I wasn’t familiar with the actor Sushant Singh Rajput or any of his work, but the story of his passing left the hairs on my neck stand up. It touched a still very sore spot in my heart because only four months ago I lost a family member to the same reason.
There were reports that the actor had been extremely depressed for the last few months and this agony may have had led him to this tragic end. The actor’s death has once again opened the gates of conversation around mental health conditions and suicide awareness, a conversation that we should never stop having.
How we talk about mental illness matters, because incorrect messaging can easily reinforce stereotypes in society. By becoming more aware of how we speak about mental illness and encouraging others the same we can start to de-stigmatise the subject.
Practising sensitivity is the bare minimum. One of the worst things we can do is use the phrase ‘committed suicide’ when talking about a case of suicide. Our words are so powerful and they have consequences. We must do everything in our power to use the right words when discussing mental health and suicide. A better word selection in this case would be ‘died by suicide’ as it simply refers to the cause of death and not exactly how it happened.
When we use the word ‘commit;, people can link it with committing a crime, which actually blames the person and makes suicide look shameful, it demonstrates our poor understanding of what mental health really is and stigmatises the victim even more. The message I want to leave you with today, is to check on your people. Don’t check on their Instagram stories, check on their real-life stories. Check on the strong ones, you never know who is in dire need of human connection.
I know there are some people reading this that are struggling with a few things, I know because some of you have written to me and told me. I know that some of you found it hard to get out of bed this morning. I know that some of you have things that have been keeping you up at night but you still used your strength and made it out of the bed. It’s okay to feel this way, other people feel this way. Please talk to someone about how you feel, please know that it’s okay to ask for help. We are all in this together.
* The author is a consultant and coach. Instagram handle: @miss_shefa, Website: missshefa.com
Shefa Ali
