Why is suicide the only option for so many....

Someone's outward presentation to the world rarely shares the reality of how they feel.

Societally many can't handle and don't want "the real". They want the fun and the funny. The happy and the outgoing. The independant and the non needy. The lonely or sad or those different in any way from our view that "normal" is happily married with kids are often deliberately or inadvertently excluded.

Yet in our midst even many who are married are sad and lonely due to a spouse that is unloving or unkind or in the worst of cases abusive. Many have health issues or fertility issues or depression that is an everyday battle. We never know who in our midst feels lonely, lost, unloved, left out, hurt by the world.

Don’t just ask surface level questions of those you meet and care for. Instead be brave enough to accept the "real" answer of how life is feeling for them right now and more importantly be ready to make time to really listen and care for that person who has been brave enough to share their pain. Scrape below the surface of the oil painting of someone in your circle today and remember that suicide, though shocking to us, often seems like the only option out of the pain they are experiencing. They feel they are lightening the load of the world and their loved ones by removing themselves. This is the case for more people than we can probably even imagine. If we live in our own bubbles or blow off someone being needy or sad, we can't be shocked when they use suicide to express to the world that they just can't take one more day in the hell that they feel. It is the raw truth.