Suicide Prevention

There has recently been a program on the E channel about bullying in schools and some have resulted in fatal outcomes. Not only does bullying need to be a primary focus in schools but I think action needs to be taken for suicide prevention in schools. I have not personally heard of anyone using the suicide hot lines, so new approaches should be taken.

A few years ago two of my good friends were buried within a month of each other from suicide. And both were on anti-depressants. They did not have the typical "anti-social" personalities. Actually both were quite popular and would do absolutely anything for anyone. After those tragedies I frequently heard people make the comment that "They were not the type to do that" or "They would have been the last person I would have expected to do something like this".

We need to change the thinking processes of who we would "label" as having that personality or would likely commit suicide. Everyone thinks it could never happen to them or someone they know, but 1 in 15 people suffer from depression in the United States. Not only that but anti-depressants alone can not be expected to make everything better.

Wrong dosage of anti-depressants can actually make the depression worse. It also takes 4 weeks for the anti-depressants to properly work...a long time for someone suffering from depression. It is not a magical pill that will make all the problems go away.

From personally knowing several people suffering/ or have suffered with depression I strongly believe there are other underlying issues that should be addressed. High stress levels can actually deplete serotonin levels, which are what anti-depressants are trying to fix. Counseling should be prescribed as frequently as the medicine has been.

Depression needs to be addressed as something that is common in society now....and issues need to start being faced head on, instead of the thinking that it can be avoided by just simply taking the medicine. We all know about heart disease, cancer, and car crashes as leading causes of death...but suicide is now also a major cause of death with certain age groups.

Some eye-opening statistics:

• There has been a 60% increase in suicide rates since 1950
• Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in ages 15-24
• There are 33,300 suicides each year in the United States
• There are approximately 1500(known) failed suicide attempts per day