Disturbed by the number of children she knew who experienced suicidal ideation (considering suicide), local author Deborah La Chapelle Mitchell has written a book sharing her experiences and giving tips on how to deal with dark thoughts.

She said Suicide, Why Are You Stalking Me is about people having difficulties adjusting to and understanding life changes and challenging situations. It is about people being fed up of life’s adversities and rejections, as well as the ways she eventually stopped suicidal ideation in the hopes of motivating and helping others.

“I want people to live. I want to give them a fighting chance through my book. My mantra is, ‘There’s hope in waiting,’ because you never know what could happen or what you could become. And if you take your life you could rob people of something you alone would have been able to give them.”

Written mostly from her experiences and some situations she saw others endure, she wrote about suicide as a person, as if it is someone who stalks people and whispers in their ears.

She said factors she personally saw or experienced included bullying, abuse, and the local culture of adults “attacking” or bullying children and calling it picong or a joke.

She also believes rejection can be felt in the womb. Just as a foetus can hear music, recognise a voice, or react to a mother’s stress, she believes it could also sense rejection, starting its life on negative footing.

She told WMN one of the reasons she wrote Suicide, Why Are You Stalking Me is because in 2016 she was a facilitator at a vacation Bible school where there were about 100 children, whose ages ranged from five to 16.

At one point she asked the older children if any of them had ever contemplated suicide. All raised their hands.

She then asked if any had tried and was shocked by the number of children who had. She was especially surprised because one of the latter was “the life of the party,” a jolly boy who liked to make people happy.

La Chapelle Mitchell, 52, believes in God and Jesus Christ, and does not believe He makes mistakes in who He allows to be born.

She quoted Job 14:1, which says, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”

[caption id="attachment_960450" align="alignnone" width="683"] Deborah La Chapelle Mitchell said a discussion about suicide with children at a Bible school camp moved her to a book about her own experience of suicide ideation. - Jeff K Mayers[/caption]

Since the Bible said hardships should be expected, she believes circumstances should not be the main factor in people not wanting to continue living.

“There is always hope. But that hope can only be seen if we wait and see how life plays out, rather than take this way out.

“Look how long it took me. I am 52 years old and I just wrote a book. If I had succeeded, my pages would have been empty. The time may seem long, but if you hold out, who knows? You could very well be the next prime minister, because it’s usually older people who are PMs.”

Another motivator for the book was t