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See the most extraordinary secrets and stories, learn my secret, or skip to the 64-minute mark to listen to audience secrets.

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—Frank@postsecret.com—

Hi Frank 

Years ago I mailed in a secret from here in the UK when I was deeply troubled and in the midsts of suicidal ideation. 

I had intended to make a solo, unsupported, journey north from northern Canada to the geographic pole. 

What I hadn’t told anyone was that I did not intend to return, and my postcard reflected that, with a message something like “I promise, it will look like an accident“. I imagined either death by hypothermia or, more likely, drowning.

Fortunately for me, fate intervened: work became a lot busier, some issues in my personal life were resolved, and I found a new direction. I still have strong feelings but I’m no longer controlled by them, helped more than a little by a daily dose of medication.

Since then, I’ve recently completed a masters degree in my field and am moving to doctoral study in a field of significant self-harm and prediction of this to enable people to be signposted to treatment. 

My advice to people in times of crisis would be two fold: first, to quote Churchill, “If you’re going through hell, keep going”. Second, something I learned from a psychiatrist friend is that suicide is a “permanent solution to a temporary problem”. 

I still read Postsecret every Sunday morning, and it brings me joy.