“This wasn’t your regular mom-loses-her-crap-sometimes type of situation. I was completely defeated and demoralized. I would snap at them for almost no reason. My kids started apologizing every time they asked me a question because they were worried I was going to get upset for bothering me. I didn’t feel like I needed help. I was wrong.”
‘Your family is better off without you. You are incompetent, unworthy, and a failure.’: Mom experiences severe depression, says treating it doesn’t make you ‘weak’
‘We had a big fight. I took a bath to rinse off the negative energy. You wrote your goodbye letter.’: Woman loses veteran husband to suicide, ‘you were excited for our baby to be born, you didn’t make it this far’
“I heard our bedroom door shut. I thought you were just going to shower. I tried to find my phone and heard your body hit the floor. You were struggling. I ran upstairs, the door was locked. I tried to kick it in. ‘How the hell do people do this?!’ Throwing my body into the door, I begged you with all of my might to let me in.”
‘No one can take this pain away, so I must take it away myself. Lay me next to my daughter.’: Mom speaks candidly of ‘suicidal thoughts’ in wake of stillbirth, ‘I wouldn’t wish this on anyone’
“There are no visible wounds, but the pain courses through my entire being. I breathe in through my nose, blow out of my mouth. I’m alive, but being alive without my daughter hurts. I can’t wipe the tears away. It’s too much effort. I can’t move, even if I wanted to. I don’t want to pee. Eat. Shower. Brush my teeth. I see my dad’s face, and he wants me here. To hold on. To live.”
‘I cried when I found your daughter lying in a ditch, high on meth, but you didn’t know.’: Police officer claims ‘we’re people too’ in emotional letter, ‘no training can prepare us for the things we see’
“I was devastated when I found the 32-year old veteran dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but you didn’t know. I missed my kids birthdays, school plays, and family trips because I had to work, but you didn’t know. I was never comfortable at social gatherings because with the things I’ve seen, I can’t trust anyone. I had problems, just like everyone else, but you didn’t know.”
‘Can you watch David tonight?’ I took her newborn. That night, I missed the call from the Sherriff’s Department.’: Mom loses daughter to suicide, leaving behind newborn son, now lives life ‘to make her proud’
“That night, I went to bed and forgot to take my phone off silent. I didn’t hear it ring. I missed the call. Her sister woke me to 3 words that changed my life forever: ‘Brenna killed herself.’ For so many years, I’d pleaded with God to heal her depression. This not what I meant. Now, Baby David will never remember his mommy.”
‘Do you have a son in Idaho?’ I instantly knew my son was gone. He took his life after a silly argument.’: Father says son’s death by suicide feels ‘unreal’ after his struggle with mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse
“I heard a knock on my door. I opened and saw a young policeman. He told me he had a phone number I needed to call. I quickly realized we had trouble. The officer claimed he didn’t know what it was about (doubtful). I called the number – it was answered by a person at the Boise morgue.”
‘That’s it, I’m going to write a suicide note and be dead by Monday.’ I’d already attempted once by taking 90 Benadryl.’: 14-year-old describes feeling ‘no one cared,’ his life was ‘worthless’
“I got home and checked an Instagram group chat I was involved in and saw everyone thought I was actually dead for 4 days. It made me sad because at the time I didn’t think anyone cared and I felt everyone would be better off without me.”
‘I stumbled on my dad’s porn. The girl was young, like me. In shock, I watched the man on TV do the things that happened to me.’: Child sexual abuse survivor says there’s always ‘light waiting to wrap you up’
“My dad went downstairs to get ready for work. When he didn’t come up, we figured he was asleep. At 9 a.m. my mom’s screams pierced every cell in my body. I turned the corner and saw his body. He was exposed, sitting in his chair in front of naked women running across TV, his lifeless eyes staring at the ground. ‘How could you die like this, dad?’ I tied his robe closed, called 911, and ran outside. My hero was not who I thought he was.”
‘You promised you’d never leave us. We had plans THAT day. Our son, at 10 years old, had to call 911.’: Wife says although her late husband’s suffering is done, theirs has ‘only just begun’ after his suicide
“Do you remember how I told you this would utterly destroy me? How our kids needed every ounce of you? You knew how much we needed and loved you. I reminded you every single day. But you didn’t plan that moment, did you? Because if you did, you would have known how it killed us too. You wouldn’t have done it.”
‘My brother started the ‘naked man’ game when I was 6. I felt so empty I thought I might just float away.’: Woman overcomes sexual trauma, now uses kindness as an ‘act of rebellion’
“I walked home in a dress, but no underwear. I told my mom and dad I was staying with a friend, and then went into the operating room to have my right fallopian tube removed along with the baby that would never be. I went home the next day and said, ‘I feel like I have the flu’ and went straight to bed. My cry for help didn’t work. Nobody noticed. Nobody asked if I was okay. I knew if I didn’t start fighting for myself, I’d end up dead.”
