing the issues which were going on in my life, but this article challenges that, this article allows people to become more aware of the illness behind the persons death. Just like the article says if a person who is suffering cancer dies from a blood clot as a result of having cancer they are said to have died from cancer and not the blood clot which could have been the cause of death. Similarly if someone dies by suicide it should be the underlining condition such as depression which is determined to be the cause of death. Just changing how people view someones death by suicide can allow for the stigma associated with mental health to be broken down and more understanding of mental health and mental health issues.

So just like a blood clot can be a fatal symptom of cancer as explained in the article mentioned above suicide can too be a fatal symptom of depression. It is not until we begin to change our attitudes towards mental health that people can really begin to open up and talk about their mental health issues. Suicide is not an illness in itself but it is a symptom of an illness, an illness just as real as any other because at the end of the day, just because you cant see something does not mean it isn't real! After all you cant see me writing these blog posts and I can assure you I am very much a real person.


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