Resting my head, onto my hands, as my legs rest on the cold
concrete slabbed floor, I realise that I'm here for one specific reason. I can
look back, to the past, the misdeeds, the missteps, the never-ending cursing of
faith or ability but, when I've finished procrastinating, I'm still the reason
why I'm here.
The rain, smashing against the walls outside the cell,
seldom bringing comfort but at least it affords a moments relapse from the
silence. That, alone, can be such a deadly place to be. Alone, solitarily
confined within your own mind, waiting for a respite, but that seldom arrives
once your own mind starts to tick away at your patience, strength and resolve.
I often, while lying there, cold inside, think back to the
decisions that I’d made. Should I have turned left, maybe the right side of
right would have been best left alone, but we just sometimes do not know which
way is left before looking to the right. Straight forward, the usual fast
forward of life, grasping, shouting, thrusting forward with such strength in
order to enforce the resolve of conviction, sometimes just destroys the very
bridge you've created with our bare hands. It’s tough, it’s tragic, but it’s
life. My life.
Lifting my heavy head, with cramping neck and trap muscles
reminding me of the strain, I reach forward grasping at the thick black bars
ahead of me. If I had the strength, the resolve, I’d use every ounce of my
energy to escape this place. The bars, their imposing picture, become a
constant reminder of the space just beyond my confinement.
The trouble with all of this, the very crux of the
situation, the pondering insights into this very state of mind, is that I'm
probably still here because a part of me doesn't want to leave. It’s safe,
confined, away from the world, a palace of misery with no golden slipper at the
end of the road. If I could turn anything into something else I just might. My
companions, the stone walls, the dust, the shallow mattress, are all so
perfectly safe. Maybe I'm deluded, promising myself that there’s bail just
around the corner. A solution, a rescue, someone to take my problems away from
me. Heaven knows I've placed my faith in others before, prescribed to them my
perfect prescription of cocktailed comfort, but we all know that I'm the only
one that can escape this place.
Using the bar to steady myself, I rise, slowly, to stand as
tall as I possibly can. At any point, at any time of life, I can stand as I
have just done, I can change my thinking and proclaim my innocence. It’s
possible. I can dive, from this place, into an ocean of freedom. Sure, of
course, I might not be able to swim once I get there but, amongst anything else
that can be said, I’d prefer to try than die as I am in this place.
I know the solution, I know the issues within and the cause
of this cancerous position that I'm in. I realise that my dis-ease will form
the disease that finishes me off, so right now, this very second, I have to
decide. I have to take a single, solitary, motionless second to change
something, to change anything, but most of all I have to realise that this
prison, this very place, is all in my own solitary mind. It’s up to me to
simply… Break free.
----
So many people suffer from mental issues and, thankfully, there are millions of
people that do care and ‘can’ care as many have been through situations or can
at least try to appreciate or connect to those feelings. There is hope and there always will be. Talk.
Talk to yourself… Find an answer.
-6,188 suicides were registered in the UK and 451 in the Republic of Ireland since records began.
-The highest suicide rate in the UK was for men aged 40–44.
-The highest suicide rate in the Republic of Ireland was for men aged 25–34 (with an almost identical rate for men aged 45–54).
-Rates have increased in the UK (by 3.8%), England (by 2%), Wales (61.8%) and Northern Ireland (18.5%) since 2014 – however increases in Wales and Northern Ireland may be explained by inconsistencies in the processes for recording suicides in these countries.
-Rates have decreased in Scotland (by 1.4%) and the Republic of Ireland (by 13.1%) since 2014.
-In England and the UK, female suicide rates are at their highest in a decade.
-Male rates remain consistently higher than female suicide rates across the UK and Republic of Ireland – most notably 5 times higher in Republic of Ireland and around 3 times in the UK
