When I first started my quest for information regarding suicide, I was not sure exactly what I would find. The subject of suicide stirs up fears and strong emotions within most people. These fears sometime make people shy away from learning more extensive knowledge and some of the major causes of suicide. As a result, the subject of suicide is beset by dangerous myths and misconceptions. These myths and misconceptions not only isolate people considering suicide from their families and communities, but they lead to further isolation and hopelessness—two factors highly associated with suicide attempts and completions.

Today, I decided to do a project: For 17 minutes, I concentrated on my surroundings; the sound of the rain falling outside; the cars driving past our home; the sounds of my children playing in their room. I observed. Listened. When my 17 minutes were up, I felt sad. Why?

It doesn’t matter where you live or what race you are. Depression is depression and it’s not selective. It’s not about being down for a week or two over the split up of a relationship or the loss of a job. Depression is much more than sadness and is categorized as lasting for two weeks or more. The symptoms of depression can be devastating not just for the woman who is living them, but for those around her who love her and can’t reach through the darkness.

It was after midnight when I finally closed the book and reached to turn out the light. The book I had been reading was entitled, A Friendship With God. As I tried settling in and snuggled down into my pillow, my mind was racing. The man who wrote the book—the fourth in a series of books—said that he had been talking to God and that God talked back to him! Well what made him so special, I thought. After all, that was something I had been doing for a very long time—talking to God that is, though not as much in the past five years as I had done before…Before the death of my youngest child back in 1995 when my world fell apart.