Wendy Robinson
Wendy is Head of Services at the UK charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). She has worked within therapeutic and support services for vulnerable people, becoming a well-...
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Who are you?
Hi, my name's Wendy. I'm head of services at the Campaign Against Living Miserably. That means I'm responsible for our helpline, which is there for you. If you're struggling in this section, you can ask me any question about suicide and suicide prevention.
What is suicide?
Suicide is when someone intentionally takes their own life. Now, quite often it's not necessarily that somebody wants to die, but they really feel that they have no other option, but there's always another option. There's always hope there.
Why would someone consider suicide?
There are lots of reasons that bring somebody to the point of feeling that life's not worth living. It can be actually being triggered by some severe life event. It can be a buildup of many things. It can be where somebody feels really ashamed of something that's happened, but certainly it brings people to the point of feeling that they can't go on, they can't see another way out, and suicide feels like the only way forward. But there's always a way forward. It might not feel like it at the time. Something we say is that suicide is a permanent solution to what is often a temporary problem. So really we want to be there to help people to see that there is a way forward.