The Trouble with Suicide Prevention
Society abandoned disabled people, not the other way around
Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and my phone has just informed me that “help is available.” The reason my phone felt the need to inform me of the number for the suicide prevention hotline is because my latest google search was “how many muscle relaxants does it take to kill you?” I guess I’m just not in a very good place.
I have a list of chronic illnesses, so I always have a backpack full of pills. I have pills to help me breathe, pills to numb my nerve pain, pills to put me to sleep. I take a gastrointestinal muscle relaxant without which I could not digest food. I have pain medication without which I could not survive my migraines. And, yes, I have muscle relaxants.
I was finally given a prescription for muscle relaxants because of my period pain. Like so many women, I probably have endometriosis, that is, the tissue of my uterus is probably growing inside my belly and in other places where it is not supposed to be. In a healthy society, some researcher would have long ago dedicated themselves to understanding this disorder. It afflicts ten percent of women of reproductive age and is agonizing.
This is not that kind of society. Very few people care about women’s pain.
