A nice cheerful post for a Thursday morning!
rape
suicide
It gets better. Ask Jane, Emily, Corynne, s.e., Olivia, Daisy, Julieanne, Marianne, Kathleen, Somer or so many of the other people out there on the Internet who may not know you -- but who (like me, and everyone who works at xoJane) love you. A lot.
suicide
He left the bedroom calmer than I'd seen him all night, walked into the backyard and ended his life.
suicide
There are a few topics that, as a general rule, I just refuse to discuss on the Internet. Assisted suicide/right-to-die is usually one of them.
cremation
NFL linebacker Junior Seau's suicide made me realize just how much I think about death, but also how unprepared I am in the instance it actually happens.
suicide
As if the headline didn’t say it all: TRIGGER ALERT! TRIGGER ALERT!
friendship
Today, or sometime around today, is an anniversary that I felt in my body before the why came to mind. Around this time, in 2010, a good friend of mine took her own life. She was 27 years old.
suicide
My race of women are supposed to be strong. But the truth of the matter is that black folks battle with suicide just as much as the next person. We just don’t talk about it much.
depression
In the wake of any suicide, but especially a very public and prominent one, there is a rush to attribute reasons, and there is a collective sense of panicked guilt as people struggle to understand what happened and why.
living
In the midst of my festival of tears, I found myself sincerely thinking, "I can't kill myself. I haven't finished my taxes yet." And then I started to laugh.
suicide
While normal families call each other because they love one another, my phone calls are to ensure my brother is still alive, to make sure he hasn't taken the pills or put the gun in his mouth.
suicide
I was on stage headlining a comedy show for a thousand people when my girlfriend took her life 6 years ago today.
ihtm contest
She killed herself in 2008, but I think she would have done it a lot sooner, were it not for her unabashed love for me.
first love
It has been several years now since Mark's death. I think about him every day. I wonder what would have happened if I had gone to his house that day.
bully
When another story like that of Kenneth Weishuhn comes like bullet spray toward my entire being I can't help but think -- it doesn't always get better.
mental health
I take mental illness very seriously. So I’ve never regretted having my second husband committed to a psychiatric ward -- and would do it all over again, if need be.
ihtm contest
Local gossip mongers flooded message boards to debate my father’s character. He was a weirdo and a creep, they claimed, always driving around in his van checking out children.
death
There are days that the pain is so bad that I pray for sleep and I pray that I never have to wake up again.
suicide
My sister decided to kill herself in Spanish class. The decision was detached and absolute, like it got wired in from Moscow to a remote Soviet outpost.
ihtm contest
The summer he was 11, my brother started throwing up. And yes, I feel directly responsible for his bulimia.
suicide
I hadn’t remembered writing a suicide note -- I didn’t remember very much of the 24 hours surrounding the overdose. My handwriting made me cry, it was clear I had written it just before I lost consciousness, it was jagged and pained, on the back of the envelope of a bill I hadn’t paid
ihtm
As the “It Gets Better” campaign becomes a movement, my feelings are bittersweet. Would Rone have taken solace in messages of hope from others?
