Just got word from Twitter that the American Association of Suicidology just approved, unanimously, a new division for suicide attempt survivors and people with lived experiences. This is so exciting, I just had to blog about it. People who have attempted or who have seriously thought about suicide now have a voice. I am so excited and proud to be a member and contributor of their blog and organization!!
Category: suicide attempt survivor
Ring on my finger
Listening to Bryan Adams today. Just love listening to his voice. I realized that my country music has failed me as there are no songs that are pulling at my heart strings lately. Sure there are songs that I like but nothing that helps me deal with the pain of what I have been going through lately. So I have turned to alternative music for now and found the Mumford and Sons, Imagine Dragons, and some other group that I don’t know yet the name of as I was listening to the radio. I like listening to songs that make you feel something. Sure my country music puts me in a good mood and I like that but I am not always in a good mood all the time.
Was talking earlier with a blogger friend. She would like me to guest blog on her blog. I won’t disclose the topic because I haven’t written it yet. I hope to work on it later today once I get some ideas on it. I am honored that she wants me to do this. I hope what I write will be good!
We talked about my editor and the book. She read the book of course and had some good suggestions for it, though I really like the way the book is haphazard. She wanted me to be more linear and frankly, I don’t like being linear. Which is ok because she liked the book anyway. I just hope that it’s good enough to sell or at least have a few sales anyway. I have the opportunity to have my book presented at the AAS conference, if I get this thing published on time. AAS is the American Association of Suicidology where I sometimes blog. I am part of the founding members of their suicide attempt survivors blog. I have a piece that I wrote that I am waiting to hear back on.
Lately I have been feeling out of sorts and I don’t mean this cold that I got. In Jan of 2013, I got myself refitted for my claddaugh ring. It was a writing reward to myself and all the hard work that I had done with my writing partner, starting this blog, and working with the AAS to help finagle the inner workings of their blog. It’s been more than a year and for that year I never took the ring off my finger. Now I find that I am leaving the ring off more and more. Granted part of the reason is that because of arthritis, my hand swells, making the ring uncomfortable. My weight has been stable so I know it is not because of gaining. But now I find myself losing interest in it like I have so many things lately. Today I looked at my hand and realized I wasn’t wearing it and almost panicked because I couldn’t remember the last time I did wear it. It is more than just a piece of jewelry to me. It is a piece of accomplishment and I feel like it is slipping off my finger, so to speak. All that I have worked for this past year just feels like it was all for nothing and I don’t know why I feel this way. I don’t know if it is because of the depression that I am under or if I am truly just a nothing, a nobody. I just feel lost again and am wondering if I will be found. Sure my blog is doing well. I watch the stats closely because I am a geek. Could it be better, probably. But that doesn’t change the way I feel about the ring on my finger that once meant something to me. Most days I don’t wear it. It fits, sometimes a little snuggly, sometimes a little loosely. Other times it is a tight fit. Guess you can say it all depends on my hand’s mood. When I do wear it, I hardly notice it. It has now become a part of me, a part that I am losing. And I am not sure I can get it back.
I know most of the feelings of being a nothing and a nobody is coming from my father. This week has been difficult because it is an anniversary week. I think this is the first time in 23 years that I have had to deal with my father in the same week. He is a toxic parent and I don’t know how to cope with it, even after all these years.
suicide attempt survivor, some thoughts
Today I wrote to my writing friend to ask for her help in getting someone to read my book just to see if it was ok or mediocre or sucks. I got a couple of people so that made my day. Then I started thinking of how she phrased the request. I know she used the term “suicide attempt survivor”. She uses that term whenever she refers to me. Every time I hear it, I can’t help but feel embarrassed, ashamed, and labeled. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am hurt. I am not. I just feel weird being called such a term when I don’t feel like a survivor at all. I feel like I am a dead weight, much like a bookend.
I know she means well and I have not told her how I feel because I am not sure how to approach it. Most survivors that write on the AAS blog feel empowered and most like me don’t want to live life but have to. Others feel like their attempt was a blessing and they are happy they survived it. I don’t feel that way. I just feel like I should be dead, pushing up daisies or dandelions or something. I honestly have no jest for living but I just go on because I feel like I have to. Yet sometimes, I feel like I have to die, like it is my only way out of the situation I am in. I am lucky I have a good therapist that wants me here no matter what. Even though the voices in my head are against her right now, I am glad she is here to tell me that I have to go on, if only to publish my book. But what then? What do I do then when my feelings and life story are out in the world, much like this blog? I still have feelings of suicide and I guess I always will. You can throw away these feeling you have been having for more than thirty years.
But why do I feel embarrassed by this term? Why do I feel labeled? It is, after all, an accurate description. I have survived multiple suicide attempts, one that was medically serious enough to land me on a medical floor in the hospital. Yet despite all these tries, I survived them. I lived through them. So why do I feel like I can’t call myself a suicide attempt survivor?? Or do I need to? There is a growing awareness in the suicidology field that want to hear these people stories. Sure, they are rich for research purposes to help prevent more suicides. Once you attempt suicide, you are at risk for life of doing so again, no pun intended. Others are just curious because they find that taking your life is so unphathomable. I find this interesting. That there are people out there that cannot understand why someone would want to take their life. I feel bad for these people because they have never known hardship or mental illness. Yet even those with hardship never think of killing of themselves. I guess I am just one of the ones that do. I come from a poor background. I paid my way through college though I never did finish my degree because my mental illness got in the way. I have more W’s on my transcript than grades. Yet I still want to finish my degree at the same institution one day, if they will take me back. I do have that hope. I don’t know if it is realistic or not. Only time will tell. I am getting older without realizing it and this troubles me. I never dreamed of living to be in my thirties, yet I am. I have good genes on both sides of my family so I know if I don’t kill myself, I will live to the eighties or nineties. I don’t want this to happen. I don’t want to grow old. It is something that I never wanted to have happen. But I can’t stop time. My birthday comes whether I like it or not, most times not. Every year I think of it as my last. I have no future that I can see. So am I really a survivor?
doubts and fears about my book
I don’t know what kind of day I have been having. It started very early, like 0430 early. I got some writing done. Had breakfast but that was the only thing I have eaten today. I am too tired to make something to eat. The leftover Chinese wasn’t enough to fill me up. I just had a banana. Hopefully that ties me over until tomorrow. Missing two meals is a big deal but there is nothing I can do about it now.
I saw my PCP today and he is trying to reassure me that I don’t have CES again with my foot problem. Meanwhile I am trying to convince him that I still have nerve damage in my foot. He wants me to see yet another flipping doctor. UGH. I will but I am going to keep my tongue in check when he says there is nothing wrong with me or that I just have a case of chronic tendonitis. If he decides to put me in a damn boot he has another thing coming to him. I am not wearing a boot. I wore one for almost three months and it didn’t do shit. Well it did do something, took out my hip flexor muscle. That felt so good (insert sarcasm here) NOT!
I had a chat with my therapist today. We talked about my doubts about my book. We also talked about my fears that I have. And the more we talked, the more I didn’t want to publish. Then my editor says she is changing her policy and I freak out so I IM’d her to find out if this includes me. I sent her two chapters of my book so she can get an idea of what my writing style is. I am hoping she will be ok with it. I really want to work with her and I think she wants to work with me. I just have one more payment for her and then it still is a waiting game on when she can fit me in. But all this waiting is driving me nuts. I have decided to print off the copy of the book and there are like six blank pages. I am printing blank pages that are costing me money! DOH! I figure I can read the book again and see of something pops out at me that I should change or add to. And what is really killing me is that I emailed my book to some people and they backed out of reading it. Didn’t have the courtesy of letting me know, for a MONTH now. I am kind of pissed but I understand that life gets in the way. But they should have let me know sooner rather than later!
So my therapist wants me to get someone to read it to give me some feedback on the book before it is published. Problem is, I don’t have many “real” people to do this. I don’t have a best friend that I can talk to about this and give him or her my book and let them tell me how it is. I might have to ask someone on Facebook to help me. I don’t know who else to ask. Course most of my status posts go ignored. Course I am at the point where I think publishing is going to open a can of worms I might not be ready for. This book is very personal, like my blog. But I don’t think my family reads my blog and knows how suicidal I have been over the years or that I poop and pee my pants every now and then or that I am even transgendered. They know that I suffered from a nerve injury. They know that I am gay. They know I suffer from depression. They know I have been hospitalized numerous times but they never knew why. This book is the why. Just thinking about it is making me nervous. Part of me just wants to say the hell with the editor and hit send to publish it and another part of me wants to just delete the book. Do all writers feel like this when their baby is finished? Or is it just me because I am a suicide attempt survivor? I don’t know. I never have written a book before now. If anyone reading this can provide some input in the comments, I would be most appreciative.
My therapist thinks it’s a wonderful thing that I have written a book because no one has before. I find that hard to believe. Granted my book deals with a lot of issues and illnesses. I just hope that I can make it coherent enough to explain the different sides that all contributed to my suicidality. My therapist thinks that I should write an Epilogue to say all this stuff. But I think the intro will do that just fine. My only fear right now is that it will be too much for my editor. I don’t think she has dealt with this kind of stuff before. And I am worried that it will overwhelm her and she pulls out an all stop.
midnightdemons7 
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