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Suicidality may be telling you to kill your career, not yourself

Kirstin Bebell
5 min readJul 5, 2023

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What is suicidality fundamentally? The desire to end one’s own life? Some would say suicidality is the desire to end pain and suffering.

That’s a simplistic approach.

It’s true that terrible, unrelenting pain can turn death from a Grim Reaper into an Angel of God.

Photo by Sheldon on Unsplash

But there are people who live in pain, and who are willing to live with that pain, rather than seeking death. Physical. Psychological. Emotional. Pain.

I am fond of Marsha Linehan’s approach, that the most important thing is building a life worth living.

You can see your life as worth living, even if it is full of pain.

Your can also see your life as worthless, and feel as though ending it would be better, even if you logically recognize it’s not all that bad.

Right now, there are people who feel suicidal as they read these words, but whose lives or bodies are not full of pain. We too often preach shame if one feels like dying when there seems to be no reason to.

That’s okay. Because they’re wrong that suicidality is just about ending the pain.

What if your suicidality is telling you to quit your career, rather than quitting your…

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Kirstin Bebell
Kirstin Bebell

Written by Kirstin Bebell

I write for the suicidal. Anti-self-help, suicide & society, and a few other bits and pieces.

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