GIGN.Officiel
Member
- Nov 12, 2025
- 87
Do you know how many times I've heard that I'm strong for surviving what I have? It's something I guarantee a lot of you have heard as well. It's the number one thing people think to tell someone when they're going through a lot.
"Oh, you're so strong and brave for surviving this."
The problem is, it's not true. All of us here know that suicide isn't easy. What method, what time, what place, what about who I'm leaving behind, what if it doesn't work, what if it does? And yet suicide seems to be the only time I don't hear that sentence thrown around. When you survive something awful, and you don't commit suicide, are you strong? Are you brave? Or did you simply keep on living? When it leaves you a broken man (or woman), when it changes you forever, when you don't think you'll ever get over it, are you still strong?
What does it mean to be strong? It cannot simply be living after trauma. Living is just the natural conclusion. You live whether you're strong or not. Arguably, you're stronger for committing suicide, since it takes so much to take that final step knowing what's on the other side. Are you stronger simply just for being, forevermore in a natural, quiet state of just a little stronger? Or is it in the choices you make, in the effort you provide, in the active struggle of life after a traumatic event?
"Oh, you're so strong and brave for surviving this."
The problem is, it's not true. All of us here know that suicide isn't easy. What method, what time, what place, what about who I'm leaving behind, what if it doesn't work, what if it does? And yet suicide seems to be the only time I don't hear that sentence thrown around. When you survive something awful, and you don't commit suicide, are you strong? Are you brave? Or did you simply keep on living? When it leaves you a broken man (or woman), when it changes you forever, when you don't think you'll ever get over it, are you still strong?
What does it mean to be strong? It cannot simply be living after trauma. Living is just the natural conclusion. You live whether you're strong or not. Arguably, you're stronger for committing suicide, since it takes so much to take that final step knowing what's on the other side. Are you stronger simply just for being, forevermore in a natural, quiet state of just a little stronger? Or is it in the choices you make, in the effort you provide, in the active struggle of life after a traumatic event?
