Know the Signs

Recently, I’ve been talking to a girl who gets bullied pretty badly in school. I was texting her the other day and asked her what she was doing. She responded with a simple one word answer, writing. Writing what? I ask generally curious, I enjoy writing as well. Her response shocked me. I expected ‘oh just something for school.’ But she said ‘A suicide note.’ This girl is 14, and she is so willing to take her life or hurt herself because she gets bullied so badly. But why? Why does this poor girl get bullied? Because she knows who she is. She knows she’s a lesbian. And people use that against her.

She isn’t the only one though. She isn’t the only poor helpless soul getting shunned for being who she is, and that’s a problem. One person getting picked on, let alone the hundreds upon thousands of girls and boys who get ridiculed because of who they are. Now I want you to ask yourself. Are you guilty? Are you guilty of making these people feel worthless? Were you even aware what you were doing? Probably not. But now you will be, here are some signs that someone is considering giving up on everything; giving up on themselves.

One sure sign that someone is considering this is if their giving away (or throwing away) their possessions. I’m not just talking about giving their old clothes to charity, I’m talking about them giving away things they love and adore to people they love and adore. Like giving away their collection of bottle caps to their little siblings. They spent a lot of time with these objects and the people they love know how important these things are to them.  Before you confront them though, you should probably look for other sings.

Something else you should look for is drastic change, like if this girl or boy were to cut their hair or dye it. Maybe they stopped wearing makeup, maybe they started wearing makeup. It doesn’t matter what it is, there are a lot of possibilities. But if something does change, you’ll notice; everyone will notice. After all that’s what they want. They want someone to notice them. Maybe even a simple compliment would be enough to stop them.  Maybe it wouldn’t. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

Sometimes these people have what they call ‘suicide plans’ which basically means they have a plan to commit suicide. They know how, they know where, and they know when. Some things they might say are “if something ever happens to me I want you to know this” or “don’t worry I won’t bother you for long” obviously this is something that should concerning anyways, but if you just brushed it off as nothing, well here you go. It’s not nothing.

I think the most helpful hint in this situation would be the verbal hints. It’s also one of the first signs, this means they still have hope for themselves, hope that someone will help them. These include phrases like “I wish I could just die” or “I’m thinking or committing suicide”. Of course these are the most helpful because they’re admitting it, they’re admitting they want to die, they’re crying for help. Begging for it even.

The last sign I will share with you today is simple. They take risks, like walking in front of traffic perhaps. This indicates that they don’t care if they die or not. If it’s an accident, cool, because if it’s an ‘accident’ they don’t have to think too much about it. They don’t have to think about who it’s affecting because they didn’t have to take their own life, someone took it for them. Everyone will think it was simply an accident. They don’t want people to know what really happened; they don’t want to admit it not even to themselves.

Of course these aren’t all the signs someone is considering something crucial like this. If you know someone who might be suicidal please talk to them, let them know you’re there for them. This might be the turning point for them. You might be able to save a life.

For more signs of suicide or suicide help, please visit: http://www.teensuicide.us/articles2.html

 

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