A letter to someone struggling with thoughts of Suicide
Recently someone wrote me an e-mail who was struggling with the temptation to take their lives. This was my response.
I am sad to hear of your great loss. I don’t know that led to your soul mate’s death. But I can understand the loss of a loved one since my wife of 37 years passed away in 2015. She was my soul mate and so I understand the difficulty of building a new normal after such a devastating loss, though I am sure your situation was entirely different from mine.
I have been suicidal many times. The first time at age seven. You can read more about that on my blog.
So I do understand the “death equation” and the temptation it can offer.
But I came to a conclusion that helped me:
Where there is life there is hope!
I also decided that all the abusers, predictors of my failures, and enemies would not win over me. That the best revenge I could take was to live and learn to live in a sane, stable, and spiritual manner. By so doing, I beat them all. My suicide would just be all of them saying “I told you he was a loser and hopeless”.
I also came to see that all the people who did care about me I would just be transferring my pain to them. My pain would not die with me but be transferred to those that most care about me. I would be rewarding my enemies and punishing my friends.
I think this video is good. It is Pastor Warren who lost his son to suicide.
I would recommend you read this blog I have on depression and how to fight it.
I would urge you to call 911 if you are a danger to yourself. Call the emergency hotlines. -1-800-273-8255
I would also like you to read my book on How to Succeed at Life slowly and do the exercises at the end of each chapter in a journal.
You may find Pastor Rick Warren's book helpful as well.
Remember, where there is life there is hope.
By grace alone,
Dr. Norm