Storybook Project

“When I am suicidal, all rational thinking dissolves and black and white thinking prevails. It’s all or nothing, everyone or no one, never or forever. There is no room for sometimes, maybe, or less than perfect.”

What It Takes to Make It Through: Stories of Suicide Resilience & Loss is a powerful collection of stories about suicide published through the Storybook Project. These personal reflections share the hardships, grief, hope, and resilience of those experiencing suicidality or who have lost loved ones to suicide.

The book is now available for purchase from the publisher’s website, Amazon, Book Depository, Indigo, Caversham Booksellers, Another Story Bookshop, and more. You can also find a copy at your local independent bookshop.

All proceeds from the book will go back into the ASR Program to support suicide research and education initiatives.

About the Storybook Project

The Storybook Project is an outreach initiative of the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg (ASR) Suicide & Depression Studies Program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Canada. It aims to amplify the voices of those with personal experience with suicide, decrease stigma, and foster connection through storytelling. At the ASR, we put out a public call inviting people who have been touched by suicide through contemplation, attempt, or loss to share their unfiltered, personal journeys.

We received dozens of powerful submissions from across Canada and have worked together with the authors to compile them into the printed collection, What It Takes to Make It Through: Stories of Suicide Resilience & Loss. The stories are accompanied by essays about suicide prevention from practitioners in the field. In connecting with these powerful stories of loss, resilience, and hope, we invite you to shift your perceptions of suicide, and be open to the struggle and grief of others.

On World Suicide Prevention Day 2021, we hosted the official book launch of What It Takes to Make It Through: Stories of Suicide Resilience and Loss. Supported by the Ontario Brain Institute and Caversham Booksellers, our free virtual book launch included a panel discussion with several of the book’s authors, as well as a Q&A period and discussion about suicide prevention with authors and therapists. Our sincere thanks to everyone who attended and showed support for this project.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude all of the authors who contributed to this collection by sharing their stories.

“There is hope for you. It doesn’t have to be about saving the world, although that’s cool too, and something you still like to think about. It can just be about saving yourself. That is enough. You are enough. You’re still here, and I’m glad.”

Hear what others are saying

The ASR team offers a huge thanks to advocate and former Degrassi star Stacie Mistysyn for taking a chance on our book and sharing her thoughts. Watch her review here.

Read our book? Write us a review on goodreads to help spread the word!