My emotions have been all over the place the past couple of weeks. There have been several days I stayed in bed because I was so depressed. Anyone who hasn't experienced severe depression coupled with bi-polar issues has no clue how sick one is when something triggers depression so severe its debilitating. The thoughts during such an episode are irrational because the mental pain level is not easily put into words.
The recent apparent suicide of a country music singer is a tragedy. My heart goes out to the family she left behind. I've seen so many comments on AOL and Facebook that have stated the singer was selfish to have ended her life. Those people do not say RIP for the singer. Instead they say RIP for the dog she supposedly shot prior to taking her own life. How insensitive they are. Having lost an uncle and aunt (my dad's brother and sister) to suicide, it just makes my heart hurt anytime I hear someone has taken their life. Some of the comments make me angry. When a family member passes that way, those left have a terrible tragedy to deal with. We don't need negative comments. We go through anger because the person didn't reach out to someone, we also are angry that they took themselves from us, their children, spouses if they were married, and the list goes on. We feel guilty because we didn't see any indication that anything was wrong.
Judge not lest ye be judged. Regardless of what your religious beliefs are, no one has the right to indicate that anyone is going to hell, especially when suicide is involved, period. First of all, it's very upsetting to the family involved. It's upsetting to people whose loved ones ended their lives in years past. Some religious denominations are notorious for judging people. Again, JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED. What does that mean? My opinion is that it means people will be judged by God because they judged another. It's no one's business to determine what the outcome of someone will be when judgement is given by our Father in Heaven.
This brings me back to the mental illness issue. My personal belief is that anyone who takes their own life was not mentally ill to the point of not being aware of what they were actually doing. Something in their mind snapped and pushed them over the edge. People need to research mental illness and keep their judgmental comments to themselves and ask God to forgive them for having judgmental thoughts. Doing so sincerely insures they are not judged for having those judgmental thoughts to begin with.
To those belonging to religious denominations who immediately judge others based on outward appearances are also in the wrong. Just saying...
Those of us who have the mental illness of manic depression/bipolar, or just plain old severe depression would appreciate negative comments not being made by people who have no idea what its like. If they walked a mile in our shoes, especially on those days we can hardly put one foot in front of the other, they most likely would just shut up. They may even show a little kindness instead of judging.
Wow. I was on a soap box for sure this morning. I'll step down now. I'm going to have a wonderful, productive day. Sometimes it's necessary to "get things off my chest" here in this safe place called blog land.
May your day be blessed and happy.
