It's surprising how many people struggle with this. I saw someone on FB with a certain banner on their image, and it was to bring awareness to how many veterinarians commit suicide every year. You think it's such a happy profession because the people are dealing with animals, but when your clientele, who is entirely vulnerable, are so often abused and mistreated, I can see how that would take its toll.

Thanks for being here, Denise!

This is such a good point. Most of us are pretty good about self-care and doing what we need to keep ourselves emotionally healthy. But it's nearly impossible for some people, and we should be cognizant of that.

Yes, first responders are absolutely at high risk for this. Thanks to your brother for all that he does.

denise

Many, many thanks!!!

It has always been common - up until the Baby Boomer generation when things like penicillin were invented, and sterile operating rooms, and X-rays.

So we've had a generation with vaccines - so our children survive far more often than not - and the 'health' culture makes it a moral virtue to run.

If you look further back - the Brontës all died young, and probably of 'consumption' (TB) - literature skirted around illness and early death, but the effects were ever present: widows and orphans, children left with family (Jane Eyre), The Wife of Bath on her 7th (?) husband... There was no need - and no point because there were few things they could DO about it - of discussing the illnesses in characters, just the consequences.

So, in some sense, I'm in a pristine field, where disability and chronic illness are NEW problems, and diversity is having a hard time remembering to include the disabled.

I just wish I were faster - there is a lot to be said. Instead, I'm lovingly polishing one of the few novels where, as one of my reviewers said, "I realized that I couldn't think of any book I'd read, recently, involving a character with a disability or chronic illness – a significant hole in terms of diversity."

Wow. The things people in that field would see...I can only imagine. Therapists, too; every one I know sees a therapist as part of their self-care. It's a lot to carry around.