Kenzie Stewart

Psych 1010

Professor Kwan

April 27, 2021

Signature Assignment

The Story I chose was, "The Dangerous Taboo of Suicide," by Michael Bamarni, this

story is about Michael who lost someone to suicide which is how he came to understand how

suicide is such a taboo topic. In the story, he says, "Support is crucial in life because

communicating honestly with others is one of the main ways we can begin to heal from

emotionally painful experiences. However, the profound level of loss brought on by the suicide

of a loved one can often led to many negative reactions, such as self-isolation and fears of

opening up to new people." Mr. Barmani talks about how the four years after the suicide of his

loved one, he was still struggling, and during those years he was extremely self-destructive and

kept all of his insecurities, resentments, and all his emotions to himself which led to many bad

decisions. He also explains that it is hard to cope with that grief especially alone because people

tend to isolate themselves and close themselves off instead of seeking help or expressing their

emotions.

In the Comorbidity section of chapter 15.2, it says, "More than half of the individuals

who have a primary diagnosis of depressive disorder are estimated to exhibit some sort of

anxiety disorder. The reverse is also true for those diagnosed with a primary diagnosis of an
anxiety disorder." This basically shows that most people with depressive disorders also suffer

from an anxiety disorder and vice versa. A common trigger for depressive disorders is losing a

loved one, which is exactly what happened to Michael, which essentially means that the grief

and sadness after a loved one's death can constitute a major depressive disorder. In Michael's

story, he explains that the best way to cope through those dark times is to reach out to family and

friends, join a helpline or a support group, rebuild faith, and communicating honestly about that

grief because the reason why many people suffer from major depressive disorders is that they

isolate themselves and can’t express themselves.

This story is interesting to me because I liked the different perspective of reading about

someone else's grief and how they got through it. I also like that he brought attention to the taboo

topic of suicide, everyone assumes that after a couple of weeks of suffering from a loved one's

death or suicide, that we are back to normal and perfectly fine, but I have come to understand

that grief lingers, it comes in waves and sometimes it comes back harder than before. At first, it's

hard for everyone, and then slowly the grief will fade away, but it always comes back and not

everyone is able to get through those emotions alone, especially when they have lost someone

they really loved. I can't even imagine the emotional roller coaster he has gone through,

especially since he talked about how he was in a dark place even after four years of the suicide of

his loved one, he also held in his emotions and didn't get relief until he spoke to someone about it

and was genuinely honest about his pain and grief. I can personally relate this to my life because

it shows that being "tough" and holding in your emotions is not the answer, I think that growing

up we form the idea in our heads that in order to be mature and be an adult we have to numb our

emotions and keep our emotions to ourselves when in reality, we need to show our emotions to

people all throughout our lives, not just when we are little kids. I don't think this story
necessarily changes my perspective, but it does cause me to be more compassionate towards

people especially those with mental/psychological disorders because they aren't any less human

than I am just because they suffer from something that I don't. It would be unfair of me to judge

or treat someone differently based on their disorder(s) because everyone, including myself,

struggles with things in life like stress and anxiety. I know that some people suffer more than

others and exactly as Michael said in his story, one of the best ways to get through intense grief

is to reach out to someone, or on the opposite side, if you notice someone suffering, you should

step in because you could be the person that saves their life or mental health. The hard part about

this situation is that some people are very good at locking in their emotions and seeming fine and

normal on the outside when in reality they are suffering immensely on the inside, so the biggest

take away for me based on this story is to reach out to people when you get that gut feeling to

reach out or say something to someone, do it because you might be the person that completely

changes that person life.

Bamarni, M. (n.d.). Personal Stories. NAMI. https://www.nami.org/Personal-Stories/The-

Dangerous-Taboo-of-Suicide.