Hi, Anessa,

This is a really lovely (not snarky) comment, and I appreciate every word of it. I think I'm not saying, or encouraging people to tell those who are suicidal, "nope, it all just sucks"; that's not what I'm saying at all. Just don't shove trite aphorisms up their cornholes and expect a pat on the back for it. I think what I was trying to do in this essay is balance realism with hope, pragmatism with work and growth; remember what I said: "it" (whatever "it" is) doesn't get better-- it gets human. There is an ebb and flow to life, which a suicidal person tends to not be able to see-- to them, it's a black shitfest and there is only repetition or worsening of that feeling, there is no concept that anything can possibly change; and things getting human is, by its very nature, things changing-- what gets better isn't life, or our mental illness, but it's our ability to learn strategies to cope with the shitty hand that many of us are dealt, to find ways to work in concert with our mental illness and our providers and our brains, rather than trying to beat the piss out of them all the time. We look into the eyes of suicidal people and tell them to hold on; because tomorrow could be different-- not "better."