I cannot pretend to understand your situation. You are a stranger, first of all, and everybody’s story is unique. So I’ll refrain from the clichés: “It’ll get better.” “This too shall pass.” “You are a good person and deserve to live.” Those statements may well be true, and I hope you will consider them. But if they were enough, nobody would die by suicide.
Instead of giving you superficial reassurance, I am going to ask you some important questions. I invite you to consider them thoughtfully, and to sit with your answers. They may surprise you.
Have You Tried Everything that Might Help Ease Your Suicidal Despair?
You obviously feel tremendous pain, hopelessness, or other problems that are causing you to want to die. Have you tried out everything possible to alleviate those problems?
If you are depressed, have you tried every different type of antidepressant medication out there? (At last count, there were 30). Even if a few types of antidepressants haven’t worked for you, that doesn’t mean that none of them will.
Have you tried therapy? Research indicates that various therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and CAMS (the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality) can help to reduce suicidal danger in people with suicidal thoughts, and to help them feel better, too.
Have you increased your exercise? Exercise can be as effective as antidepressants in relieving depression, and it helps reduce anxiety, too.
How about self-help – have you tried that? Two excellent books for people with suicidal thoughts are Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide Through Cognitive Therapy, and The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook: CBT Skills to Reduce Emotional Pain, Increase Hope, and Prevent Suicide. (Yes, it’s true, you really ought to get professional help for suicidal thoughts. These books are a good complement to therapy, or you can use them on your own.)
If you are experiencing a life situation with devastating consequences – perhaps you are being bullied or facing prison time – can you consider the possibility that the situation may change, or, as in the case of prison, that it may become more bearable in time?
If you are hearing voices telling you to kill yourself – perhaps the voices say that you are a bad person or that you do not deserve to live – can you consider that the voices simply are wrong? Can you talk back to the voices? Have you tried every type of antipsychotic medication there is? (There are at least 18, not including mood stabilizers.) Might the voices come to a stop, or change what they tell you, or become less believable with time?
Similarly, if you are plagued with thoughts of worthlessness, hopelessness or unlovability, can you entertain the possibility that those thoughts are not true? You do not need to believe everything that you think or feel. I have heard the saying before (though I forget where) that many people have a prosecutor residing in their head, and they lack a defense attorney. You can learn to defend yourself against self-condemning thoughts and to feel better about yourself and your life again. (Cognitive behavioral therapy especially helps with these types of problems.)
Whatever you are dealing with, can you consider that you still can craft a purpose for yourself in life in the months and years to come, whatever that purpose may be?
What Would You Say to a Suicidal Person in Your Situation?
Think of everything that is going wrong in your life. Think of all the reasons you have for dying by suicide.
Now imagine that someone you care about very much came to you with the same problems, the same reasons, the same desires to die. What would you tell them?
Would you say to this person you care about, “You’re right, you should kill yourself”? If not, why?
What Are Your Reasons for Living? (Or What Were They?)
Something has kept you alive this long. What has kept you going?
What have you lived for in the past? Is it possible that you will want to live for those same things again in the future, if this crisis passes?
Here are common reasons for staying alive that people provided in a study by Marsha Linehan and colleagues:
- Attitudes toward life, survival, and coping (for example, a belief that things can change for the better)
- Responsibility to family
- Concerns for children
- Fears about suicide (for examples, fears of death, of suffering injuries from the attempt, of feeling tremendous physical pain, of doing violence to oneself)
- Fear of social disapproval
- Moral objections (like thinking suicide is morally wrong, or believing people who die by suicide go to hell)
Other reasons might include pets, dreams of traveling, love of the mountains – you name it. Whatever keeps you here may well be worth staying for.
Do any of the above reasons apply to you? If not, could they in the future?
What Do You Hope for in Life?
The antidote to suicidal thoughts is hope, and conversely, hopelessness is their accomplice.
What do you hope for yourself for the future? What can you do to help you survive long enough for those hopes to be realized?
Are there things you hope for immediately, like a chocolate bar, a good night’s rest, a day off from work? What are the little things that you hope for that might not be getting your attention during this time of crisis?
Have you lost all hope? If so, think back on what gave you hope in the past. When did those things stop fueling your hope? Could they again?
Maybe you are thinking “Things will never get better” or “I have nothing to live for. ” Can you be certain your thoughts are correct? More to the point, even though it is painful to have such thoughts, is it possible you are wrong?
Remember, some conditions – like extreme stress, or depression – can cloud a person’s thinking, making hope invisible. People with these conditions may be unable to remember the good things in their life and unable to tap into the good things that may come. But hope does not really die. It just hides. Even amid a terrible storm in the head, it is still there behind the clouds, just like the sun.
Does It Help You to Think of Suicide’s Effects on Other People?
I would like to ask you to think of people who would suffer from your death. But I know that thinking of other people can be very complicated.
Some people with suicidal thoughts are angry at those they believe have failed them. They may feel, often rightly so, that their suicide will cause guilt in those they left behind, and for a small number of suicidal people, this may be a fate that they welcome. In this context, suicide takes on a vengeful quality, whether that is the primary purpose or a byproduct of suicide.
Other people may feel convinced that they are a burden on their loved ones, and that their suicide would be a way to spare their family and friends. Even more common, perhaps, are the people who are suicidal precisely because they believe that no one who cares.
I also know that when the pain and desperation become excruciating for a person considering suicide, the love and support of others becomes only a small solace. Even parents of young children die by suicide, not because they do not love their children and not because they disregard the pain it will inflict on their children. No, for many people who are suicidal, their pain is so great that they desperately want to escape it. Even though they know their death will bring great pain to those left behind, a more frightening scenario for them is having to continue enduring their own suffering, day after day.
I recognize that sad reality. So the question of who your death will hurt might not be relevant to you. But if it is relevant, please do consider that those who care about you will be devastated.
Remember the saying: “To the world you may be only one person, but to one person you may be the world.”
To which people are you the world?
Whose world might you become in the future, whether or not you have met that person yet?
What people might you help one day, whether professionally or personally?
Who might you love? Who might love you?
These questions are unanswerable at the moment, of course, because you haven’t met some of these people. Remember that, please.
How You’ve Coped with Suffering and Despair in the Past?
Think of another time when you really struggled in life. Perhaps you did not think of suicide, but you felt extremely sad, or angry, or hopeless. How did you get through that? What helped you? Who helped you?
If you have ever experienced this kind of despair and suicidal thinking before, what stopped you from killing yourself then? What did you do, feel or think then that you might be able to repeat now?
Is It At All Possible that Your Suicidal Thoughts Will Go Away?
Can you know for certain that your problems will never improve, or that the pain they bring will never ease, or that you’ll never find meaning and purpose in your experience?
Even though it does not feel like it now, there is hope for change. The horrible situation you are in might get better, or it might become more bearable. The pain you feel may ebb, or you may develop techniques for coping with it. Hope may return. Goodness may come.
Consider that among people who survive a suicide attempt, about 90% do not eventually die by suicide. Even these people who made the decision to die find reasons to live again.
Can you know for certain that you won’t rediscover reasons for living, or reconnect with those that already exist? Maybe not now, but there may well come a time when you look back on your suicidal state of mind and are glad that you did not die.
There is a good saying: Don’t quit five minutes before your miracle.
Similarly, I have a piece of artwork on my wall that says, Any moment can change your life. You just have to be there.
And also, this refrigerator magnet in my kitchen: We are unaware of what sweet miracles may come.
These sentiments apply to you, too. They apply to everyone.
Finally, What If You Survive a Suicide Attempt with Serious Injuries?
This is a tough question to ask, and even tougher to answer. Consider that you might survive your suicide attempt. Would the injuries you inflicted on yourself make your problems even worse?
You could suffer permanent injuries from jumping, trying to hang yourself, or doing other bodily injury to yourself. Consider what happened to Kristin Jane Anderson, who attempted suicide by lying down on railroad tracks when a train approached. She lost both her legs. (See her excellent, inspirational book, Life, In Spite of Me, about rediscovering hope and purpose in life in the years that followed.)
If you shoot yourself, you may still survive. Some people who shoot themselves do permanent damage to their face, experience severe brain damage, or become paralyzed. In another book by an attempt survivor, David Wermuth describes the ordeal of becoming blind from shooting himself in the head.
Some people who survive an overdose damage their kidneys or liver in the process. A transplant is sometimes necessary. Some others suffer permanent brain damage.
I said this is a tough question to ask, because I do not want to challenge you to come up with a foolproof method for killing yourself. Instead, I want you to consider that things don’t always go as planned. Whatever problems you struggle with now could be made even worse with a suicide attempt.
Suicidal Thoughts Are a Symptom
Many people think of suicide from time to time. The philosopher Camus noted, “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.” The philosopher Nietzsche said, “The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.”
To seriously consider suicide is a sign that something is wrong. Our natural instinct in life is to survive. People endure unimaginable horrors in order to stay alive – as just one example, consider the man who cut his arm off with a pocket knife in order to liberate his body from a boulder, having been trapped beneath it for five days and seven hours.
If your instinct to survive has become weakened, it’s a sign that you need help. Please seek that help, whether from a trusted friend or family member, clergy, physician, therapist, or some other supports you have.
What can you do now, right now, to help yourself or to let someone help you?
Resources for People with Suicidal Thoughts
For a list of resources you can contact immediately, via hotlines, text, or online, click here.
© Copyright 2013 Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, All Rights Reserved. Updated Dec. 23, 2021. Written for www.speakingofsuicide.com. Photos purchased from Fotolia.com
How do you stay positive in a world that sets the Majority of people up for hardship starvation and homelessness when you work every day and still can’t afford to pay your bills inflation has drove up the price of rent food transportation childcare cost for the average person salary has not gone up at all I don’t know about most people but I can’t wait to leave this world
I am suicidal . I do appreciate the article I just read attempting to give an alternative
I wish to say thank U for the effort .
David,
You’re welcome, and thank you, too. I appreciate your comment!
I hope that you’re able to get out of this suicidal crisis alive and to feel better soon.
I am also feeling hopeless and suicidal. A failed marriage that could have been saved… family means everything to me and I lost mine.
Help
Anonymous,
This site is for information only. For help, please call 800-273-8255 or check out other resources I’ve put together where you can get help by phone, chat, email, or text. I wish you the best!
My situation is hopeless. The docs have only one surgery left to offer me against my chronic debilitating disabling facial pain disorder. It is called “cingulotomy” essentially a mini lobotomy the outcome of which is supposed to be “you will still have your pain, you just wont care that you do.” That is not an option (plus unknown risks and no long term data as it is only done normally on those with cancer and expected survival of a year or less. All that is stopping me is the fear that something will go wrong. I am alone in the world. I have 2 friends in states across the country and a nephew also across the country. I have no one here. because of the pain, started 40 years ago (and have had 15 brain surgeries along the way to address it, one stopped pain which came back 3 months later, some of the others helped slightly then failed, some didn’t work and some made me worse. There is no hope. There is no one to worry about hurting. the 2 friends and I email daily/messenger but never talk about about “important” things. They are not that kind of relationships. The same is true with my nephew who came to know me when he was an adult. The normal life reasons are not there for me. It is truly only the fear I will wake with worse damage then my current situation that keep me from taking action. I hope I can get past the fear.
Hey. What happened? How are you now?
Nothing has changed. Thanks. Not much that can. ):
It sucks that you are such pain. Many of us suffer chronic pain
I know pain is subjective it’s not the same , lmagine the feeling of electric shocks going through your body everyday. Trying to walk going to work because you have a family to support . Find support groups do what you have to do. To physically ease the pain, Are you able to walk . Are you limited using an assistive waking devices. Such as a Walker or wheel chair. Please tell me your story . I will listen teach me how to cope with hardship .
Thanks. I have trigeminal neuralgia a severe facial pain disorder and “phantom pain” as a result of surgical “misadventures” I cant tolerate any touch to the affected side of my face and in my case it affects my eye so that using the eye to read type, anything that requires consistent eye movement for more then 10 – 20 minutes causes severe pain. My body thankfully works fine but the facial and eye pain have kept me disabled for over 40 yrs. You sound as if you have pain also. I do have an FB group for women in pain (all who apply need to have a diagnosed chronic pain disorder) I am not sure if Stacey allows the click though.
Lee,
I’m sorry you experience so much pain. That’s nice of you to reach out to Rebecca about her pain. You’re welcome to include the link to your FB site in a comment here, if you wish.
Thanks Stacey (no reply click at your comment.)
Rebecca, this is the link for our women in pain awareness group on FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/111961795481256. There are also many other chronic pain groups on FB as well. Hope this is of some help
The first facial pain take. Indomethacin
It’s @ miracle.
Drs don’t know why it works but it does .
I have used for years and it works
Please use
John gowan
you’ve never been suicidal have you?
Jason,
Thanks for asking. For many years, I kept my suicidal past secret. I feared stigma and judgment. Then I discovered that people judged me for not (they assumed) having been suicidal. They tended to think, or imply, that I have no authority to write about suicide if I myself haven’t been suicidal.
That’s one reason I decided to stop hiding that I’ve thought about and attempted suicide. I encourage you to check out my essay for The New York Times, A Suicide Therapist’s Secret Past, as well as my essay on this website, Why I Came Out of the (Suicide) Closet.
Thanks for your comment, and for giving me this opportunity to clarify.
What if going away no longer scares you and you feel peace thinking about it?
Going through life now and when I look at the problems in front of me I feel relieved that death is coming my way. I’m 21, and I have been working my entire life to support my family. I don’t have a life besides paying for expensive schools for my siblings or paying off check after check for my brother. My family is superficial and my mom is fragile, I don’t share any of this with them. I was planning for months to move out but I just got slapped in the face with another check. I don’t know life or enjoyment, I don’t have any friends, first it was by choice but now I have no one to talk to about anything I just keep things to myself. I’m giving up my own education to support them. I’m so tired everyday. Mentally and physically. I feel like if I died I’ll be in peace.
MC,
I’m sorry you’re hurting so much and are so drained by others. So much of your pain right now seems bound up in your situation. Yet your situation can change. It’s possible to move out at another time, or for your situation to change in other ways. I hope you will talk with someone about how you’re feeling, so that you’re not alone with these thoughts and feeling and so they can help you see you may have options that you don’t recognize. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 and the Crisis Text Line at 741741 are good places to start. I also list other resources at https://speakingofsuicide.mystagingwebsite.com/resources/#immediatehelp.
Thanks for sharing here. May you feel peace soon … while staying alive.
MC
I relate to your story, the part of having no friends, at first ,by choice, then as time passes, really having no friends…I am so uncomfortable with other people. It’s why I dont want to be in this world anymore…no woman, that I’m attracted to would want me…please just take me God, so I dont have to do it and be sent to hell
I can relate to this to. I’m convinced I’ll always be alone. I decided to take a risk and join a dating site. I paid for a full membership but I’m thinking about taking down my profile. So far I’ve been rejected twice and it doesn’t feel good. The truth is I’ve always experienced rejection. I already feel bad enough as it is without the added pain of constant rejection. Honestly I can’t wait until my life comes to an end. This world is horrible.
Scott
Sorry you’re in this same place…what is your thoughts on what happens after you commit suicide…do you visit hell, or stay there……or…is it going to be peaceful?….anyway I had a rough day…the breakup of me and girlfriend, is hurting so bad…I think of her happy with another guy…OMG.. I hate it…I hate me for being so adverse to being around people…
True. It is. Dating sites are just a harsh reminder of how fucked up things are.
I got sick of them and started just walking up to women I found attractive and tried to start up a polite conversation without being pushy. I was looked at like I was a pervert or a serial killer by most. All of them had their RBF, face in their phones, unapproachable demeanor. Oh well. Whatever. I’m just trying make a friend not wrestle them to the ground outside in the parking lot. But that’s the works now.
For as far back as I can remember, I have not wanted to be here. I can remember being a child of 6 or 7 and thinking that I did not belong in this world. I grew up in London in a ‘dysfunctional’ family. My dad was in and out of prison. When he was out of prison he was getting drunk and beating my mum. I am the youngest of 3 daughters. I honestly don’t know why I felt so sad all the time, because some of my friends had it far worse than me. For example, 2 sisters who I grew up with used to get regular beatings with a belt from their alcoholic dad and another friend of mine was used as a punch-bag by her alcoholic mum. In fact there were lots of kids on the estate where I grew up who had it far worse than me and yet I do not recall any of them being as sad and as hopeless as I always seemed to be. I was neither physically nor sexually abused, and yet I can now see when I look back on my childhood that I suffered from depression. Perhaps those other kids who I grew up with were just tougher and stronger than me……who knows? Of course I did have friends from ‘normal’ families. One friend in particular had a lovely family and I truly envied my friend. I so much wanted to be a part of that family. They were very nice to me and I remember that they took me on holiday with them a couple of times. Those two holidays were among the happiest memories I have and I often reminisce on those glimpses in to ‘normality’ that those wonderful people gave me. It made me realise how wonderful life can be when you have a mum and dad who genuinely love each other and when you have siblings who you get along with and care about. I’m not saying that I didn’t care about my 2 elder sisters but we weren’t close and I can now see that they were just as messed up emotionally as I was (and still am). I hope this doesn’t sound like a ‘poor-little-me’ post because I am honestly not looking for sympathy. I guess I am just wanting to get some things out of my system and if anyone is kind enough to take the time to read my story then I thank you from my heart. I am now in my mid 50s. I never got married and I never had children (I never wanted kids because I strongly felt that I did not want to bring a child in to this hellhole world……..I still believe I made the right decision). I had a few disastrous relationships, but at 50 years of age I met the man that I consider to be my soul mate. We have been together for 6 years. It hasn’t been perfect because he has deep rooted psychological issues just like I do, but I love him and I know he loves me too. He is dying. He doesn’t have long to live. We are both making the best of the time we have got left together. Of course the ‘S’ word keeps popping in to my consciousness……truth be told, it has never really gone away, but knowing that I am soon to lose the love of my life, I am again confronted with that thought that I want to ‘go home’. Lately I have been wondering: Are some people born with a pre-disposition to suicide? Is it possible that some of us are simply not meant to be here? I don’t know. So many questions, so few answers. Well, I have waffled on long enough. I’m not sure if my waffling has helped anyone, but it helped me some. Thank you.
I cannot help but reply to your comment, Lorraine. Especially where you say “I want to go home” because that is not only my exact sentiment, but also my exact words. I will only add how tired I have become because, like you, I have been fighting so long. I am 63 and have lost just about everything that would make a life worth living. My father died by suicide when I was 23, but long before that I had the same feeling of not really belonging in this world. Not long after my father died, I married one who I believed was my soul mate. After a still born, we raised three beautiful children. My oldest daughter abandoned us for no apparent reason over fifteen years ago. I haven’t heard from her since. My son took his own life at the age of 22 ten years ago. Since then, I have suffered debilitating illness, financial ruin, and finally my “soul mate” of 39 years suffered a complete mental collapse and tried to kill herself almost two years ago. She has since left me and gone across the country to live with our other daughter who blames me for everything and has severed all communication. I live alone and isolated and constantly suffer from guilt. You see, I am always trying to figure out what I have done that caused all this. I saw myself as a decent husband and father. I always worked and provided. I do not use drugs and quit drinking many years ago. I never beat my children or my wife. Yes, I guess I yelled a lot. My biggest fault is that I have always been sad and have felt like I just didn’t fit into this system of things. I am no stranger to suicide and have carried the burden for a long time, wondering if I chose this option how often it happens that three generations die by their own hand. I also wonder why I should care.
I also thought about this if some people are not meant to be here. If the suicide is their destiny, I know, it sounds silly (edgy), but when I think about my life then… I don’t want to be here, I am not happy with my life, I wish I lived in another, imaginary world where (almost) everything would be perfect. I hate that there is no justice in this world, that there are some things in which in we have no influence. These thoughts are like out of nowhere, but I had to write this… Just my complainings
I’m not contemplating suicide but I pray daily, actually beg daily for God to just please, please take me home. I am an intrusion, interference, burden and embarrassment to my grown children/daughter-in-laws. I only want to relieve myself and others of this terrible, terrible thing I have become. Due to health and financial issues I had to give up my home and now bounce from one child’s house to another. Is there any way to know when death will come?
How do you know you are a burden, embarrassment to your children? Is that how they feel or is that how you feel? Have you asked them or spoken with them about your situation? They may not feel the negative emotions you are imputing to them. I wish you well, It is a hard situation you are in. Have you asked the state for help? They can provide many services of which many of us are not aware.
“Nobody,”
How very painful. Is what you tell yourself about your children’s and in-laws’ views of you a belief or a known fact? If it’s a belief, it’s possible you are wrong. If it’s a known fact, perhaps there are other options for you, such as low-cost senior living. (I suspect, however, that it’s a belief.)
Do you have anybody to talk about how you’re feeling? Ideally, you’re able to talk with your children, but I also wonder if you receive any professional help. Your persistent wish to die and your feelings of worthlessness are symptoms of depression, which is a treatable illness. No, treatment won’t solve your health and financial issues but it can help you in other, important ways. Your primary care physician can give you more information.
Also, please consider calling the National Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or texting “start” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. I also list other resources at speakingofsuicide.com/resources/#immediatehelp.
Thank you for sharing here.
Well I’ve read all that, and am more convinced that taking my life is the only way out, I’ve had coxit pain for 5 months, can you imagine having toothache for 12 hours a day, I’ve told my surgeon, my doctors, nurses mental health team, I might as well have told the man in the moon, keep taking the pain killers, might as well take smarties
Hi, Steve. I just read your comment and I’m really sorry you’re in so much pain. I’m in a very similar situation. I was in a major highway pile-up years ago and since then my back has been pure agony. Then to travel to China, I got about 12 immunization updates all at once at my local health center. Within days I developed shingles so bad I was paralyzed on my right side and it felt like I was on fire whenever my skin was touched.
I’m not eliciting pity at all. Instead, I’ve come to accept this is my life b/c the medical and mental health communities not only CAN’T do anything that makes a difference to me, the person suffering, but also because I’ve very politely told them repeatedly that the meds they give me are not helping, I have been labeled “a trouble patient” and fired by three doctors who don’t want to be questioned by patients. That’s certainly their prerogative. What I don’t understand, though, is why we’re told there’s “always a solution,” but when the solution is for years and years NOT forthcoming, WE become the problem. Worse, even when we have been discarded from the health care system because we don’t respond to their limited treatments the way they expect, the only appropriate course of action is to keep being in pain so they can approve of our not having “given up.” No one has ever explained to me why all of this is “right.”
They aren’t living in our bodies or our minds. But they want the rights BOTH to discard us as “unpleasant” or “troublesome” for the mere crime of being honest that their interventions aren’t working (despite their being so certain they always have solutions) AND to deny us the freedom to leave.
I’ve been taking part at my state legislature in citizen efforts to expand conditions for which the law would allow assisted suicide. In frank testimony, several licensed psychologists have admitted they refuse to see certain types of patients (not just violent ones or ones who don’t/can’t pay, but also ones who suffer from conditions like borderline personality disorder…). Nearly every licensed psychologist in my county refuses to treat these patients. I assume it must be similar in surrounding counties which are quite distant and expensive for patients to travel to.
So there are clearly physical health (chronic pain…) and mental health (BPD…) patients the therapeutic community will not treat due to the difficulty of their states. Yet these patients who have nowhere to go are being told to suffer in silence and not inconvenience others. Because, ironically, “there are always solutions.”
How do educated professionals expect this to work out? How do they expect patients like me–like us–to simply sit in grave pain day after day for the rest of our lives? Did you know that according to the AMA the goal of pain management is NOT to decrease pain to the level a patient can tolerate but instead to manage it at a level the patient, even if still in pain, can keep working? We learned this from the testimony of a high ranking physician who works in our state government. Sounds like the way we (very sadly) treat labor animals like horses and mules. But then our society feigns shock that suicide rates are INCREASING despite all the “never right” messages. It’s bewildering.
I really hope something good will happen for you. I just wanted you to know someone else in a similar situation heard you and agrees with you. Peace.
I have chronic pain so I know the situation(s) you describe. There are a number of support groups on FB, for example, that are for folks in chronic pain. Maybe one could help. Getting support from others who have been there/currently dealing with it may be of help.
This free audiobook on You Tube may well help people considering suicide as an answer to their dilemma. The author has endured horrors almost beyond comprehension and provides a clear map through them that you can use yourself.
https://youtu.be/zF65lvwQPbw
Hi, Richard. Frankl’s work has been pretty well read in many US high schools and colleges for many years. I wonder if you’d mind sharing how you think this work provides a “clear map” for others? Thanks for elaborating, if you care to.