Suicide

Let that word sink in. Say it out loud. Write it. Post it. Sing it. Scream it. Let it be known.

The media doesn’t want you to talk about something so deep, they want us to talk about what Miley Cyrus is doing and who Justin Bieber is hanging out with. At the same time, the media is portraying Suicide as something it’s not.

We can start off with 13 Reasons Why. This TV show gained lots of popularity very quickly, but in my opinion wasn’t that great. It basically was saying this is why I killed myself and these are the reasons that it’s okay. No, just because you are raped, bullied, abused, etc. doesn’t make suicide okay.

The media also talks about suicide when someone famous commits suicide. They talk about for a few weeks and then it goes away. The media covers it to make a story, to get views, high ratings. Not everything they say is even true and how do you think that makes a family feel?

When someone commits suicide, there’s so much confusion, so many questions. What happened? Why did this happen? Who caused this? What could I have done to help? But that’s the thing, you can’t know what happened or why. You won’t find out who caused this because no one caused it. No one forced that guy to put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, no one forced that girl to tie a rope around her neck and hang herself. And unless said person walked up to you and said “I want to kill myself” or “I need help” there’s nothing you could’ve done to stop anything.

The media doesn’t show the pain it causes a family. They don’t show the confusion, the shock, the turmoil, the heartbreak, the anger, and the grief. When someone commits suicide it’s shocking to a family, they are going to try to find something to make it not true, maybe someone shot him and set it up to look like suicide, or maybe she fell, it wasn’t on purpose. As reality sets in, there’s confusion and anger, how could this happen and why would they do this. Finally, there’s the heartbreak and grief. Someone died, even if they did it to themselves, it could be someone’s son or daughter, mom or dad, brother or sister, they meant the world to someone and now they are gone.

Suicide is real, and it hurts. It doesn’t go away, and once you’ve experienced something like this first hand you look for it in other people to try and prevent it, but just one person can’t prevent it, it’s impossible. The media tries to make stories about celebrities and why they commit suicide, there’s no story, there’s no explaining it, no one knows what was going through their mind when they decided life couldn’t get better.

If you’re struggling there’s so many options, but start with calling The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255