Making Suicide Less of an Option

6 Things We Can All Do To Help

Jenn Patel
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

One of the worst things that happens when someone commits suicide — besides the indescribable mental hell they must’ve been in, and the fact that they committed suicide — is that it sometimes makes suicide seem like more of an option to other people.

More times than you’d likely imagine, I’ve heard about someone I grew up with who killed himself/herself… then a few weeks or days later, a friend of theirs does the same thing. It’s unbelievable.

The amount of times this has occurred just in my own circles makes me think it must be some kind of wildly tragic social phenomenon.

Either way, it’s on all of us to treat mental health seriously. In an effort to do that, here are a couple simple, but not easy, things we ALL can do to help each other:

1. Talk as honestly as possible with your loved ones (scary as that can be) about the hard stuff going on in your lives. Don’t sweep it under the rug. If it’s too hard for you, get other healthy-minded people involved — including, but not limited to, professionals.

2. Share your feelings about suicide. Does it make you frustrated? Angry? Worried? Curious? Sad? Hopeless? Scared? Tell others how you feel and listen to how they feel. Processing this stuff is important — and you never know, you may be telling someone who was considering suicide that it’s much more devastating than they think it is to the people around them.

3. Educate yourself about the resources available. I’m posting something to RipLB’s pages (Instagram: @Rip.LB and Twitter: @Rip_LB) with resources, just as a start.

4. Don’t glamorize it! Shows like 13 Reasons Why might be intriguing or whatever but it’s important for people to know that none of that glamorous stuff actually happens. In reality it’s just an empty tragedy. Never an interesting drama.

5. Take your own mental health seriously. This can look different for each person depending on what you’re dealing with. Whatever it is, you don’t have to solve it all IMMEDIATELY. You can’t, anyway since there are no quick fixes for this kind of stuff. But try to identify the next right action, and do it. Then the next, and then the next… one tiny action at a time.

6. Make it a routine to ask your loved ones how they’re doing and don’t be afraid to find out their answers — like maybe they’re not as OK as you hoped they were. There are solutions (so many wide-ranging and varied solutions!) and just because you don’t know what they are right now doesn’t mean you can’t find them out.

On that note, I’m down to help anyone reading this find resources, solutions, connections, etc., if you ever need to, and there are plenty of people like me who are willing to do the same (I’ll introduce you to them! ) because none of us want to see this stuff continue to happen. And depression — not to mention life — can be hard AF. No one should be dealing with it alone.

With much love and sincerity,

Jenn 💙

Thank you to Kara Rozansky for providing me with the concept on which this article is based!

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Jenn Patel

Written by

Learning Specialist. Obsessed with nail art, Freirean pedagogy & CRT. My master’s thesis was on hip hop-as-revolution if that gives you an idea. www.jennpa.tel

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