TWs:  References to self-harm, depression and suicide.

Welcome back to another month of Bookish Debates! September is Mental Health Awareness Month for suicide and depression, two topics that are very important to discuss since it affects so many people, including our loved ones. Read on to hear that they had to say!

Note 1: As always, we welcome everyone to share additional thoughts in the comments! However, we kindly ask that everyone maintain respect and patience as opinions may differ, and not everyone may be fully familiar with this topic.

Note 2: Some part of the response below contain information that may be upsetting, triggering or uncomfortable for readers. If that is the case, please skip this chapter! None of the responses below seek to glorify, justify or diminish the topics raised within them. 

In the event that you experience any discomfort, please do not hesitate to reach out to a loved one or seek professional help! 

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Questions posted on 9th September 2024

Question for Our Writers: How can an author approach these topics or any discussion about mental health in their writing? When talking about suicide and depression, how can they ensure that what they're writing is respectful, mindful, and sensitive to readers? Do you believe that writing about certain topics can be healing for an author who is struggling with their own mental health? How can a writer include healthy ways to cope with these struggles into their writing? 

Question for Our Readers: When you come across a book that contains mentions of mental health discussions, especially suicide, what are your expectations? Do you believe that reading about books that deal with mental health topics in a respectful and sensitive manner can be cathartic and help a reader cope with their own struggles? 

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All answers are slightly modified for grammar and structure.

Winning answer posted by High_Priestess_Elena

A picture book I've always wanted to get my hands on is called Petite Âne (Little Donkey). Unfortunately, I don't remember the author's name and can't find the notes where I have it saved at the moment of writing this. It's a French picture book depicting a little donkey who was sad because they wanted to kill themselves but didn't know how. Throughout the picture book, they try different methods and ask people for advice. Eventually, on the last page, the donkey has hung themselves and is smiling. Now I have spent a good time trying to find some place to buy this book, but it got so much backlash as soon as it was published that it barely got on the shelves before being taken away. Now I certainly understand why people would be outraged by this book. It was, after all, marketed towards children and has a very dark plot. But as much as I understand it, I do think it is also a bit of a shame.

As the intro to this debate topic says, depression and suicide affect so many, including children, and I, for one, think that books are a good way to approach talking about difficult topics. Reading about a fictional character's struggles, thinking about them, and discussing them is so much easier than something that directly concerns you. So though Petite Âne might have been inappropriate (I don't really know if I would think it was or wasn't since I haven't read it), I think it's a shame that such topics to some extent are rather taboo in children's literature, and I wish there were better good representations of it in literature in general.

During the time period when I struggled the most with my own mental health, I both read and wrote a lot of depressive stuff (and well, I still do love both reading and writing depressive stuff). For me, that really became a way to cope. The reading because it made me feel like I was less alone, the writing as a way to process my own thoughts and emotions. Writing even became one of the ways I dealt with panic attacks, not always because often I would be too in the attack to do it, but when I did, the writing forced my thoughts to slow down since I can only write so fast.

From the books I have read that depict mental health struggles, there are a number of things that I have seen and dislike in different portrayals and that I take with me into my own writing. The most common one I've seen that is just so inaccurate: The idea that love can cure depression. And what I have noticed while reading that makes this notion even more ridiculous is that it generally is women being cured from their depression through love, while men are cured through medical help. With this one also, I've read a number of books which talk about medicine as the evil and the person suffering from an illness feels they do much better without the medicine. And though I've taken meds that have rather made me worse than better, this idea of meds being evil and love will cure you is rather ridiculous in my opinion. Like I have read one book where the MC suffers from schizophrenia and in the book it quite legit says that she felt her meds made everything worse while falling in love made her hallucinations go away. Now I'm not claiming to be an expert on different mental illnesses, but that part of the book made me face palm. 

 Okay, so I feel like I might be on my way to stray a bit off topic, so I'm going to conclude with a good example of how to write mental illness: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. John Green is a phenomenal writer, but Turtles All the Way Down is definitely my favorite and that definitely is because of how he's written the MC's mental health struggles. One of the things I love the most is that there aren't any quick fixes, because (spoiler alert) at the end of the book you find out that she continues to struggle with it when an adult, that sometimes she'd do better, but then do worse again. Being an adult that has struggled with my mental health for over half my life, it feels so accurate. 

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That's all for now! We appreciate all that those took a moment out of their lives to participate in this discussion and congratulations once again to Elena for winning!