This Christmas, your one gift could be the reason for someone like Brighid.
You never know what it will be.
No one ever does.
Even though it feels like there are a million reasons why you fall, it’s always one reason that helps you climb back up.
For Brighid, it was her mum.
“My life had just become too much. It was an accumulation of factors. Cloudy thinking. I can’t get out of this. I can’t move forward. I can’t find a solution. So many troubles.
I remember thinking about my dad’s suicide and thinking: ‘Well, maybe that’s the way for me to go as well.’ I came so close, but then I thought of mum and what it would do to her, and that’s what stopped me.”
You can help someone find their reason today. Though the pressures of life, work, relationships, lockdown and Christmas may be weighing down on someone like Brighid, when she calls, your generous gift will help ensure our trained counsellors can help her find her reason.
Just one reason can be enough. Just one call to Beyond Blue can be enough. Just one gift from you. Can be enough.
Please help someone like Brighid this Christmas. Not just because it’s Christmas, but because Christmas is a time when life is often toughest for people who experience anxiety and depression.
Brighid understands this all too well. You see, she lost her mum at Christmas. A wound inflicted on top of the one she was already nursing as a result of her dad’s suicide.
As Brighid explained... “Christmas does get tough. My mum passed away less than 10 days before Christmas, and that was my absolute low point. It still sets the mood for me over that period. I spent last Christmas with my partner’s family and I found myself sitting there, thinking, ‘this just isn’t the same’.”
Can you imagine what might have happened if we had not been able to answer her call? Unfortunately, I can, and that’s what spurs me to do more to make sure it never does.
When Brighid finally talked to her family about her anxiety and her depression, they were shocked. They all knew Brighid as a happy person living a fun life, they knew nothing about the turmoil buried deep inside.
The truth is that Brighid had probably been affected by anxiety and depression most of her life, including debilitating sleeping problems and bulimia between the ages of 14 and 26. The added trauma of losing both her parents within a few years of each other plus the breakdown of an important relationship, simply became too much.
She was dealing with a multitude of issues that had been building for years. Many, many reasons why she found herself in a dark place thinking about ending her life.
But one phone call stopped her acting on her thoughts and helped her choose the path to recovery.
One reason. One phone call. One gift. One friend like you.