Seeds of Hope

I have been talking with someone very important to me about their history of suicide and how their views on the situation somehow differ from many of those around us.

As we approach the holidays, a time where many families are remembering those who they have lost, I want to share some interesting thoughts, views, and reflections with all of you.

According to the CDC, over 49,000 people die a year due to suicide- this amounts to one life every 11 minutes. As crazy as that number seems, this does not include the 13.2 million people who have seriously thought about it, the 3.8 million who have devised a plan to do it, or the 1.6 million who have attempted it.

I think many of us have had the initial thought of how selfish taking your own life can be, how the thought of someone leaving us to deal with the aftermath of that decision alone is selfish. I myself have had to process through these thoughts in a way I thought I would never have to.

However, I want you to take a second and think of how lucky you are if you are not one of the 13.2 million, the 3.8 million, or the 1.6 million who have had to battle the same feelings those people have felt every day.

Think about the people who you have lost to suicide and ask yourself if they had continued to fight and never had gotten better, would you be happy they were living in that amount of pain every day just so you felt better about them being here?

I am not saying that any which way of feeling is right, so don’t come for me. I am simply asking that you take a moment to reflect on that.

One and six Americans are taking or prescribed to take antidepressants. According to the National Institute of Health, 88,247 people per 100,000 who are taking antidepressants fall into one of the three categories outlined by the CDC while actively taking their medication. If getting help and being on medication alone could help those struggling, these people would not be falling in these categories any longer.

With that being said, clearly something needs to change. People are hurting, and as a country we are prescribing medication as a Band-Aid, with the intent to cover up the problem enough that it doesn’t result in such a tragic incident. We are placing loved ones in a mental health treatment setting, where they are fed different cocktails of medications until they are calm enough to be sent home under the guise that “it is working”.

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer who is widely recognized for his publishing of the books “Treasure Island” once said, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

Remember this when you see those who are struggling, remember that during the holidays when you see those who are barely making it through.

Plant seeds of hope and growth and love.

Plant seeds of better days and acceptance.

Plant seeds of kindness and gratefulness.

Plant seeds that let people know that despite their challenges you love them.

Plant seeds that let them know that if they cannot make it through another day, you would rather them happy, fulfilled and in peace than in the pain they live with every day.

Losing the ones we love is never easy, regardless of when or how they go. It is our job to think of them in their suffering instead of focusing that suffering on ourselves.

This time of year, is especially hard on those of us who are missing people we love, and even harder on those who feel they have no one to love them.

Be that person this year.

Be the person who loves someone who needs it.