TL;DR

Suicide prevention week was just last month, on the 6th - 12th of September. World Suicide Prevention Day was on Thursday the 10th of September. World Mental Health Day was the 10th of this month One month on from Suicide Prevention week, three days after world Mental Health Day, on Wednesday the 16th of October 2019 my younger brother took his own life. He was 38.  It took me quite a few days to figure out what I wanted this blog to say, why I was writing it, and I think I have it finally figured out. There are three reasons I am writing this  I want to talk about grief  I want to talk about suicide awareness and prevention  I want to use this painful loss to try to help others and for me, all three of these are done in writing.  Right now you may be asking 'how can you be writing a blog at a time like this?', well, writing is how I process things. I talk and write them out. One of the problems with grief is we don't know what's 'normal'. We ...

On the 18th of September 2014, I was part of something amazing In Scotland. I felt amazing. In the weeks leading up to the vote there was a festival atmosphere everywhere - the streets of Glasgow had people smiling, laughing, dancing and singing as if we were enjoying a permanent party. I had never seen anything like it  before in my entire life. It was a political awakening for many of us in Scotland. And I will never forget it. And yet, the 5 year anniversary of this meaningful movement came and went, and I, well I had nothing to say on it. I didn't look back at the day with any reverence, or optimism, or hope. To be honest, I didn't look back at it at all. What happened in those 5 years to change me from one of the most yessiest yessers you'd ever meet (as most people who met or knew me in 2014 can attest) to someone so apathetic about it? Well, the YES movement changed, or maybe I did, or maybe both of us did. Honestly, I'm not quite sure. In 2014 we all ...