Suicide isn’t painless

As predictably as night following day, there is nothing on the front pages of today’s newspapers about ‘World Mental Health Day‘, except for one. To my surprise, the exception is *checks notes* Tory MP and former minister Sajid Javid who, in the Telegraph calls for a strategy to prevent to suicide. I can’t actually read the article because a) I’d never buy the Telegraph under any circumstances whatsoever and b) the story, article or whatever it is on Page 36 and behind a paywall.  Still, it’s A Good Thing and, for all I know, the other papers have similar pieces, tucked away inside. Javid knows about the issues of suicide better than most.

In 2018, his brother Tariq killed himself, something that seemingly happened out of a clear blue sky, although that can’t have been the case, I wouldn’t wish that on any family and I separate my feelings on the damage Javid’s party has done to mental health services in 12 disastrous years of government. Whether the tragic death of his brother has changed his views, I have no idea, but if something, anything, good can come out of it, then that has to be welcomed.

As a mental person, I won’t deny that when things were very bad, I did consider suicide but the desire to end my life was rarely greater than my desire to live. I certainly self-harmed, both physically and mentally, and I never told anyone about it until my most recent and, I have to say, pointless counselling sessions. I should have talked, yet I didn’t. Perhaps it was shame and embarrassment and the feeling that I would be judged by family, friends and employers? I have no idea. Clearly, Javid’s brother was in a far worse place than I was.

Sajid Javid wasn’t really in office as health secretary to make a meaningful contribution to the pathetic state of mental health services, but at least he had some kind of understanding about their importance. Many of his Conservative colleagues, it seems to me, care as little about mental health services as they do about the struggling, underfunded NHS. If they did care, why have they presided over such a decline since 2010? If he wants to have a meaningful legacy to his political life, I can think of worse issues to campaign for.