It is I | World Suicide Prevention Day 2022

Creating hope through action” is the triennial theme for the World Suicide Prevention Day from 2021 – 2023. This theme is a reminder that there is an alternative to suicide and aims to inspire confidence and light in all of us.

By creating hope through action, we can signal to people experiencing suicidal thoughts that there is hope and that we care and want to support them. It also suggests that our actions, no matter how big or small, may provide hope to those who are struggling. Lastly, it highlights the importance of setting suicide prevention as a priority public health agenda by countries.

World Health Organisation

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It is I.

I, who cause unspeakable pain and grief and whom you’d will out of existence in a heartbeat.

You never see me, my invisibility is what renders me so fatal. Maybe if you were to slow down, speak slowly, listen slowly, or observe slowly – you’d see me peek through a half-baked smile or gleeful eyes.

It is I, who never intends to hurt anyone but sometimes, all I see is the bad. No matter where I look or how much I squint, all I see is the pain and grief. I’m soaked and drenched in it and eventually, sheer sorrow is what flows through my veins.

Maybe if you listened to the unsaid words and happy gestures, there’s a melancholy underlying all of it. I would say it’s almost beautiful in a way, it’s pure and so human. But oh – only if you could see how much this pain I radiate, takes away every day.

It’s a gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, tremendous pain that leaves no mark. It’s the kind that feeds on joy and drains all life until all that remains is a soulless vessel of skin and bones that finds refuge in nothing but the mystery of death.

There’s a certain aura to this mad grief – the mourning of a life that is dead and alive at once, a being that breathes for the sake of life and to whom existing is a mere chore. Someone who’s been drained of all life and is lost in a world where nothing makes sense, a world where even kin appears to be strangers.

I torture them, heartlessly and you – you never seem to know. Why?

What could be so much more important than a living, breathing person?

All you have to do is listen.

Listen to the silent cries, the pleading and the creaks and groans that accompany life every day. This is what I do – it’s all I know how to do,

But you – you are human beings.

You have a heart that beats, a heart that is capable of the beautiful act of love. Just talk to these people that I hurt without mercy, listen to them and smile at them and please just tell them I always go away.

It is I, whom you know by many names; it is I who never stays too long – humans are far too good a soul to plague and I’m driven away sooner than later.

Please stay with your friends and family and those strangers that don’t see the sun. Show them that they are beautiful souls that deserve to see how their lives and stories glow from afar.

Please don’t let them take their own lives.

It is what I do, but it is what you and only you can prevent.

World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO). The 10th of September each year focuses attention on the issue, reduces stigma and raises awareness among organizations, government, and the public, giving a singular message that suicide can be prevented.

An estimated 703,000 people a year take their life around the world. For every suicide, there are likely 20 other people making a suicide attempt and many more have serious thoughts of suicide. Millions of people suffer intense grief or are otherwise profoundly impacted by suicidal behaviours.

World Health Organisation

Please click here to learn more and see how you can help.

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“We can all create hope through action and be the light.“

World Health Organisation

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Thoughtfully yours,
D

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