To get this over with, this article is about the severity of suicide. There. I said “it.” I said the “s word” that no one ever wants to say, and tends to say in a hushed voice when it is said. Not only do I want to address how this is a major issue, I also want to talk about how it affects families and communities. But the main point of this article is, and yes, I’m going to spell it out for you: Suicide is a disease.

A while back, I read an article that brought up a really good point. This wasn’t about people themselves, but the terminology used to describe their actions. What it brought up was that “He committed suicide” sounded criminal. Like what the person did was a criminal act that they should be tried and punished for. That’s not what it is. It isn’t a crime. It’s an unfortunate event that should be looked at in a manner of passing away, dying. The author of the article then used the term “died by suicide.” She believed that this was a more appropriate term for the sad event that affected her life. I agreed. That is why I wanted to write this into my article. People who die by suicide are not criminals who should be punished and are not people who did something awful to another person. They are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins... Family. They are co-workers, friends, someone who you smiled to or who smiled at you on the street. A loss of life is a loss of life, not a crime, no matter how they left us.

Now that I have gotten the above out of my system, I need to go on a small rant. PSA: People. Please, for everyone you do or don’t know, please quit using “I want(ed) to kill myself” as a way to describe how embarrassed you were, or how much you didn’t want to be in a class or at a meeting. It’s not funny, it’s not right. It is not something that should be used/said so lightly in everyday conversation. Maybe I am preaching to the choir, maybe this will actually make people think about their choice of words, I don’t know, but I can just hope it’s the latter.

Okay, now that I have the rant over with, I want to thank you for sticking with my article for this long. Suicide hurts a lot of people. First and foremost, it hurts your family. They are the only ones that have been with you from the day you were born. They love you no matter what and would do anything to ensure that you are happy. When the family loses a loved one to suicide, it is a dark time. One that they never completely and wholly recover from. It changes them in many different ways. They may seem the same to some, but their close friends and the rest of the family can tell something is off. They also find out very quickly that their friend is not going to be “back to normal” ever again. The next group that is affected when someone dies by suicide is the friends. The friends of the one they lost feel the pain in a similar manner to the family, and the friends of the family members feel the pain through the family member they know. It hurts them and changes them too. They know they will never see their friend smile, laugh, or be goofy with them again. It hurts. The community feels the loss as well. Those that lost one have friends, and their friend’s friends know too the pain, to an extent. It radiates through the community, everyone silently praying- both for the family and their lost one, and that the same never happens to them.

So, this horrible thing, this disease, is called Suicide. Suicide claims more lives than it should. Each year it seems that we hear more and more names, more and more often, of people who have left us due to death by suicide. Every day there are people that struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental diseases that contribute to people dying by suicide. They think they are worthless, that no one loves them or wants to be with them, that they have no chance of bettering themselves, or that they fucked up one too many times and don’t know what to do anymore. These people need help. They need to be told that they are important, loved, can always be better, and can always come back from anything bad. Support needs to be given to those that need it, and anyone that needs help needs to seek it. Your primary thought should be you. That way you can be there for those than need you because, yes, there are people that need you.

“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” -Unknown

If you, or anyone you know, is thinking about or has thought about suicide, please get help. You are somebody. Your story isn’t over yet.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255