My social media accounts are separate, one for my A New Dawn podcast account and blogging and one for my writing and authors I follow. Today, while perusing through my instagram accounts, I came across a post and followed it to read the blog it referenced titled: “I don’t know how much longer I can last,” and my heart sank. I read the post and these are my thoughts.

I’m never one to judge others and I do everything to understand their pain. I felt myself drawn to this blogger and sympathizing with her as I read her story. Me? I raised four by myself and my baby was also difficult most days. Like the blogger, I felt like I needed a break, but never felt I couldn’t handle my kids. I struggled to understand why suicide was the only means out for this mom. I don’t feel like it was a selfish act. As a podcast host, I’ve asked every guest whether or not they thought about taking their own lives and 93% have said yes. The most interesting revelation was ending one’s life wasn’t the fact of dying, but more towards ending the pain. Horrific anguish where the sufferer would be better off no longer living — in their eyes.

We so often judge without walking in someone else’s shoes. One of my guests on my podcast used to be one of the ‘non-believers’ in mental illness until it happened to her. So, don’t be quick to adjudicate a situation before you fully comprehend the magnitude of it.

I want to scream the message in this picture, “Tomorrow will bring good things, stay alive to see it.”