Whenever a story about suicide or attempted suicide hits the media there is a mix of reactions. There are the people who don’t care, they see the suicidal as an inconvenience. There are those who have been there and understand the despair behind suicide. Then there are those in between. They don’t really mean to be offensive, but they are misinformed and they can’t possibly keep their comments to themselves.
*The following post discusses suicide and self harm. Please make sure you are feeling safe before continuing. If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or self harm please contact a health professional. The number for Lifeline is 13 11 14*
At the moment you would be forgiven for thinking that the leading killer of young people is smoking, alcohol or driving related deaths. However this couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes all of these things impact our youth but they are not the number one killer of people aged 15-25. The real truth isn’t being talked about anywhere near as much as it should be.
PMS or Premenstrual Syndrome is a bit of a touchy subject. A subject that seems to gather a lot of ‘of she must be on her rags’ comments from the more dense variety of the opposite sex. PMS however is a very real syndrome for a lot of women. Better health Channel says that up to 75% of women experience mild symptoms, while 20-30% experience more severe symptoms that can affect their mental well being.
All of the ‘bully chats’ when I was at school told us to ignore the bully. They just want attention. They just want a reaction from you. It will be better if you ignore it. Is it really? None of my recollection of being taunted from school is that ignoring them is good. I’m a stewer, I sit on things until I explode. Clearly ignoring it doesn’t work.
I really wasn’t sure if I should link up to this, this week. I didn’t know how to approach it and whether I should, given the way that I have been feeling of late. I however decided to look at it as a celebration of beating the odds rather than the morbid dwelling on death.