Robin Williams
Fight with Suicide
"All it takes is a beautiful smile to hide an injured soul and they will never notice how broke you really are" -Robin Williams
Suicide
The Facts:
Must Know Information:
Suicide: “the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally. Ruin of one’s own interests.” (Merriam-Webster) Suicide is a very uncommon subject for individuals to bring up or talk about, but why? Getting pregnant at a young age, murder, robberies and so many other issues are all over the news and internet. Why is it that humans avoid the conversation of suicide? Are we embarrassed, uncomfortable or are we afraid of what the conversation might turn into? Suicide should not be an avoided subject. In fact, it should be something we talk about. It is proven that those that are suicidal are more likely to feel better and come out of that state if they find someone they are comfortable with and is willing to talk with them about their thoughts and feelings. If we want to find a solution to lowering the suicidal rates and statistics in the United States we need to stop being so afraid to talk about it.
“People who die by suicide don’t want to end their lives. They want to end their pain.”
-Unknown
Why Suicide?
Introduction
Males vs. Females
What To Look For...
Conclusion
There are many different reasons why a person feels like suicide is the only way to fix their pain, but why does someone get to that point? Psychology Today explains a study researchers did on 20 suicide notes that were written by people who attempted suicide with 20 notes written by people who were successful with killing themselves. They took each note an evaluated them separately in 5 categories: sense of burden, sense of emotional pain, escaping negative feelings, altered social word and hopelessness. They found that those that were successful with committing suicide were much more detailed about how they were a burden on other people in their lives, this was the only topic compared between the two groups that showed difference between the ones that weren’t successful and the ones that were. “In general, people do not commit suicide because they are in pain, they commit suicide because they don’t believe there is a reason to live and the world will be better off without them” (Kashdan). Most likely the suicide isn’t about the pain in the victims life like society thinks it is. It is because the victim truly believes that they are just a burden on everyone else, the world would be better without them. This is a much harder mind set to change compared to someone that is just in pain and doesn’t know where to go for help.
Suicide is the leading cause of death with 15-24 year olds (Aspa). Everyone has their own risk factors that are going to increase their risk for suicide. It is hard to get accurate statistics for suicide cases because not all suicides are reported, in fact it is estimated that suicide deaths are under-reported by 20-30% (The Epidemiology of Suicide). If you were to compare genders from the numbers we do have, males are four times more likely to commit suicide than females. The interesting thing is females attempt suicide 3 times more often than males do, they just have a lower successful rate than males do (The Epidemiology of Suicide). They have found that the reason for this is because of the methods that males use compared to females. Males tend to use more intense ways than females do, the females are more scared of the situation. Everybody has their own hardships in life, anything can get to the point where a person thinks they have to resort to suicide. Race, ethnicity, marital status, geography, professions, occupation, etc. all have an impact on a persons risk for suicide.
Sometimes an individual will show warning signs that they are thinking about suicide, but there are times that there weren’t any signs at all. It seems to be the situation in most suicidal cases, the people around the victim say they didn’t see any signs or didn’t realize that they were there until it is too late. There are many signs to look for and just because someone may be showing one of them doesn’t mean they are suicidal, once they start showing multiple signs and they are becoming more obvious that is when you should worry. Some very common warning signs we should watch out for with our loved ones include: talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves, mentioning that they feel like they don’t have a reason to live anymore or don’t want to be alive, they have the feeling that they are trapped and are in unbearable pain, talking about being a burden to those around them, saying the world would be a better place if they weren’t there, withdrawing themselves from their normal routines or becoming isolate, having extreme mood swings, etc (Aspa). There are many warnings signs and everybody is going to cope with their thoughts differently, one warning sign with one individual could look completely different on someone else. It is very important to keep an eye out, if you get suspicious about someone you love don’t be afraid to ask them about it, their reaction will say a lot about what they are thinking. Sometimes those victims are in such a dark place they just don’t know how to ask for help, someone asking them if they are suicidal gives them that comfort that they can finally talk to someone about it and hopefully get that help that they need to get out.
Suicide should never be a topic that can’t be talked about, in fact it should be talked about more. The more suicide is talked about the less common it is going to be for someone to feel like they are alone and have no one to turn to. Researchers believe that if suicide was not such an ignored subject suicidal rates would go down drastically. Since it is so looked down upon those that are having suicidal thoughts feel like if they talk to anybody they are just going to be judged for their feelings, this leads them to keeping it all inside and not getting the help they need. It is very important that we don’t just bring awareness to helping bring suicidal statistics down, but to make it an easier, more common topic to talk about. That is what is truly going to help find a cure.
