Suicide isn’t just a word we whisper in the darkest corners of griefis a leading cause of death in the United States. Stories surrounding the topic of suicide tend to be easily found and often deal with high-profile deaths, or deaths which were publicly visible to a community. Now, compare this to stories about other leading causes of death – think heart disease, cancer, stroke, or diabetes. Stories highlighting these issues often include risk factors, prevention tips, survival and hope. With the topic of suicide, there is a healthy fear of contagion, or, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines it, “a process by which exposure to the suicide or suicidal behavior of one or more persons influences others to commit or attempt suicide.” Having worked in media for years myself, I often heard whispers of the fears behind contagion. “We can’t publish anything about those deaths,” they’d say. “It could catch on and glorify it,” a former boss once told me. I didn’t know much about it, so I nodded and continued about my day. But now, after losing my own husband to suicide, those kind of statements upset me. Why? Because Hope is a Survival Skill.