Editors Note: Due to the potentially graphic themes and opinions of the article, viewer discretion is advised.

Suicide is the one thing most people overlook, until it happens.

Every day we wake up and get ready for the day whether it be going to school, work, etc, and each day we look at someone, sometimes there is a casual hello, a head nod, or a smile, there might even be a conversation; and then we go on with our day. Not once does it cross our minds that the person in front of you could be thinking about ending their own life. They might be depressed or possibly capable of hurting themselves in some way. They could be a complete stranger, or even a loved one.

Suicide is one of the major leading causes of death in America. Over the past 15 years the total suicide rate has increased 24% from 10.5 to 13.0 per 100,000 in just 2016 alone. Each year around 1,000,000 people end up committing suicide, which means every 40 seconds a suicide attempt is made half of them don’t survive.

When someone commits suicide the people around them feel the pain, they’ll tell everyone that you didn’t seem sad, that there were no signs leading up to it. They get up at your funeral  and talk about how you were always a happy person, that no one could have know that this would happen. They speak of you life as if they really knew you; but if they did they would have seen the signs. You may not think there were any but there was, there always is but the people around them have their own concerns, their own life, their heads glued to a phone, or TV.

Manyare in their own bubble, too occupied to see the world around them. So when someone commits suicide they tell themselves “If I knew they were suicidal, I would have helped them”. But the did tell you; you just didn’t notice.

Victims of suicide often show some sort of sign, what you thought was just weird behavior could be a sign of depression getting worse. Most are plagued with depression and anxiety causing unwanted thought, tiredness, the feeling of not wanting to get up, and even more. When you experience depression, you can often find yourself with most of these symptoms along with others, such as not wanting to leave the comfort of your room, sometimes you often lose interest in the things you love most, and you often see the world differently than others, leading to suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

As someone who struggles with this, I’ve noticed that many students and teachers often overlook the comments that kids often say on the daily “kill me” “I wanna die”, “Can I just jump out this window?” Each of these comments have been overlooked. It’s almost as if suicide has become a form of forbidden language in school because if you talk about it that’s when people think you’re going to do it. When you don’t speak of it, it almost seems as though it’s not an issue; when in fact many people at this school are depressed and self harm, or have suicidal thoughts..

In the 4 years that I have been in this school, not once has there been any sort of  assembly or meeting, about suicide, to be honest I don’t even think anyone has noticed that all the assemblies seem to be about drug addictions, even though I’m almost positive that the majority of these students won’t grow up to take heroin or opioids; but what I am completely sure of is that more than half of the student in this school are showing signs of depression, and had even had suicidal thoughts at least once as they were growing up. Being completely truthful, I believe one day when someone does follow through with the comment they make. Then that’s when we will finally open our eyes and see the reality of it all, but it’ll be too late, so then they will start to raise awareness in your honor. When in reality they could have prevented it this whole time.

Maybe it’s time we stop being so naive and do something before it’s too late.

Sincerely; Anonymous