Now that Suicide Prevention Week is over, we mustn’t forget the struggle that men, women, and children are facing every day, wondering if it’s better for everyone if they ‘just went away’.

It is our job, our obligation, to show them, not that they are wrong, but how much they are appreciated, how they are not alone, never alone. There is always a better way than suicide and they (we) are strong.

We are courageous.

We are empowered.

And we are stronger together.

For those times that we feel that we aren’t, there are people, friends willing to drop everything to catch us, take us by the hand,  and pull us out if the depths of darkness and into the light.

We need to make sure that those in need know that we are here. I am one of those people on both sides of the darkness.

For a long time I was the hand pulling people up, holding tight when they wanted to let go, and pushing my own despair away to help someone else. It wasn’t until recently that I couldn’t do either. I couldn’t reach out and I couldn’t push down my torments that were barely on the edge of perception, in the shadows, the grey space that they had always been in, since childhood, unrecognized, unacknowledged and unidentified. Nameless.

Luckily, I had a couple of someones who reached their hands out and pulled me up, who continue to hold my hand.

I will keep talking about this. I will be there for the next person who doesn’t have anywhere to turn.

This is Suicide Prevention Month. We are approaching the holidays – Thanksgiving here in the US, Christmas, Chanukah, New Year’s, when folks reassess their lives and sometimes make bad decisions. Permanent decisions for temporary pain.

But they are not alone.

Trevor Lifeline helping LGBTQ youth: 866-488-7386

Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Veteran’s Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255, press 1