September happens to be National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, but I have had this idea on my mind for a blog for the longest time, and September is too far away to wait to talk about it. One of the things that I guess became a "trend" over the beginning of this year and last semester was "couples suicide" and suicide happening based on relationship complications, which is extremeeeeelyyyyy important for me to touch base on because we avoid talking about it. I attached a link (http://gossiponthis.com/2017/04/23/mari-mercedes-shaday-smith-markeice-brown-teen-couple-suicide-ohio-facebook-videos-photos/) for you guys to view if you lack knowledge of the Markeice and Mercedes suicide cases that happened. I highly recommend that you read up on it because situations like this are happening everyday, and when I first heard about it... all I could think of was... "Why did they not have anybody to talk to?" "How come no one knew what was going on or why they were going through it?" This is a huge problem that is doing nothing but increasing. I never thought that suicide would be something that would cross my mind, like ever, but those thoughts can come about so easily sometimes depending on the cards that life throws you. And aside from that, we think that we have people to talk to when problems like that come, but who can you REALLY talk to when you've spent days turned into weeks turned into months contemplating the importance of your own life. When I tried to end my own life, the only one that knew throughout the process of trying and thinking about it was the person that caused it...... and looking back, maybe if I went to someone that actually cared and wanted the best for me, I would've been well a lot sooner. You all probably know by now that I'm black (of course) and some of my African American followers can probably relate when I say that thinking and talking about suicide in black households is an extreme NO. You better not think it, you better not speak it, just NO. I quote exactly what they would say, "That's some white people shit." and comments and views like that are exactly why we don't talk about it. That is exactly why we hide it and feel uncomfortable going to what should be our safe zones, our families. No one but Mercedes and Markeice can be certain on WHY their situations happened the way that they did... and that is what is the scariest part. Many of us feel alone and we bottle up our problems, and I don't know how many times I tell the people around me to TALK and to not hold in their problems because it is so easy to lie and say that we're okay, and it is even easier for others to just believe it and not look any further. For myself, I know that I put up a good face on social media and outside of my dorm room when I spent three months thinking like they thought, and if I would have been successful with my plans.... no one would have known why but him. What I should have done was look towards family and possibly a close friend, but again, how do you just bring up that topic? How are people not in that situation supposed to respond to people going through it? What will people think if they know that you have these thoughts? There are so many questions that run through your head and by the time you answer it all, it is just like... you might as well keep it to yourself. One of the things that I feel we should work on as a population as a whole is stopping judgment and shaming when it comes to people going through it. We all deal with our problems in different ways and instead of judging, we should offer support and help for those people. It brought me to tears watching Markeice's last video a while ago because he spent a long time feeling as if he had NOBODY, feeling alone and helpless when there are so many resources out here to help us all if we ever need it. He was bullied and targeted for the loss of Mercedes prior to him and I strongly believe that if that were not the case, it would have been possible to save him. There is so much more that I can say on this topic, I simply just don't want to ramble.... but, just take away from this blog today that this is an issue, and we should change how we go about it. It should have been getting changed long before them. Sharing hotline numbers and their photos is good, but what can you REALLY do besides that to decrease this issue? For myself.... I always pay more than enough attention to everyone around me, because I understand how easy it is to lie and say that you're alright. I constantly check up, I constantly support.... I am constantly attentive because although no one seen me, no one seen them, truly seen them in their time of need, I want to be able to catch something like this if it were to come close to home and prevent it. I make it a responsibility to make everyone around me know that I am present, I am listening... I am here. Thanks for reading, today.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Phone Number
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