This another question posed by Adrian Warnock in his post: Suicide and Religious Faith following on from his question about mental illness which I posted about in mental illness and my faith. This week, his question is:

Research suggests that religious faith protects against suicide. Why do you think that is in light of how your community responds to suicide? How can we tread the fine line of discouraging suicide while not making the grief of family members worse?

The depressions that have afflicted me time and time again often come with thoughts of suicide. When the pain is unbearable, and light seems so far away, then the only thing that comes into my mind is thoughts of dying. It starts with prayers and wishes that something will happen to me; cancer, a terrible accident; a random knifeman, anything. Then when those prayers are (not surprisingly) unanswered, the other…