Suicide is a major public health problem.
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More than 31,000 Americans die by suicide each year. There is 1 suicide every 16 minutes and 88 suicides per day. Suicide is: the 11th leading cause of death overall in America; the 3rd leading cause of death for young Americans between the ages of 10 & 24; and the 2nd leading cause of death for American college-aged students.
LEAH'S PART.
Alrighty, so now that you got all the information and statistics, were gonna be real about this. Suicide is really a very serious thing, even though a lot of the time people don't take it seriously. I have what I consider to be "first-hand experience" with suicide and cutting. I have never personally tried or done either of these things, but some of my best friends have. Even though I don't do these things, they play a big part in my life. I worry about something happening or life just getting to be too much for them. From what I know and the people i know, I'd have to say the main things that cause them to do these things to themselves are: guy/girl trouble, boyfriend/girlfriend breaking up with them, someone not liking them, fights between friends, family troubles, or just plain out feeling worthless. I have a really good friend and she is constantly putting herself down and thinks she is worthless. She thinks no one cares about her no matter how many times you tell her you do. It seems like she always has to have a boyfriend to be happy, and never knows what or who she wants. She is really pretty and pretty dang amazing I would say...it's just that sometimes things get to be way too much to handle. It's not like she doesn't try to be a good friend, but she doesn't realize that when she is constantly talking about herself and her problems, the people around her get to feeling like she's self-centered and everything's always about her. I know another person who has tried multiple times to kill himself. He made me a promise not to try, but that was broken. When he told me this, I just about broke down and cried. I cared about him sooooo much and he didn't see it. I just sat there on the other end of the line thinking, " What if he had succeeded? How would I feel? TERRIBLE! Especially since he had mentioned it to me the day before, but I hadn't taken it seriously. But what if he wasn't here right now? I could never live with myself." Even that possibility made me sick. It scares me sooo much though because he's tried before and never has it actually worked. Yet. But what about the one time it does? There are no more chances after that. I get scared that he thinks he's almost...invinceable. Like he can try all he wants but it's never actually gonna work...I don't know if people realize what things like this do to the people closest to them. Just get help if you're feeling like this...please.
BIANCA'S PART.
I know a lot of people who wanted or attempted to kill themselves, so I have a little bit of experience in how you are feeling. You're still reading this page, so that must mean that you are still at least some amount unsure about taking your life. Being suicidal doesn't make you a weak, crazy, bad person or anything like that. Being suicidal is just you thinking that you have way too much pain or hurt in your life than you have the resources to cope with. Suicide has nothing to do with willpower, it's not that you don't want to cheer yourself up, it's that no matter how hard you try you can't seem to do it. Everybody differs on their way to deal with pain, the point in which it becomes too much to deal with depends on how you deal with the pain you're feeling.
This website and all articles were written by 2 teenage girls..