I just received this email from a Beyond Blue reader and I wanted to throw it out to you for feedback, since I really don’t know the answer:

I am and have always been severely depressed. However, I have never been suicidal. I have wanted my life to end sometimes, but did not try to think of doing anything to make it happen. I also had very good survival instincts in avoiding a potential accident in my car when I was in one of these states.

Now to my question. Can you find out, or advise me how to find out the percentage of severely depressed people who have never been suicidal? In the groups I’ve been in, I have found that virtually everyone else has been suicidal at some point in their lives. I know that the population tends to assume that depression and suicidal thoughts always go hand in hand, so I want to get some information to tell them that “It ain’t necessarily So.” Any help would be appreciated. I don’t think that I could be the only one out here with severe depression who isn’t suicidal.

Do any of you relate to that?

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