As summer fades away in September, many people spend the month mourning the loss of warmth and sun, and others spend it mourning the loss of life. In 2008, the month was deemed National Suicide Prevention Month, and since then has gained tremendously more significance and importance in the eyes of national citizens. This and other tactics have been feverishly exercised in the last few years in hopes to shrink the number of suicides happening in America and raise awareness on just how serious mental illness can be. However, with all these attempts to solve the problem, suicide only continues to gain popularity as the favored way of exterminating mental discomfort.
The gut-wrenching truth about suicide in the United States is how prevalent yet stigmatized it is; some people don’t even want to hear the word itself. Each year, nearly 50,000 individuals take their own life, making it the 10th leading cause of death for adults and the 2nd leading cause for people ages 10-24. This is equivalent to one suicide every eleven minutes. In recent years, men have made up nearly 80% of American suicides, and firearms have become the most common way of committing. Accounting for attempts alone, an estimated 1.6 million people try to kill themselves each year, and those are just the ones that have been reported. Since 2000, these rates have only been going up, which is no surprise given the state of the world today.
The metaphorical shrinking of the world due to technology existing alongside the normalization of self-isolation has assisted the growth of a universal desire to escape this life.
There are only so many healthy coping mechanisms in the modern world, and many people have already tried everything, making suicide seem like the only option. If you happen to be one of the people who haven’t lost hope, there is likely someone in your life who has, making suicide something that affects most everyone personally.
Although so many people care about this deadly issue, and although there are many resources available to curb it, nothing seems to be stopping people from cheating the race to death. The main focus of professionals attempting to drop suicide rates is dropping risk factors first, which is relatively impossible. With so many people living so many different lives and dealing with so many different stressors, hoping to extinguish all risk factors is but a fantasy. Count the suicides in rural, endlessly winter areas like Alaska and Wyoming, or those of bullied school children, or of people simply growing old. It is as agonizing as it is unerring that there is no possible way to save all people. However, with an open and educated mind, there are proficient ways of trying to save at least a few.
“Suicide, in general, is preventable,” says Mrs. Snyder, a counselor at Chesterton High School, when asked about the issue. “Becoming educated on warning signs of suicide and then having the courage to speak up when you see them, those are two ways that general people can intervene and potentially prevent suicide.”
Warning signs such as changes in sleeping patterns, withdrawing from one’s community, major life changes or stressors, or a sudden interest in weapons or other lethal mediums are common indicators of someone contemplating suicide. When faced with such signals, whether internally or relating to someone you know, it is important and ultimately lifesaving to inform someone who you know can help.
“Especially for young people,” Snyder continues, “it is important that you tell an adult that you trust if you’re worried about yourself or a friend. Teenagers, developmentally, rely on each other for a lot of things, way more than they have in their past, and that is normal, but these types of things are not something you can rely on just each other for. So please, reach out to a trusted adult so that they can help the person who is in danger and get them the help that they need.”
A necessary move for sure, but not always an easy one. When a person is suicidal, their perspective of the world is narrowed down to only the flaws, and they may not feel like they have anyone left to trust or confide in, let alone a trusted adult to tell. The fear of getting scolded or heckled is more intense than the fear of losing one’s life.
“The majority of the time, the [adults] are so relieved to have this information, because the student has been hiding it from them,” Snyder says.
From an adult’s perspective, such as Snyder’s, it is a necessity of living to have someone you can trust, and life, above all else, is the most important thing. There are very few people in the world who would be mad at someone for trusting them and turning to them for help.
But what if it’s none of your business?
When someone turns to their friend instead of an adult or professional, they usually want it to stay between the two of them. A good friend knows how to keep a secret, but also when to disclose a deadly one. Even so, the fear of losing someone’s trust frequently overtakes the minds of the informed, and they choose to keep quiet instead of risking their friendship and exposing such information. It is easy to believe that by breaching someone’s privacy, you lose their friendship just as much as you would if they were dead. Despite this very persuasive logic, if you or someone you know is in danger of themselves, it is of utmost importance to put aside the fear of upsetting others and seek help.
“It’s more important to have a friend that might be mad at you temporarily than a friend who’s not here anymore,” Snyder offered as words of wisdom.
This is the exact thing people in such a position need to hear. The prominence of suicide awareness goes far beyond the month of September, far beyond the statistics, and far beyond cynical and ignorant point of views. It goes far beyond one’s morals, mistakes, regrets, lifestyle, and flaws. Making people feel guilty or moronic or scared to open up about their struggles will only leave another hole in this already hollowed-out world. Ignoring the issue will only do the same thing. As the cold, dark loneliness that often follows September approaches, the impact of suicide only grows, as should the awareness of it. In order for someone to survive the winter of their life, there have to be people keeping them warm along the way, so stay close to good people. We will never live in a world without risk factors and suicidal ideation, but we can live in a world where coping with these things is possible. If you or someone you know is struggling to cope, seek help immediately, and if that seems impossible, give it a week or two. You never know when someone will come along and save your life.
Resources:
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988
Suicide Prevention Resource Center: https://www.sprc.org/
988 Lifeline Official Website: https://988lifeline.org/
Crisis Text Line: https://www.crisistextline.org/ or text “HOME” to 741741
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
