Hazards of talking about a ‘better place’

In the past week where teen suicides and youth mental health entered the public sphere again, the use of language by religious and ordinary citizens surrounding any type of death is baffling me.

I always thought the idea of a deceased loved one going to a ‘better place’ was a comforting thought for grieving family members, but couldn’t it also be a dangerous glamourisation of death in any form?

When an elderly individual dies of natural causes in their sickbed, this message of an eternal and most glorious afterlife at a funeral can be a soothing thought, but for me the same language, although always comforting, can have a negative effect on surviving family members and friends of a suicide victim.

I use the word victim because someone who takes their own life struggles with the horrible illness that is depression, and as a mental turmoil, depression can delve the mind into dark and dire depths.

With this in mind, and with the surge in youth suicides in recent years in mind, isn’t the idea of a ‘better place’ a dangerous one to implant into what might be the grieving mind of a young person, who may be in a similar mental state to that of their deceased friend or family member.

Couldn’t someone in that fragile mental place reflect on their own doldrums of depression as such: “Wouldn’t I be better off in this beautiful ‘better place’ everyone is talking about?”

Justin Kelly

Edenderry

Co Offaly