Have you seen the leaves changing colors or the temperature go down by a couple of degrees? It’s the start of September, which means Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are coming up. For most people, it’s their favorite time of the year.; however, it is also a very hard time of year for a lot of people. Seasonal depression is at its highest point during the winter months, and a lot of issues are getting “pushed under the rug,” such as September being National Suicide Prevention Month. It is a hard topic for a lot of people to talk about, but it’s something that’s not really talked about enough, and that’s the problem.
In 2021, over 720,000 people worldwide took their own lives. That’s over 2,000 people a day. That’s 4 times as many people in the Grand Valley. Suicide isn’t considered a common thing, but when you realize how much of it there actually is, it makes you wonder why.
One of the reasons so many struggle with suicide and thoughts of self-harm is depression. In the United States, 17.3 million adults said that they went through a depressive episode in 2024. That’s not including the teenagers or the people who didn’t speak up about what they were and are going through.
A lot of times, suicide is not taken seriously. Often, suicide is joked about in school settings and other places. People truly don’t understand the severity of these jokes that they are making and how they can impact people, especially those who have gone through those emotions and struggles of suicide. It’s difficult for people to understand all of the emotions that come with losing someone. The feelings of losing yourself, the fear of losing others around you, and that sometimes that feeling doesn’t go away.
Suicide isn’t just one person changing their life forever, and it’s not just affecting their family and friends, but even just people who knew of the person. Ashlyn Burgess, a sophomore at Fruita Monument, said, “I have seen how suicide affects people; you shouldn’t want to put your hurt onto others.”
Suicide hurts everyone not just the person who took their life. As your day goes on remember that people can be going through a hard time, it could be the person you sit next to in math, or one of your co-workers. So if you know of anyone going throw a hard time you might want to remind them that there’s ways to help like suicide hotline. Open for anyone at anytime. So please remember to stay kind.
