TalentCoop NB · @TalentCoop
1st Jan 2014 from TwitLonger
In my timeline I've seen comment on Donal Walsh, at best wondering if it's right to accept his words of advice. I hope the following gives balance.
Donal Walsh was a fine young man, most of us have his like in our families. Kids we love, we're so proud of, have hopes to see grow to adulthood, who have everything to live for, every desire to live and it is the worst of fate's cruel handiwork that Donal's life should be taken so cruelly, prematurely by illness. From the position of his unwanted terminal illness, Donal spoke his truth!.
He valued life, yearned to live his life fully and tried to influence others to see same value, to not take their lives, the very gift he cherished so much!.
He spoke as a lovely, caring, young man in the worst circumstance, cheated of life and perhaps understandably, uncomprehending (if there's such word) of why ANY of his peers would willingly end their lives, wanting them, beseeching them not to. I don't think he can be criticised in any way for that.
Which of us, if we could choose, would want any young person to even have thought of suicide, let alone the experience and pain that leads a number of them to take their lives every year by suicide ?.
Unfortunately, mental illness is not as simple as 'life is precious and fun so don't suicide'. The emotional pain and illness experienced, often accompanied by stigma, eats away at the rational mind, the life force, the desire to live, in a way that is too hard for any of us to comprehend of an 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 year old or more. Yet suicide for these kids is their way of STOPPING the PAIN. Pain that makes life completely unbearable, without value, a pretence, an ordeal they can no longer bear.
Hard as it for us to take on board, these kids would trade places with Donal in a breath if it meant ending the mental pain they feel. In our collective understanding of happy families, aspiration, planned success and futures, to imagine such young kids with 'everything to live for' wanting to end their life is inexplicable, abhorrent, heartrending.
Whether physical illness or mental illness, the outcome can be deadly for these wonderful young people and the pain of their loss cannot be measured by cause of death.
Donal sadly had all choice removed, I feel his honest, youthful words were not just advice to his peers but words to the rest of us. Words for us to hear and act upon with kids where there is choice of wellness and recovery.
We really need to know our kids, to love & value them, teach them to value themselves, to talk with them, help their security. To do everything we can to support them in cherishing life and valuing their mental wellness, every bit as much as their physical wellness.
There are no winners whether a child dies by terminal illness or suicide, their loss is simply unbearable.
But if we are more aware, more understanding of Mental illness, we CAN make a difference and reduce the numbers of kids who take their lives, often without any of us even knowing or recognising the pain they were in.
RIP Donal, RIP others who have ended their own pain #NoBlame #DonalWalsh #Suicide
#MentalHealth