As someone who has been living with severe suicidal ideation my entire life I wanna tell you all something, you don’t have to stay alive for yourself. People will say it’s a bad idea to live for external things because they’re temporary, and it’s true living for yourself is ideal but if you’re not to that point yet that’s ok too.
I’ve lived for my dog for the past 4 years, before that I lived for my snakes, before that I lived for my cat. You can live for whatever needs you and whatever matters to you. Live for your best friend, live for your plants, live for your pets, live for your animal crossing town. Live for whatever keeps you alive and the day will come when you can live for yourself.
This is something everyone should see. Thank you for sharing this.
Transformers kept me alive. When the 2007 movie was announced I was going through an incredibly hard time emotionally. I saw the preview and every time I thought about killing myself I thought, “but then I won’t get to see this thing I’ve always wanted to see, good or not.” And it got me through.
I’m in a place where I live for myself now, but don’t toss away a life preserver just because other people think you should be able to swim on your own.
don’t toss away a life preserver just because other people think you should be able to swim on your own
One time I was basically going to jump off a bridge, but before that I decided to call a very good friend. I told her what I was going to do and her reply was basically “The new Souless book is coming out next week. Do you really want to die with that horrible cliffhanger she left for us?”
I just basically went “well damn, I forgot about that” and got away from the bridge.
In hindsight it’s slightly funny how effective that was. Like she didn’t do the cliche “your parents/siblings need you” or the like. She just gave me a short term goal with no pressure to last one more week. And once you reach that finish line, I would just go aiming for other lines…
No joke for a couple years I was hanging around solely for the Hobbit movies. And to make sure there was someone around to look after my cats.
The computer said my next patient’s name was Lucifer, and that he was a domestic. Not that an unusual name for a pet, I have to admit.
“Come on in. Do you have Lucifer hiding in that box for me?” I say. A gentleman dressed all in black with a rather spiky aesthetic and a selection of piercings comes into my consult room and opens the box.
He places a perfectly black rabbit on the table.
Honestly, I had been expecting a cat.
Turns out Lucifer is his new rabbit. He’d insisted on taking it from a friend who wasn’t taking care of it a few months ago.
Lucifer, for his part, had decided the table was too scary and that his dad’s leather clad armpit was the best place to be.
To my surprise and delight, our new goth rabbit owner is doing everything right. Perfect diet, read up on rabbit health, vaccinating, enrichment, the works.
He even started a vegetable garden to grow treats for the rabbit, or as he put it, “tributes for lucifer.”
Those people obviously don’t realize the extremely high kill rate for cats at shelters, not to mention that people literally dump indoor cats outside when they don’t want them anymore, and indoor cats often die due to starvation/predators (duh they have no survival skills).
Also – I might also be crying.
Jackson Galaxy is awesome. His story is is that he used to be a drug addict, and that while he was in the beginning of his recovery he saved a stray cat and nursed it back to life, and in return the cat essentially did the same for him, and ever since then, he’s taught himself everything there is to know about cats and their behavior. Cats saved his life, so he’s saving cats lives. He’s awesome.
All of the above. How often do you see people freak out over a lost dog, or a strange dog in their yard and desperately try to find their owner? You see a cat wondering around your yard, or hiding somewhere on your property and ‘it’s just a dirty stray’. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Cats are seen as ‘disposable’ pets. It’s disgusting.
The Paradox Machine 