The Stigma

“Once the person's mind is made up that's it”, a retired doctor told me afterwards. Apparently, all these dear souls are perfectionists, and compassionate. They cannot meet their own high expectations, or their perfectionist goals, and may fall into profound loneliness, and or severe social anxiety, which all may lead to the deadly trigger. Deborah wrote in her final letter to us, in the very first line, that “all her life she has tried to be perfect, and she has been unhappy for a very long time.” It is not just depression as an obvious factor, there is also anxiety, bi-polar, psychosis and a multitude of other symptoms may be displayed, in a blend of concoction.
Sometimes it is a positive energy they derived from a holiday or vacation that may lead them to follow through with their plan.



My one friend said, “The only hope I see for help with mental illness is to get rid of the stigma attached to it as people laugh when they are afraid or do not understand the illness. We do not laugh at diabetics so why should we laugh at people with mental illness.

People are so quick to judge and have very little compassion for mental illnesses.  If you have a wound on the outside, sympathy is easy to give, but when someone goes "off the rails" mentally, great stigma is attached to them.   That's why we hide our pain with fake smiles and cry on the inside.”

Tolerance and understanding of their pain would be a tremendous step in the right direction, and offering words of encouragement.