World Suicide Prevention Day
So, needless to say, as high school students we’ve all endured some pretty rough times. Sometimes, due to some unforeseeable circumstance, you miss out on Teen Wolf Tuesday. Most of the time, we are blessed (ehem, punished perhaps more accurately put) with five assessments due in the time span of seven measly days. But pretty much all the time, as teenagers, we just kind of like to think our lives suck a whole lot.
A lot of us like to mistake these not-so-bad days as the worst times of our lives. We take it to the point where we think: That’s it. Life is over.
But the truth is: life isn’t over. The truth is that there is a statistic of teenagers out there who suffer from mental illness. Regardless of whether or not this affects you on a personal level, World Suicide Prevention Day should be something of importance to everyone.
Depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illnesses are, unfortunately, prevalent amongst us teenagers. More often than not we see depression as a symptom of wanting to commit suicide, when really it’s the other way around. Suicide is rather a symptom of depression. If you think about it that way, it opens up a lot of doors.
What really makes a difference and can turn the statistic of suicide rates around is people. While people can definitely be the nasty cause, we can also be the benevolent cure. You can be the prevention. If we prevent depression and mental illness, if we make the concerned effort to compliment someone or even to smile at them a bit more, we can stop the thing that causes suicide.
Please take part in World Suicide Prevention Day (10/9/14) by treating those around you with respect and try to be understanding of other's situation. You never know who could be suffering. This affects every single person.
