Beautifully spoken heartfelt thoughts are what you present here, Ivy and for that alone you should get respect and admiration; not everybody is capable of opening up, making themselves vulnerable like this. For this courage alone you've gained my admiration and respect.
You should feel lucky you are though. One of my best friends committed suicide by jumping off a 10-store building, and like you said, not a bad word about him was spoken at his funeral, but also no one saw it coming. Not even his parents. At every party he was the most joyous person you could ever imagine to meet. If you were his friend and needed him, he was always there. He had a job and many, many friends: the church where he was buried couldn't fit the people that came to say their last good-bey.
What I truly hope is that this post of yours can give others the strength needed to open up. No one can help you if you don't reach out. And just because I realize that's easier said than done, is why this post needs all the support it can get.
Did you contact Nathan? Did you post this in his prevent suicide project / channel? Either way, I'll resteem it.
One last note: under your heading "Society’s Viewpoint" you mention commercials only. This is not to criticize you, quite the opposite; this says so much about where society gets its viewpoints from. I believe they even call these little bundles of misinformation "infomercials" and "documentaries" about it are "infotainment"... Also the "smiling on the outside" part is heavily influenced about the picture off eternally happy people where not only the commercials but also the daily sitcoms are saturated with. Heck, we even do it to ourselves through popular social media like Facebook: we typically only share our happy moments and our great victories... And each of us individually gets bombarded with pictures and stories of people who always seem to have it better than us...
Your post is a much needed antidote to all that nonsense. You did great. Thank you so much for that! :-) <3
Thank you for such a wonderful comment, I enjoy your frienship and value your contribution to Steem! I am so sorry for your loss, that sounds just awful and heartbreaking. I have lost quite a few people to suicide, especially in the past few years and I am always at a loss after it happens but I can unfortunately relate to why they choose that path for themselves.
I honestly hope you are right that if some of us start speaking out then others will follow and will open up to their loved ones about how they are feeling. It can be intimidating to do so but your loved ones want to know how you are feeling and want to support you.
Nathan has been supportive of a lot of my posts and I did send this one to him personally because it may be helpful to his group. Thank you for resteeming!
I mentioned the commercials deliberately and you picked up on that so I thank you! There are many misconceptions about mental health challenges because we get information from commercials that are trying to make sales.
You are very sweet and a good friend :)
Ivy