It is true that anyone who thinks about taking their own life can see no other way out of such a dark place.
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The sense of hopelessness or debilitating trauma or fog of mental illness can leave people feeling cornered.
Suicide is a voluntary act but one that is framed in the great irony of the person taking this step feeling like they actually have no choice.
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Our community has become much more willing to have conversations about suicide, about openly acknowledging that it is a major issue that we all can play some role in addressing, in getting rid of the societal strictures that seem to have always held sway.
And just because we have become more open, it does not mean it is necessarily any easier to take the step of speaking to someone about their troubles.
It is what makes the courage and fortitude of someone like Darryl Coventry so important.
He, like many others in our community, has resolutely taken himself from the point of considering taking his own life to becoming someone able to help those facing those same terrible thoughts.
Telling his story, four years ago, of childhood sexual abuse and of the trauma he experienced as a policeman opened the door on a flood of reaction he didn't anticipate.
It was, he says, heartening to get so much positive feedback, to see a way out of the post-traumatic stress disorder that he had experienced for such a long time.
Part of finding some kind of solution came, firstly, with developing a passion for bowls on moving to Albury to be closer to his children.
And then he met former Albury police chief Beth Docksey. Before long, a support group for fellow former police and for ex-military personnel suffering from mental health issues stemming from their jobs had been created.
Bowls Gr8 for Brains shows that there is a way out of the helplessness that can so often have a tragic conclusion.
As Mr Coventry says: "Four years ago it was just thinking differently, in four years time it's being prepared to learn something and being prepared to accept other people."
