telling people about your past

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#1
Hi,

I hope that I write this at the right part of forums :)

Ok, maybe I should tell you a context of my question.
5-6 years ago I tried to commit suicide and I'm still surprised how it happened that I didn't succeed. Everything happened in such way that nobody else knew that I tried to kill myself.
But at that very moment (just after failure of suicide) I somehow understood some things that quite drastically changed myself.

The following few years were spent trying to understand who I am, what should I do, also I learned or tried new things like playing an instrument and writing.

About 1.5 years ago I began to participate in students' social organisation and quite quickly became coordinator of it (that was easy because there weren't many people). I made that organisation much more active and efficient.

Now we almost got my question. You see, people (who I meet while doing some work at social organisation) are quite surprised to see someone hardly working in such an area which was abandoned before. And then they ask me: "What motivates you?", "Why you put so much effort?".

Then I get confused. What should I say?
Something like "Well, everything began when I tried to commit suicide and........"?
Or just "ummmm, some time ago I suddenly realized that I really like to help people"?

For myself, I would like to tell people the truth about me but I'm not sure if others would be ready to hear that. I don't know what's the situation in other countries, but in my country the general opinion is that people who try committing suicide are weak, lamentable, attention-whores and dead. I mean that all other people (who are alive, doing successful work, participating in various activities) haven't tried to kill themselves or seriously thought about that. So I have a feeling that my admission would be taken just as a wish to get some attention to me (while I just want to point out that having suicidal thoughts doesn't mean that you can't be active, curious or even cheerful person).

I would like to hear what do you do in such a case. What are your experiences in doing so?

P.S. - yeah, my english su*ks :)
 

Ziggy

Antiquitie's Friend
#2
To be honest when people I don't know tell me that they've tried to commit suicide I find it very difficult and awkward even though I've tried it myself. Personally I tend to say things like "I was going through a bad patch in my life" because everyone can relate to that. The more I get to know the person and trust them the more I can reveal to them later.
 
M

MrDepressed

#3
In real life I dont think I would be willing either to just reveal my prior suicide attempts, like Ziggy I would just say something along the lines of "I have had problems with depression or such in the past", if I get to know someone then I may tell them about my suicidal attempts or the suicide of my brother.. on here it is a different story, I am more than willing to talk about it with anyone here.
 
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