When life becomes overwhelming

I have been thinking a lot lately about the tragedy of suicide. I noticed a book on Instagram that Jenny of Elefantz was reading before Christmas. It was a new publication written by Sheila Walsh called In the Middle of the Mess: Strength for this Beautiful Broken Life and sounded like just the book I would like to read. At that stage it wasn't released in Australia so I ordered it from the UK and it arrived just after Christmas.  I didn't know and I am sure many of my readers wouldn't know that Sheila has been plagued by suicidal thoughts for many years.



 On the same day as the book arrived in the mail I had just been to the library where I borrowed three of her books so I was well stocked up with Sheila Walsh books for a few weeks. Firstly I started reading Loved Back to Life where she describes when, as the co-host of the TV Show The 700 Club, it all became too much for her one day and she suddenly left the show and drove herself to a psychiatric hospital where she remained for a month.

Over the years she has had to deal with the repercussions of her loving Dad suddenly suffering from  an aneurysm in his brain in his early thirties which completely changed his personality and his attitude towards her and resulted in him being taken away to an 'asylum' as mental health hospitals were called then. He escaped and was found dead not long after.  

It is a fascinating book as is her new one and it gives an insight into how a person thinks who has depression and suicidal thoughts. Sheila was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression and was put on medication which may be a long term solution to balance the lack of serotonin in her brain.

I would recommend her books to those who are caring for someone suffering from depression as it can be hard to understand especially when many people on the outside look like they are so happy and confident but inside are slowly dying and in some cases may end up taking their own life.

Recently I was approached by Better Help asking if it was okay to link to a particular post on my blog. I hadn't heard of them before and that may be because it is a US website but there is some good information on there if you would like to become more informed about particular mental health challenges and there is an especially interesting section on depression.

I still haven't finished reading Sheila's new book but since I started I have been rocked by the suicide of little 14 year old 'Dolly' Everett at the beginning of the month. She was targeted online by bullies and couldn't face the future. What an absolute tragedy!

Just after that  I was told that the adult son of an old friend from back in the 1970s had also taken his own life this month. Once again I was gobsmacked. Both these young people were surrounded by loving family members which makes the whole issue of suicide even harder to understand.

Perhaps if you suffer from depression, or have a friend or family member who does, it might help to contact an organisation such as Beyond Blue if you are an Aussie or Better Help and NAMI if in the US and I am sure there are mental health organisations in most other countries as well. Kay and Rick Warren also lost their son, Matthew, and there are lots of good mental health resources on Kay's website Kay Warren.

You can also find resources for carers on Mental Health Carers ARAFMI. They have offices in each state and I am not sure about other Australian states but in Queensland there is a support line 24/7 for carers as we all know that mental health issues in family members don't arise just between office hours. :-)

I hope and pray that sufferers and carers can come through the gloom of those sad days and be able to step out eventually into a beautiful sunset.