All I have I done today is try to stay alive. And I am sharing how I have felt, right in the moment, in this blog. Why? I could just write my feelings and thoughts in my journal and keep them private. Well, yes I will write in my journal today. But I also want to share my thoughts publicly because I know I am not the only one who feels this way.

I am not going to dance around the words and make them sound pretty because they are not. There is no time or point to beat around the bush. I am a straight talker, up front and brutally honest. So that is what you will get in my blogs .

I want to die

I want to die. Most days I have at least 5 suicidal thoughts and some days that feeling is a lot stronger than other days. Some days like today I have hit my rock bottom.

I have been here before

The last time I made a serious attempt to die (when writing this blog) was last summer and the police ended up out looking for me. They found me, calmed me down and took me to hospital. I feel so ashamed they wasted their time and resources on me. I often sit and wonder if someone needed serious help but didn’t get it because of me. If they died or if they were hurt all because of me and why didn’t they just leave me to die? If I was choosing to kill myself leave me and and go help someone who is in danger.  But then I break through, and I talk over my mental health and I know that I was in danger, my mind had taken over and was in danger of killing me. If I was having the symptoms of a heart attack I would have got myself straight to A&E. So, why when it’s mental health in danger of killing us do we not see it the same? Nor do other people. My mum actually left me at the hospital because she was so annoyed with me. She was angry at what I had done and tried to do. She was angry with me and left before she said anything she would regret. Imagine someone treating someone who had been hit by a car this way? Being angry at them because a car hit you! Maybe you where walking across the road, not focusing, and bam you got hit by a car and was in a serious way. Would a family member leave you in A&E then? Because they where angry that you got hit? No! It is time people and even those of use who suffer. See and accept mental illness is just that AN ILLNESS! But that is a separate blog in itself. But, the point I want to make clear is, if you do feel in a crisis and unable to keep yourself safe GET HELP, you deserved and you need it. Just as much as someone having a heart attack would seek help, if you are sucidial you need to seek help too.

I know I have good things in my life …BUT

A lot of people will say and think, why are you suicidal you have good life. And I do! I have a lot to live for but at the same time I don’t.

I have three gorgeous children; a teenager and two pre-teens. I had my children young,  having my first at 17. My age is one of the things I have always been guilty and embarrassed of. Having them so early. My son has often been embarrassed as two of his friends have sisters my age.

My kids are my world. And I won’t go into detail as to why or what I feel I have done wrong to them but I do. I feel I have done so much wrong to them. I am separated from their dad and this was a bad relationship and is one of the things I struggle with. I feel like my kids deserve so much better than me. That if I wasn’t here it would be better for them. They could move on, maybe their dad will find a good step mum and they can learn to forget me and even hate me. So that they never become like me. So, they don’t look up to me. I am damaged goods and I made bad decisions. I want more for them. I want to be more for them.

The point is…

I do have things, big things, to live for. So often people think or assume that someone who is suicidal has no one, or nothing to live for or are blind to see it. That isn’t the case or is isn’t for me. It is that I don’t want to be the burden and bad influence I believe I am on those I love more than I love my self. It is the opposite of selfishness. We don’t say someone is selfish for losing their battle with cancer? So why is someone selfish who loses their battle with a mental illness?

I want to die almost daily. Some days it’s like a quiet whisper you shrug off. A feeling you get when your driving your car and you think ‘oh if I just take this next bend too fast i’ll hit that wall, die, and people will think it was an accident’. Then other days I can’t seem to see a logical reason at all for me being alive. I struggle, and I try to ignore it and carry on. Its like someone is blasting music so loud in your head and your trying to hear everything and everyone else around it instead.

Sometimes life happens, and I can’t deal with it. I have this week dealt with further rejection from a parent, issues in a relationship, being let down by a family member, dealing with my ex, my kids missing me, money worries and scary health news and being in pain daily with my auto immune disease. When it all got just too much. I drank and I self-harmed. I stopped drinking just towards the end of summer last year because I don’t handle my drink well. It often gives me the courage to self-harm or worse. But this week I fell off the wagon. I felt like a boiling pan and the water was now spilling over. So, I hit the bottle and self-harmed. I had just decided I was going to walk to a local cliff and jump of it. But someone unexpectedly turned up, walked into my house and caught me with a knife, cuts to my arm and drink in hand. I can not honestly say if I would have gone to the cliff or not. I’d like to think I wouldn’t have. But I was so close yet again.

I don’t want to die

Today, all day I have had a burning desire to end my life. But I do not want to inflict that pain on my children. I want to be there for them. Because as much as I might think I am not good enough for them. They love me, they miss me, so who am I to take that away from them. I am trying so hard not to let my mind win and steal their mummy from them.

I have spent today battling my head. Doing all I can to be stronger than my mind. I went to my psychologist (who is no help and I don’t gain from her sessions). I drove home in tears, I have cried so many times and so hard today. I have had so many thoughts and feelings and feel like I have physically been fighting as the day draws to an end. I said to myself this afternoon. 1 hour at a time. Get to the next hour. Keep busy, do a workout (it releases mood stabilising chemicals) crochet, play with the dogs, try to nap, read your gratitude journal, write in your gratitude journal, I have written down the events I have coming up with the children such as parent’s eve and my birthday next week. I have a memory box I have designed for days exactly like this. I have so many tools and strategies at my finger tips, because at the end of the day, I’m the one who helps others, I am the counsellor I am the mental health practitioner. But, have you ever seen a hair dresser cut her own hair?

Tomorrow is a new day. It could be another strenuous battle like today. Or it could be easier. I don’t know. But I do know I need to be proud of making it through today.

I plan to workout first thing in the morning and this is crucial ! It will give me my anti-depressant fix (exercise is the most under-utilised anti-depressant). I will then take each hour at a time and try not to put any pressure on my self to do anything more.

Why did I write this and be so open?

I haven’t written this as a sympathy note or look how hard my life is. Because yes, it is hard, but I am sure yours is too. I am sure you have had bad things happen and demons you must battle. We all do, and mine is nothing special and isn’t particularly bad. But what we all don’t do enough is TALK. We don’t talk about mental illness, we don’t describe. I mean we all know what happens when you break your leg, but we haven’t all broken our leg. We are educated and inundated at times with what child birth feels like, they have even invented machines so that men can feel  what that pain is like too. But we don’t all talk so openly and educate each other about mental health. What it is like, how it feels, how long it lasts, is it every day or just some days, does it hurt, do you know your crazy, are you crazy? None of us talk about this stuff. Some of us not even to those closest to us. So, here I am sharing openly so that it helps others to see they are not alone and also encourages you to speak out too. To get the help and support you need too. To see that you can use tools and strategies to become stronger than your mind.  The things I openly share in my support group are hard and is one of the reasons I am strict about who is in the group in a sense. It is strictly for those of us who suffer mental illnesses.  It is a safe place for us to open up, be honest and get support. If this sounds like a place you need to be and you’d like to be part of then just click the button below.

I would also really appreciate it if you could share this blog across your social media platforms because you never know who it may help or who may need to read it.