Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15 and 44. The leading cause. Not car accidents, not heart disease or cancer. Suicide. 7 people in Australia die by suicide every day and an average of 1,000 people at least think about it. 20% of Australians between 16 and 85 have suffered from a mental illness in the last year. Yet somehow we arent allowed to talk about it. For some reason theres a social cost to be paid for admitting to suffering from an illness you did nothing to deserve. We tiptoe around our feelings and try not to burden other people by answering fine when people ask how we are. Im not okay with that anymore. I suffered from a severe depression from 18 until about 22. It changed my life in a drastic way and while it was occurring, I was desperate to hide it from as many people as I could. Somehow it mattered to me whether people knew I was sick, like I was somehow tarnished or to blame for something I had no control over. Im better now thanks to the incredible support I received from my family and my life is better than I ever could have imagined. Somehow I came out of the depression a stronger and happier person than I entered it as. Im one of the lucky few. Anyway, writing this was hard. Exposing myself to everyone I know like this makes me feel incredibly vulnerable. It shouldnt be this hard but it is. If theres one person who reads this who is going through a tough time like I did, please know that you wont always feel the way you do right now. Like every feeling it will come and go and over time you will hopefully feel the bad things less and the good things more. It happened to me and it can to you too.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:54:28 +0000
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