05/09/2026
Content warning: This post discusses su***de. ⚠️
There is still so much misunderstanding around su***de, and I include myself in that. Before losing Leon, I too believed it was a choice. I questioned how someone could do something that felt so selfish and leave so much pain and devastation behind.
But through grief, learning and reflection forced me to challenge that belief.
Su***de is complex and cannot be reduced to one reason or one moment. Someone may be fighting an internal battle that others cannot see, and none of us can truly know the full extent of another person’s psychological pain or how impossible continuing may have felt to them in that moment.
I also had to change my language. I no longer say “committed su***de.” The word committed carries associations with crime, wrongdoing and shame and the law around this was changed in 1961. Leon was not a criminal. He was a human being who was struggling immensely and deserved compassion, understanding and support. I now say that he died by su***de or lost his life to su***de.
Changing our language will never lessen the devastation of su***de, but it can help replace stigma, judgment and blame with empathy. We must try to understand the battles we cannot see and remember that a person’s entire life should never be reduced to the way it ended.
Leon will never be defined by the way he died. He will be remembered for the man I loved, the partner he was and the devoted father he will always be. 🤍
***deawarenessmonth
