On Contemplating Suicide
It's a tough subject, suicide. Just the word can be a trigger for many, especially those that have thought about (like me), those that have had it visit them in their lives and even for those that feel it in the air, hear about it at the ubiquitous water cooler. And especially for all Kiwis as this BBC report from July 2017 says, " A new report by Unicef [pdf] contains a shocking statistic - New Zealand has by far the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world ." So, I give fair warning, this isn't going to be an easy read and, if you think this may bring up feelings you're not prepared or tooled up to read then please, be kind to yourself and give it a miss. Suicide. The ending of one's own life. The final decision when things seem so dark, all options are seemingly gone and the world would be a better place without you. It's a cold concrete hard grey lifeless place that sees one thinking, "This is it." For a long time my abil...