Pages

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Telling His Story

September 10th was World Suicide Prevention Day and I felt a strong pull to post about my son's story, so I posted about a time 18 months ago when we had to commit him to a psychiatric hospital for suicidal thoughts and a complete emotional breakdown.

I'd waited until the 10th to finish the post (yes, I put it off) and when I hit sent, I was emotionally spent. In the comments and on Twitter I received a lot of support except for one comment that questioned me telling his story. The commenter's position was that mental health issues were private, even though our young son knows his story is public for the world to see.

I do not struggle much telling his story because if a fellow blogher hadn't shared with us her story through blogging, we wouldn't have learned some unique things in caring for him during the really rough spots. For the posts that are focused on his mental health issues I read them to him and get his permission.

What that person doesn't know is that I get private emails thanking us for sharing his story of despair. I got one email that said, basically, if he at age 9 survived it, then they could too. Not only did the person see hope in our family's story, they saw the unwilling resilience of our son during that time. When he couldn't find the will to live, we found it for him. A couple of people have found his story helpful comparing their story with his and it's helped them hold on just a little while longer.

Do I question our decision to share details? Sure. Am I certain sharing our story is good, in the end? Yes. Because it is a mental/emotional issues people cringed. Some people think we should be silent. Those people don't have the same issue about my kids' medial issues. Sharing their medical journey through kidney failure and kidney transplants do not garner any criticism.

If we don't start to tell those stories of us and our kids' mental health struggles there will be people out there who don't know they can survive it. And for now, it is good enough for me that one person is helped and stigmas broken down.

 

Julia Roberts blogs at Kidneys and Eyes and is the co-founder of Support for Special Needs.

10 comments:

  1. gorgeous post
    telling our stories are a gift we give to others who are in our shoes

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is perfect time to make some plans for
    the future and it’s time to be happy. I have read this post and if
    I could I desire to suggest you some interesting things or advice.
    Maybe you can write next articles referring to this article.

    I wish to read even more things about it!
    I am really thankful to you for sharing such useful info.
    Hope you are sharing the same in future.
    thanks


    토토사이트웹

    ReplyDelete
  3. My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I may as well
    check things out. I like what I see so now i'm following
    you. Look forward to exploring your web page again.부산달리기

    ReplyDelete
  4. I every time used to read post in news papers but
    now as I am a user of internet therefore from now I am using net for
    content, thanks to web.
    토토사이트

    ReplyDelete
  5. After looking at a handful of the articles on your blog, I truly like your technique of writing a blog. 토토사이트

    ReplyDelete
  6. I book marked it to my bookmark webpage list and will be checking back in the near future. Please visit my web site too and let me know what you think. 온라인경마

    ReplyDelete
  7. You have a good point here!I totally agree with what you have said!! Thanks for sharing your views. hope more people will read this article!! 온라인카지노

    ReplyDelete
  8. I wan.ted to know about starting my web log.I think you have what you need to set up, and you have a blog.
    オンラインパチンコ

    ReplyDelete