Trigger Warning: This post contains discussions of suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, please:
- Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255
- Text TALK to 741741
- Or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
For a post with a list of domestic crisis lines, click here. For a post with a list of international crisis lines, click here.
Dear Cass,
I know you don’t believe me when I say this, but you’re going to be okay.
You’ve been here before, remember? You’ve lived through the depths of depression and suicidal thoughts, and you’ve even thrived afterwards.
I know you suffered them over that awful period of two-and-a-half years after your kiddo’s birth, and I know you wrote goodbye letters. I know very well that you don’t want to be here again.
But you will be okay. I promise.
Don’t give up. You have so much to live for. You’re going to go back to school to become a therapist and help people manage their own mental illnesses. You’ve got a great family who loves you. You have a close relationship with God, and you don’t want to hurt Him by hurting yourself.
Let’s go back to your family. Your kids need you to survive and thrive, and so does your husband.
Your children are so young. So very naïve. And they need you to protect them from the world and raise them into wise, compassionate, capable adults. Leaving your husband to parent them alone would be unfair to him.
There’d be a Cass-shaped hole in their lives that they’d never be able to fill. A new wife or a new mom wouldn’t be the same. Your kids and husband would be reminded of you, painfully, every day.
And you love all three of them. Despite the times they frustrate you, you’d give up everything for them–and for many years, you did just that.
But you have other reasons to live than just your family. You haven’t fulfilled your dream of going back to school to become the best therapist you can be yet–and if you have, you’ll have other dreams and goals, I’m sure. You’re a go-getter.
You can set and fulfill dreams and goals when you’re stable. Don’t worry about working towards them now; now is a time for triage. Now is a time to stop the bleeding, and if you’re reading this, you’re undoubtedly bleeding out.
It’s time to take care of you. You’re important to those around you, God, and yourself.
Put aside your to-do list. Practice some self-care. Go take a shower, eat a snack, and drink some water. Call your treatment team and let your husband know you’re suffering if you haven’t.
Do these things right now, and then come back to this letter.
Cass, I want to let you know that you are precious. You are irreplaceable. You are a smart, capable, lovely young woman with a lot of conquered challenges under her belt. And you can conquer this one, too.
It’s just another hurdle. Just one more thing you can handle. Managing a mental illness is work, but it’s well worth it. What’s the alternative to not putting the work in?
You being miserable.
And what happens if you put the work in?
You’ll thrive. You deserve to survive this and thrive again.
And I know you don’t believe it right now, but there are people in your life who love you and want to help you.
Call them. Text them. Email them. Just let them know.
And if you happen to have alienated everyone in your life, visit a crisis center or call a crisis line. Right now. Don’t even finish this letter–get up and get going.
You’ll be okay.
I promise.
Love,
Past Cass
Related Posts:
- What My Experience Being Suicidal Taught Me — and What It Can Teach You, Too
- How to Support Someone Who Has Experienced the Death of a Loved One by Suicide
- When and Why to Seek Out Professional Help
The Bipolar Parent 
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