People don’t talk about suicide, and for Margaret Hajdinjak that’s a serious problem.
“There is such a stigma attached to it,” Hajdinjak said, as she prepared to walk Sunday evening at the Out of Darkness memorial Walk.
“If you lose someone through cancer or a car accident people are more likely to talk to you about it but when its suicide its puts a different twist on the death.”
Hajdinjak is the founder of the walk, and 11 years ago she lost her 26-year-old son, Steven, to suicide. Steven suffered from serious depression and it eventually led him to take his own life.
Dozens of community members walked alongside Hajdinjak Sunday as they circled the Confederation College campus to help erase the stigma attached to suicide and mental health.
She organized the event in hopes of bringing awareness to the seriousness of depression and suicide.
“I think that suicide affects everybody. It doesn’t discriminate between age, race, class or gender,” Hajdinjak said.
“It could happen to anybody. I think for people to have the strength to be able to talk about it, that’s the start to stop suicide from happening.”
She explained that the public perception attached to depression and mental illness makes it hard for people to want to talk about how they feel.
She added that talking to someone about how you’re feeling is the best way to cope with any mental illness.
Hajdinjak said her advice for those who have lost someone they loved is to share their life, not their death.