World Suicide Prevention Day 2018

Ruby

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2018, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide. Continue reading

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Keep The Faith 

Ruby

There’s things I’ve done I can’t erase

Every night we fall from grace

It’s hard, with the world in your face

Try to hold on, try to hold on. . . 

~ Bon Jovi, ‘Keep the Faith’

 

I believe in the Holy Trinity, and I believe in the Blessed Virgin.

I believe in God, and I believe in science. Continue reading

World Suicide Prevention Day 2015

Ruby

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2015, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide. Continue reading

Why I Disclosed My Mental Illness To My Employer

Cate

Click to read Cate’s bio

It’s a difficult one.  To disclose or not to disclose?  There are plenty of articles around about the issue of whether to tell your employer that you have a mental illness.  I came across a recent one and it got me thinking.  I disclosed in the past but would I do it again?

The article, Deciding Whether to Disclose Mental Disorders to the Boss by Alina Tugend (for The New York Times) got me thinking.  Has my mind changed?

You see, in 2009 I chose to tell my prospective employer that I had a mental illness. Continue reading

World Suicide Prevention Day

Ruby

Trigger Warning:  As indicated by the title, this post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is especially triggering to you, you may want to make the choice not to read on.

Today is 10 September 2014, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide. Continue reading

Please Understand What It’s Like To Be Me (…Or A Giraffe)

Cate

Click to read Cate’s bio

TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of issues related to Eating Disorder recovery. No numbers involved.  

Also, there is a rather nasty animal welfare story mentioned in the first two paragraphs.

I read an horrendous story the other day about a giraffe tragically killed in South Africa recently as it was being transported on a busy highway.  The giraffe was decapitated when the truck it was being transported by drove under an over-bridge.  The giraffe was blindfolded (it makes me wonder if the driver was too), and I think that is standard practise for transporting these animals, to keep them calm (personally blindfolding me will not keep me calm).

Continue reading

Breaking Down The Walls Of “Can’t”

Ruby

Alright, kids, confession time.  I have been feeling incredibly sorry for myself recently.

Oddly enough, it was another person validating all I have been going through this year, telling me I’m not getting all worked up over nothing, that I have had it incredibly rough that snapped me out of my funk.  This person was trying to help me, they said sometimes we all feel sorry for ourselves, we can’t help it.

This is absolutely true.  And I have been dealing with — let’s just keep things short and say a whole lot of crap Continue reading

There Are Worse Things

Cate

Click to read Cate’s bio

It’s one of those things on which, probably, each of us has a different viewpoint.    What’s the worst thing someone could do to me?  And then, is it really the ‘worst‘?  Or is something else ‘worse‘?

I’ve been thinking, trying to find myself some closure from something that happened in my past.  The closure hadn’t come naturally and I’ve realised that perhaps it was because of this.  I was hung up by what the ‘worst thing‘ was.

Without wanting to trigger anyone into places they don’t want to go, let me just say that in general we, as a society, have ideas about what is the ‘worst’ harm that could happen to a person.  I want to suggest that we don’t always get that right. Continue reading