Suicide: It's Time to Carry our Weight - T & R Underground Books

Suicide: It's Time to Carry our Weight

Read below for some useful resources

Suicide: That Time of the Year

September is one of my favorite months of the year. Where I live, it rains often, and the weather app finally starts displaying numbers below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Fall is just around the corner, and the aesthetic photos of orange and brown leaf piles underneath tall imperfect trees begin to pile up on my social media feed again (because I just know I won’t be seeing too much of those in person).

But most importantly, September is Suicide Prevention Month, and as a buzzing psychology major with a meager platform, it’s a month where I get to talk about one of my favorite topics. 

However, I must be aware that not everyone is a mental health advocate, and not everyone is quite as comfortable talking about such a stigmatized topic as I am.

But that’s okay. I’ll do all the talking for the both of us.

Suicide: Reach Out, and Be Heard?

When most people hear the word “suicide,” whether they physically express it or not, they recoil. What an uncomfortable word “Suicide” is. Not a nice word when you break it down either. Sui- is Latin for “of oneself,” and -ide, as all True Crime fans are aware, means “killing.” 

Can you blame anyone for the discomfort? I mean, word breakdown aside, the iceberg that stems from that word runs deep. Suicide implies a life filled with so much stress, pain, and catastrophe– whether physical, mental, or both– that someone took God’s decision into their own hands and ended their own life.

Suicide is not an easy decision for even the most suicidal to make. They dwell on those they’ll leave behind. How they’ll cope– if they’ll cope. Not to mention everything they’d be cutting short for themselves. Their future, the chances of their situation ever getting better. So, for someone to make that drastic decision, go through with it, and succeed means that they thought long and hard about it, about their life, and the world around them, and still decided that it wasn’t worth it. What could possibly be more tragic than that?

But we’re already aware of the tragedy. We’re all aware of how painful and traumatizing suicide can be for everyone involved, both the victim and their family and friends. Isn’t that why we always say, “If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, reach out!”?

Well, here’s the problem. They do. Many, many people who experience suicidal thoughts reach out. They drop hints, display signs, and sometimes even flat-out tell us. In the United States, we always make clear how preventable suicide is and how you can get help and move past your thoughts.

But when we finally talk about it, what happens? Oftentimes, we clam up. We don’t know what to say. Should we give advice or let them vent? Intervene, or refer them off to someone else? 

It’s a tough situation to be in. You end up feeling like this person’s life is in your hands, and sometimes it is. We always tell people with suicidal thoughts to reach out, but when they do, we don’t know how to react. And that’s normal, especially when you’ve never been trained to talk about it.

Suicide: Shifting The Movement

This Suicide Prevention Month, I want things to change. For years, we have told anyone struggling to reach out. And while they absolutely should, that is all we have done.

When someone dealing with suicidal thoughts reaches out, chances are they’re not going to reach out to a mental health professional first but rather to their close friends or family members.

Because of this, it’s time that we meet them halfway. Everyone should be made familiar with how to talk about suicide. These conversations tend to get sprung on us unexpectedly, and if we’re not properly prepared, we’re more likely to freeze up and not know what to do. But our reactions may have a heavy effect on the person reaching out. Just imagine: you’re dealing with this heavy burden for so long that it becomes unbearable, and when you finally ask someone to take a load off, they freeze or skirt around it. After all that courage required to even ask, a response like that can feel judgmental and discouraging.

Of course, we don’t mean to make them feel that way. We just don’t want to say or do the wrong thing. That’s why it’s important to know how to handle this type of situation in the event someone reaches out to you.

Suicide prevention should be treated like first aid. We need training before we can really handle it. If it were me, if I had any more power than being comparable to a Keyboard Warrior, I’d make this kind of training most accessible during Suicide Prevention Month. Isn’t that what the month is for? Awareness is great. Awareness has helped hundreds of people reach out, but it can’t stop there. We need action. We need to know that when someone reaches out, they will be helped.

So, this Suicide Prevention Month, I urge anyone who reads this to take action. Research suicide prevention and how you can help. Take classes and training sessions. You don’t need to be a counselor, therapist, or psychologist. As a regular citizen, you can prevent suicide. 

You can save a life!

- Lyn P. Ginnivieve

RESOURCES 
to help get you on the right direction (not an extensive list):

 

Call 9-1-1 in the event of an emergency!

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - Support groups, education, helpline, and more!

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (Nationwide; available in Spanish and for deaf & hard of hearing) provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, including:

Facts about Suicide - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

 

 

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