Meaningful Connections Create Healing
I recently posted an article on my Facebook site about a story of a young man from Ireland who aided in helping a man who was about to jump off a bridge by taking the time to talk to him. He asked the simple question of “are you okay?” He then proceeded to plead with the man to come down off the bridge and spent 45 minutes talking to him about his struggles and called for medical help.
Months later the young man received a message from the man saying he was well and he and his wife was pregnant and they were going to name the baby boy after him. Such a small act of kindness that led to saving a human life and opening room for another.
Suicide is a difficult topic regardless of who we are, and or, if it has touched us in some form or another in our lives. It is scary and seems pointless. Most would feel that it is something that is so preventative and final if successful that it breaks everyone who is affected. People often just don’t understand it, and fair enough…
People who reach this point feel that life is unbearable. There are often preventative steps that can be taken but the pain and suffering that they feel seems beyond all that and they may have even taken many of the steps available without success. From their perspective; nothing, or noHealthy Body can help make the pain go away and make life worthwhile.
As a therapist, I cannot help if the attempt is successful, therefore, I tell folks that are feeling this way that there are trying to escape the pain that they feel. That is real and dying is an option that will end the suffering; only it is so final. There would be no more choices. There would be no more opportunities for life to be better and pain free. There would not be the experiences of life as good, content, and manageable.
Often people who are feeling suicidal just want the suffering to stop. It is similar to chronic physical pain in that it is often relentless and constant.
I help people work through the emotional pain they are experiencing and take them to a place of relief and contentment. We work together to create better options through emotional release that takes suicide off the table, and lends room for better ways of coping and experiencing life. Just like the young man from Ireland, it is about meaningful connections to self with another that creates healing.
