The High Price of Denial....

Today I find myself angry and feeling as if I have egg all over my face, it seems that my entry about Yancy yesterday has proved to be somewhat incorrect, well.... let me amend that... steeped in decades of denial. When I wrote my blog yesterday, I had just received a yearly update letter from my family in eastern Washington ( you know, the kind families send every Christmas to keep everyone updated as to what has occurred the previous year) and was very saddened to read about Yancy's death. Earlier today I found out that the part written about his passing was not entirely what really happened. It stated that he was serving in the National Guard in Iraq (which he had been) and had "died suddenly" however it failed to mention the fact that Yancy was on leave and at home and had decided to take his own life. My father's side has a long history of addiction and mental illness and of choosing suicide as an answer to life's rough patches. Family members down through time have come up with little excuses for these devastating decisions such as: "Auntie was reaching into the nightstand and the gun accidentally went off "... or..."He/she was so depressed, they just didn't see another way out"...and..."He/she always was the black sheep of the family." Why can't we see through the denial and teach our future generations that there are ALWAYS choices, we might not like what they are but suicide should never be one of them. Bring the shame out of the shadows for it cannot exist in the light. Mental illness and addictions are not topics to sweep under the carpet but to acknowledge and treat so our children and their children's children do not face the devastating results our family members have experienced before us . Such a high price for denial....