Suicide is not a new concept. Thirty-thousand people commit suicide each year in the United States, and over 4,000 of those are committed by people between the ages of 10-24. That’s about 13% of people who commit suicide. The numbers are not going down and have not been for many decades. We need to talk about suicide and about how there is not being much done to prevent it. People need to be aware of this very serious problem, because suicide is the third leading cause of death in teenagers in the United States, after accidental deaths (motor vehicle, unintentional drowning, etc.) and homicide.

The rate of suicide has been rising for a very long time, so when recent events happened at Stamford High, as well as Westhill High and Greenwich High all within this school year, obviously it pulled on the heartstrings of everyone.  The reality of the situation is that it shouldn’t have happened at all. Suicide often stems from mental illness; more than 90% of people who die from suicide had a curable mental disorder (i.e. depression). It’s a problem that we need to really think about as a society and as a nation. We need to crack down on mental illnesses and treat them as seriously as we do cancer. I sat down with Dr. Valentine this week to ask her a few questions in light of recent events. When asked about our nation in relation to suicide she acknowledged that as a nation, we could use more help.  “I don’t know that we don’t treat it seriously enough, because we do treat it seriously, but I think there needs to be more help and assistance whether it’s in the schools or outside the schools,” Valentine said.

A good portion of suicide awareness is being able to pinpoint the characteristics of mentally ill and suicidal people. There is one obvious symptom of those who are suicidal, but not all who are suicidal have these: cutting scars. Common places someone would have these scars are on their arms, near their wrists, on their legs. Most will try to cover it up but if you notice these scars you should definitely talk to them or talk to someone who can help them. Some warning signs of suicide are:

• Increased apathy
• Talks about dying often
• Increased dangerous behavior
• Talking about how they are useless
• Looking for ways to kill one’s self (Buying a gun, using razors, hanging)
• Feeling isolated
• Being withdrawn
• Making arrangements
• Suddenly happier (Because they have a plan set in place)
• Giving away prized possessions

If you notice any of these signs in one person you need to talk to someone about what you’ve seen. When The Round Table sat down with Dr. Valentine about what could have been done to help the recent youths that committed suicide she told us, “Our biggest asset is that kids come and tell us about other kids, so if someone is struggling well find out about it that way, more so than, sometimes, student will come to us themselves.”

We need to put more emphasis on mental illness and suicide awareness. It’s just as simple as becoming a little more observant and noticing the little things that your friends are doing. The only thing that keeps us – as a nation – so hesitant when it comes to mental illness is the fact that it’s difficult to properly diagnose them and it can be different for every person. We improved this so that we can properly help all the teenagers that are affected by this and stop the unfortunate outcome.

If you need to talk to someone you can go to the Child Crisis Center, child guidance, social workers and the health center all in Stamford High. If you want to talk to someone anonymously to help you can call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Or you can text “CTL” to 741741.