Sarah Gilman Instagram – another suicide prevention month has come and gone. but! every single day is suicide prevention day. is mental health awareness or world mental health day. these are as weaved into our everyday lives as how tired we are when we wake up in the morning. ‘suicide prevention’ is just another way of saying “finding the pieces of life that make each day meaningful and bearable.”
though this has been such a big part of my life since childhood, i formally began advocating in this space in 2019 when the pandemic brought so much pain to light. years before that, following my own suicide attempt, I embarked on a mission to coexist with my brain, to break through stigma and educate myself on why i felt and coped the way i did and how i could help myself.
it’d probably take a book to write down all I’ve learned since then but here are a few I think about most days:
✨our best looks different every day, for reasons within and without our control. just like some days you’re extra tired, some days you’re going to be more irritated or sad and you may not know why. you don’t need to fix everything, some things are just meant to be weathered until they pass.
✨when you’re in a bad mood or a depressive episode is NOT the time to think about the future.
✨during a crisis is a terrible time to plan for a crisis. things will fall apart, that’s life. set yourself up for a soft landing by making a plan, identifying safe people and places, bookmarking resources, and prewriting messages.
✨we don’t build trust by offering to help, we build trust by ASKING for it. by showing that we can be vulnerable, we open the door for vulnerability.
✨be a pupil, not a judge. instead of jumping to valuing or moods or actions as “good” or “bad,” get curious about why you feel the way you do, how it shows up in your body, what your brain is saying that is actually speculative and untrue, etc.
✨the future is a job for future you, and you’ll handle it when you get there. as you’ve handled all your worst and best days so far! you never know what you’ll bring to the table, so you must stick around to find out.
✨things change, but only if we change them (Andy warhol)
💙sarah | Posted on 13/Oct/2024 03:51:52
