Approximately 30,000 people commit suicide each year.
Approximately 75,000 people attempt to commit suicide each year.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in ages 15-24, coming shortly after homicide and accidents.
We know that suicide is a problem today. We know that people do it and we know that it is a destructive thing, not only to the individual who commits suicide, but to his or her family and friends as well. And although we know that this horrible thing exists, it seems that the majority of people have become ignorant to the issue and are almost numb to the problem at hand.
Every day I go anywhere with people my age, whether it be work, school, or just hanging out, I often hear the phrases, "I'd rather kill myself than date him," "Ugh I have to work today I just wanna die," and "If I made that grade on a test I'd kill myself." We tend to say these things without even thinking about what we are saying and the sensitivity behind it. We fail to realize that people do, in fact, every day end their own lives and we, including myself, fall guilty of saying these heinous phrases when we think of an undesirable situation.
This day and age, social media is a major component of our every day lives. We are surrounded with "tweet this" and "hashtag that." Social media, in many ways, is very helpful and a great thing to have, but what tends to happen a lot is people, especially teens, tend to abuse this freedom and use it to tear people down. Cyberbullying has been proven to be a major reason for teens to consider suicide. Teens often find their screens as a shield to use when putting their peers down. I have witnessed this amongst my peers on social media and have noticed the effects it can have on some people. When someone is criticized on social media, it can hurt a lot more than in person because, first of all, it stays there FOREVER and for EVERYONE to see, which is mortifying. And second of all, people are more ruthless online because they usually will have the confidence to say things through a screen that they would not typically have the confidence to say in person. Because of this constant bashing on the internet, teens may feel a more intense depression over the things said about them, causing them to be more likely to commit suicide.
As previously discussed, because suicide may not be common to a lot of people and their communities, many become ignorant to this problem and some even think that it's just a plain myth. This is especially true in my own community in which nothing major ever happens, especially things such as suicide. I have noticed that many of my coworkers in the town I currently live in will mindlessly say things such as "I'm gonna kill myself," or "I wish I was dead," when any situation that is undesirable may arise. But I have noticed that in the town I previously lived in, the people there would never say things like this because suicides are somewhat common occurrences. It seems that it towns in which suicide isn't a thing that really happens, the people are very numb to the idea of it happening, whereas in a town where it does actually happen, the people will not say these insensitive phrases.
I, myself, have had personal experiences with this issue. My freshman year of high school, a boy I had gone to school with my entire life had committed suicide. Nobody expected it to happen. He showed no signs that they always tell you to look for in a suicidal person. As a matter of fact, the previous week, I saw him look at his friend as we passed the student parking lot while we were on the bus and say, "Look dude, that's gonna be us next year!" Literally a week later the same boy ended his own life. The whole school was in shock as nobody expected this to happen. The whole school was silent, but it drew us all together. Previous to this happening, none of us ever expected anything like this to happen to our tiny town. We, like most other communities did not believe that things like this would ever really happen. We saw it on TV and heard our school counselors talk about it all the time but we always brushed it off, because how could anything so horrible happen to little ole Lexington?
This experience truly changed my outlook on life and my attitude toward others. It caused me to be aware of the horrible things that actually happen in our world today. I hate that it took something like that to change me and arise an awareness in me, but I am glad to say that because of this, I am not ignorant to the situation at hand.
I hope for everyone to realize the reality of this situation and that we can all open our eyes and see that this is something that can actually happen and that we should not be so insensitive toward others. Maybe we can all realize that the things we say can actually hurt and that you never know what the person next to you is going through. Suicide can happen anywhere and we all need to open our eyes and realize that this is an issue that can be prevented. So just be nice. And don't be blinded.
