One Is What One Is, And The

We All Build Internal Sea Walls To Keep At Bay The Sadnesses Of Life And The Often Overwhelming Forces Within Our Minds. In Whatever Way We Do This--through Love, Work, Family, Faith, Friends, Denial, Alcohol, Drugs, Or Medication, We Build These Walls, Stone By Stone, Over A Lifetime.

Love, Like Life, Is Much Stranger And Far More Complicated Than One Is Brought Up To Believe.

Each Way To Suicide Is Its Own: Intensely Private, Unknowable, And Terrible. Suicide Will Have Seemed To Its Perpetrator The Last And Best Of Bad Possibilities, And Any Attempt By The Living To Chart This Final Terrain Of Life Can Be Only A Sketch, Maddeningly Incomplete

Far Too Many Doctors-many Of Them Excellent Physicians-commit Suicide Each Year; One Recent Study Concluded That, Until Quite Recently, The United States Lost Annually The Equivalent Of A Medium-sized Medical School Class From Suicide Alone. Most Physician Suicides Are Due To Depression Or Manic-depressive Illness, Both Of Which Are Eminently Treatable. Physicians, Unfortunately, Not Only Suffer From A Higher Rate Of Mood Disorders Than The General Population, They Also Have A Greater Access To Very Effective Means Of Suicide.

I Was Late To Understand That Chaos And Intensity Are No Subsitute For Lasting Love, Nor Are They Necessarily An Improvement On Real Life. Normal People Are Not Always Boring. On The Contrary. Volatility And Passion, Although Often More Romantic And Enticing, Are Not Intrinsically Preferable To A Steadiness Of Experience And Feeling About Another Person.