When people talk about suicide, they tend to offer too many euphemisms to mask the dire nature of the problem. It’s reduced to being a permanent solution to a temporary problem, an easy way out or a final cry for help.
Edging around the word and its implications only furthers the stigma surrounding mental illness and suicidal urges. Mental illness is seen as weak; those who struggle with them are labeled as crazy.
And yet, when people take their own lives, we rally behind them promising changes in our behavior and eternal niceties in their honor. Then, we revert back to our prior habits of ignoring the problem and continuing stereotypes.
In the eighth grade, after battling depression and bullying, I attempted suicide. In what I thought was my final statement, I implored my friends and loved ones to be open-minded and recognize how their actions could hurt other people.
Then I went into silence. Instead of taking my cry for help as an opportunity to become better individuals, people whispered about how I was crazy. Instead of using my own experience with conquering mental illness and overcoming urges, I felt forced into remaining quiet out of fear of the backlash from my peers.
This silence around suicidal urges is flawed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed students in grades 9 to 12 nationwide and found that 16 percent of students had seriously considered suicide. Moreover, 13 percent actually made a serious plan.
Recent tragedies from Fairfax, McLean and Langley have amplified the need for a revolution in mental healthcare and counseling among youth. While FCPS has launched an investigation into the causes of suicide and implemented depression screenings, the school system could be doing more to help vulnerable youth.
Fairfax County’s youth survey, which is administered to eighth-, tenth- and 12th-grade students, reported that 32.6 percent of 12th-graders in 2013 experienced depressive symptoms. Furthermore, almost one in four female students and one in nine male students stated that they had seriously considered suicide in the last year.
While I commend FCPS on its initiatives to investigate adolescent depression and anxiety and its attempts to provide resources for teenagers in distress, we need to address the core factors behind teenage mental illness.
Lack of sleep, an abundance of pressure to be “successful,” social stresses and an unreasonable workload are primary contributors to illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Rather than working to fix the problem after it’s introduced, we need to reduce these triggers.
Teachers have been taught how to identify certain symptoms in teens, but the rest of the community needs to step in and help.
Forget your personal connotations of those with mental illness. Be a supporting friend, and if you do believe you’re suffering, don’t be afraid to seek help.
There will always be a light at the end of the tunnel, and there will always be someone more than willing to help. For every person who mocks those with mental illness, there are ten more people who love and respect you no matter what.