On not becoming another suicide statistic

I am a survivor of multiple family suicides. My father. My brother. My aunt.

According to Johns Hopkins medical center, a child who has a parent who has completed suicide is three times more likely to complete suicide themselves (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/children_who_lose_a_parent_to_suicide_more_likely_to_die_the_same_way). Though admittedly, this stat applies to children under the age of 18, in the case of my family and my story, it is true. That happened.

In 2015 my father completed suicide at the age of 64.

In 2020 my brother completed suicide at the age of 43.

After my brother’s death, I knew I needed to act, to take measures to ensure that this would not be the end of my life story as well. I needed to learn how to survive.

It is not a linear path. There are not simple solutions when you come from a family with a long line of dysfunction, alcoholism, trauma and undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, but you need to start somewhere.

In February of 2020, in part of my path of grief and coping, I did what a professor and student of literature would do—I went looking for others with similar stories, and I didn’t quite find what I was looking for. I wasn’t satisfied. I didn’t get the support and shared similar story that I was looking for.

So, I start this project with the goal of transparency and visibility of mental illness, to offer solidarity and support.

Suicide survivor stories and journeys of mental illness are long and arduous ones.

But you are not alone. There are others out there.

Offering to others our stories in how we survive and cope is the most potent tonic that we can offer each other, as part of our collective, shared humanity.

Let’s begin.