On suicide, kindness and humour

When It s Darkest by Rory O’Connor and How Not to Kill Yourself by Set Sytes

For World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD🎗️), I wanted to draw your attention to two quite different books on the subject.

One of the kindest and most helpful books I have read on suicide awareness is When It Is Darkest: Why People Die by Suicide and What We Can Do to Prevent It (Vermilion, 2021) by Rory O’Connor.

Former President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), Professor Rory O'Connor leads the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at Glasgow University. In his Introduction to When It Is Darkest, he says:

‘I have combined the personal with the professional — by telling something of people’s stories, including my own.’

I am glad to hear that Rory O’Connor is working on a second book.

Another book on suicide prevention that I am grateful to have discovered is the helpful and funny How Not To Kill Yourself: a Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists (Microcosm Publishing) by Set Sytes.

Set Sytes says this about tragedy and humour:

‘A good joke never undermines the seriousness of a singular tragic event and sometimes actually underlines it. In fact, good jokes are, more often than not, not targeting specific personal tragedies but are almost entirely fictionalised. The more we can understand it, the more we can empathise.’

How Not To Kill Yourself might be classified under ‘suicide prevention’ / ‘humour’ / ‘survival guide’. I found it oddly uplifting.

And here is an international link hub for where to find help: https://findahelpline.com/