{"id":33864,"date":"2016-10-27T22:43:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T22:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/?p=33864"},"modified":"2025-12-30T07:07:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T07:07:02","slug":"hopeless-to-helpless-pain-to-peace-experience-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/believe\/hopeless-to-helpless-pain-to-peace-experience-hope","title":{"rendered":"Hopeless to Healed, Pain to Purpose (Experience Hope)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Depression is like you are drowning and people are standing there yelling at you to swim.” —Sofia<\/span><\/span>
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You have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.<\/span> Psalm 31:7 (NLT)<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

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by Steven Gledhill<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>for FREEdom from MEdom Project<\/span><\/h5>\n

Both this link and at the conclusion of each page of this 3-page article is the link to dozens of confidential 24\/7 contact resources for those in crisis.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Suicide is a killer beyond the obvious. The spirit of suicide kills hopes and dreams, and for certain is a killer of peace and joy. The spirit of suicide is a killer of the human spirit. It is the utter absence of joy. It is the great deceiver; controlling the emotional forces within the brain, betraying rational (reasonable) thought. It can kill relationships… and spread through entire families and communities. The spirit of suicide sucks the life out of all its victims until the well’s run dry. The spirit of suicide is relentless; borne out of a deep, profound, and overwhelming sense of worthlessness, hopelessness, and despair, convincing its prey that it is<\/em> the best (and only) option to remedy misery and pain… once and for all.<\/p>\n

If you could simply flip some switch to turn off your pain, you would have by now. You cannot control what is too big to manage on your own. The burden you carry is too heavy. Feeling that you are alone to manage the dread of feeling hopeless is terrifying. The combination of lonely and desperate can spiral into at-risk behavior. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to socially distance, which has led so often to isolation, leaving hurting people alone to manage the crisis within the mind. Social isolation has also led to intense irritation and frustration, acute overthinking, trapped in shame, paranoia, severe anxiety, fear and chronic worry, deepening sadness and depression, feeling abandoned, loneliness, and escalating addiction. If any of this rings true with you and\/or anyone you know, please seek support as soon as reasonably possible, especially under these circumstances.<\/p>\n

If you are reading this and anyone you know is battling depression that you fear or even suspect has had ideas of suicide or self-harm, please seek professional help<\/a> on his or her behalf. If you are aware of someone expressing that they have no joy and don’t deserve to happy, stuck in shame, feel hopeless, worthless, contemplating a way out, and\/or that they’re a burden to loved ones they may have suggested would be better off without them, again, call someone<\/a> immediately for support<\/a> about what to do. If you feel that it’s imminent that someone you know is at risk, regardless of age, dial 9-1-1, or whatever the phone number is for emergency services in your area.<\/p>\n

A Relentless Predator<\/span><\/p>\n

Who are the victims of suicide?<\/p>\n

Well of course, there is the obvious; and then there are the spouses and children, the siblings, the parents, the grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles, the friends, the classmates, the coworkers, the acquaintances, and everyone else in the sphere of its impact and influence.<\/p>\n

How does suicide prey on its victims?<\/p>\n

The spirit of suicide is cunning and ever so subtle in its distortions and deceptions. It probes through a person’s mind, coursing through a weakened self-confidence; hounding emotional vulnerability, influencing its way into the crevasses of poor boundaries and one’s battered self-image. It lingers and spews its lies to whomever is sensitive to its fraudulent muttering. It’s on a quest to ravage what’s left of the soul, and take the person’s life.\u00a0 Yet, it’s entirely possible that its victim doesn’t even sense it coming… until it’s way too late.<\/p>\n

“In (my) moment of desperation, I cried out to God: “I never asked to be born! I never asked for any of this!” I wanted nothing to do with faith. That changed the night I tried to take my own life.”<\/span> <\/em><\/span>—<\/span><\/span>Alia Joy<\/a>, author diagnosed with bipolar disorder, God Saved Me from Suicide<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What do I want? What is it that I want more than anything? What am I hoping to find? Is it to be loved? Is it to not<\/em> experience fear? Is what I want most to be free to love without being afraid to love? Is what I want most to be free from fear so that I am free to enjoy my life?<\/p>\n

The “spirit” of suicide is really the hopeless cry inside of each victim for semblance of freedom from the insurmountable struggle that is anguish and misery—pain. What we all want most in our life experience is to truly<\/em> be free. How can someone experience freedom while hurting so badly? What does it mean to truly<\/em> be free, anyway?<\/p>\n

I (and you) want to be free of whatever causes me discomfort. When I itch, I scratch. When in the same place for too long, I need to move. When in a certain position for too long, I become increasingly uncomfortable until I, without hesitation, change my position. When something is painful, I (and you) will do what I believe is necessary to reduce the pain enough that I can bear it. Maybe nutrition and exercise gets it done. Maybe physical therapy does the trick. Maybe counseling with a therapist is enough. Maybe I need medicine. What if it’s not enough and the pain, not only persists, but is getting worse? What I really want is to be free of the pain, altogether. How do I accomplish that<\/em>?<\/p>\n

When someone’s pain is unbearable enough that he or she cannot take it anymore, he or she becomes desperate enough to take desperate measures to free him\/herself of the pain. Suicide is too often that desperate measure to escape severe discomfort and pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something unique about losing someone to suicide. It\u2019s not something you\u2019re ever going to really get over. It\u2019s a daily battle. It\u2019s like, you always have a splinter in your hand. Sometimes you notice it, sometimes you don\u2019t. But the splinter\u2019s always there.\u201d <\/em><\/span>–<\/span>–Hope Litoff, suicide survivor and director of the HBO documentary,<\/span> 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide<\/em><\/span><\/span>
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Do you know anyone who has attempted or committed suicide, or at least considered suicide as the way of escape?<\/p>\n