A Personal Reflection on Suicide Prevention, Mental Health, and Hope by Shaquana Smith, LPGC
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month—a time dedicated to raising awareness, encouraging conversations about suicide, reducing stigma, and reminding people that support is available.
Sometimes the Strongest People Are Struggling in Silence; Sometimes the person everyone describes as "strong" is the person who desperately needs someone to ask: "How are you really doing?"
Not because we assume something is wrong, but because we want the people we love to know that they don't have to carry everything alone.
As a Black Woman, I Think About the Messages We Receive. Many of us grow up hearing messages about strength.
Be strong.
Keep going.
Don't let people see you break.
Pray about it.
Handle your business.
Sometimes strength becomes so deeply connected to our identity that asking for help can feel like failure; but asking for help is not weakness. Needing therapy does not make you weak; Taking medication when prescribed does not make you weak; Going to a support group does not make you weak; Admitting that you are exhausted does not make you weak; Crying does not make you weak.
As a Mother, I Think About What We Teach Our Children. I want my children to know that their feelings matter. I want them to know that they can come to me when they are hurting—even when they are afraid I won't understand. I want them to know that asking for help is courageous. Most importantly, I want them to know that they never have to pretend that everything is okay just to make the people around them comfortable.
Sometimes prevention begins long before a crisis.
-Shaquana Smith, LPGC
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