(1) find a way to reduce your pain, or (2) find a way to increase your coping resources.
We have a condition that causes others to feel uncomfortable. They reduce their discomfort by using denial, belittlement and minimization on the seriousness of our situation. While most of this denial is due to their fear concerning the possibility our death, a part of it has another source. They may also have had or be afraid of having bad periods in their own lives, and their denial on our vulnerability to suicide helps them deny their own vulnerability.
Since we have also been taught the myths of suicide, and we are not immune to social pressure, and, like anyone else, we fear death, we often acquiesce in this process. We can think that unless we have shot ourselves squarely in the head, we must not have a very serious condition. In the face of all this pressure, it is hard for us acknowledge that our lives are in danger.
An effective way to confront this kind of denial is to attend suicide bereavement support groups. Listen to relatives and friends describe the lives of the people they lost to suicide. Some completed suicides had no prior attempts, some had gestures, some had one or more attempts. While some suicides endured decades of multiple and severe problems, in other cases their survivors say in bewilderment, "We don't understand how it could have happened. Those problems just weren't enough for suicide.".
Major depression is manifested by a combination of symptoms (see symptom list) that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but more commonly occurs several times in a lifetime. .
A less severe type of depression, dysthymia, involves long-term, chronic symptoms that do not disable, but keep one from functioning well or from feeling good. Many people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes at some time in their lives.
