In her most intimate episode yet, Erika talks about her very personal experience with suicide and why she felt shame after her mother took her life. She talks about how she was worried and embarrassed it would reflect poorly on her if she spoke about it. Erika says the system is broken and can’t support people with mental illness. Suicide is the leading cause of death between 15 and 19-year-olds, so why isn’t the discussion about this taking place in mainstream media? Suicide obliterates those people left behind and it is never the answer. This needs to be a topic on the table and the shame needs to be removed from the picture, otherwise it eats away at families from the inside. If we don’t express what we have in our hearts, no one will ever know our hearts and we can’t live whole-hearted lives.

Books:

“Daring Greatly” by Brene Brown, https://brenebrown.com/book/daring-greatly/

“Feel the Fear and Do it Anyways” by Susan Jeffers, http://www.susanjeffers.com/home/detailtemplate.cfm?catID=2234

“The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level” by Gay Hendricks, https://hendricks.com/amazon/

Other:

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_K%C3%BCbler-Ross

Instagram post on grief as ball of string: see H. Norman Wright ball of grief

World Health Organization – data on suicide: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide

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Trigger warning: contains references to suicide

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.