A kind word can mean a lot when you’re down

Last Friday night I took part in the Pieta House ‘Darkness into Light’ walk in Galway. I walked the entire journey on my own and not one single person spoke to me or made any effort to engage with me in conversation.

Everyone around me laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. I felt so alone, and especially so because of the reasons behind why we were walking.

I was lost in my own thoughts, thinking of the thousands of people on the walk and the dark night nearly 30 years ago when I admitted myself to a psychiatric hospital as an alternative to taking my life when I felt so alone in severe depression. At one stage I passed a walker on her own and spoke briefly to her, momentarily taking me out of my feeling of aloneness.

I was not suicidal but I wondered if there were any walkers there with suicidal thoughts. How would they have felt, being surrounded by such joviality on this particular walk of all walks?

I commend the work that Pieta House is doing and I commend each person who took part in walks across the country.

However, we must remember that people who are suicidal do not have a label on their foreheads.

The person next to you on the bus, in a queue, the person you meet on the street, etc, may not be feeling well. Sometimes a smile or even just a hello can mean so much when you are feeling low.

Thomas Roddy

Lower Salthill

Galway