Help Is it worth it to write a letter?

[icantwait_togo]

I've heard many people say, "If you have a letter to write, you have a reason to stay," which I personally believe is false. I feel pressured to write a letter. People expect letters.

I have not yet written one, and I don't really want to, but I feel pressured to. I don't think that a letter actually helps whoever it is written to because how can years or even a lifetime of knowing someone be put into a few words? How can forced sorrys and goodbyes help relieve the pain someone may be feeling from a permanent loss? At least for me, they would be forced. I do not love my parents, I hate them. I do not owe them a letter, but my mind is telling me I do.

I would like some people's opinions on suicide letters, from those who are planning to write them and those who aren't going to. I think I'm just overthinking, because the concept of a final goodbye seems nice, but honestly I don't have the words to put into a letter. I tried to write a letter a few times, one just turned into an incredibly harsh and rude nasty letter for my parents, and the other I literally used ChatGPT to help me because I just didn't know what to say.

Is it true that if you have a letter to write, you have a reason to stay?

 

[Afterglow]

Honestly...

Having a friend and a loved one's suicide with and without a letter.

I think it was personally easier for me to recover with no letter.

 

[sanctionedusage]

holy shit that quote would make so many people feel even worse. who comes up with this trash?

i'm not going to write a letter. for me, it'd be performative and only solidify the fact that everything i can say in real life will fall on deaf ears until something catastrophic enough happens to finally sink in for the people listening.

i can also imagine a person that's actually worth a letter would read it over and obsess over it endlessly, remembering those words like a code to decrypt more than the time they actually had with you. but some of the begrieved might find it sort of like closure, and so might the victims of ctb as well.

but please don't use chat gpt lol, i think that's pretty concrete evidence in itself of how ineffective a letter would be for you. maybe final acts or gestures would accomplish more for you than writing a letter.

 

[thelostautistic]

I don't agree with the phrase. But I do want to write a letter. I feel like owe my family an explanation as to why I've made the choice to leave the world. They deserve that. I don't want to leave them with no answers if that makes sense. They don't really know what I deal with everyday so the letter will hopefully help them to understand how I felt.

 

[DeadManLiving]

Yes. Mending unresolved tensions, reliving culpability and providing some closure. It's important to make forward-looking statements so to say, detracting from the loss and tragedy. With descriptions of encouraging / inspiring events to unfold of what life would look like in one's absence in the most positive light. For those left to grieve, that would be easier to swallow.

 

[phoebusapollo]

I thought a lot about that lately.
I thought of writing one. But then I realized, that it's only my wish to be seen. My last anchor to this world. The thought of communicating a last message. But I realized it's meaningless. If you really let go of this life you let go of everything. There is no need to say a word. No hate no love no life.