Last week, I lost a co-worker and friend to suicide. While some knew he was suffering from anxiety
and depression, none of his friends, family, or co-workers knew he had
entertained thoughts of suicide. So when
it happened, we were all shocked.
My friend was a devoted father and husband, active in his
church and community, a good friend, and a heck of an engineer. He will be missed. His passing has left a huge whole in this
world.
I believe many of us left behind are wondering if we could
have done more to help him. Some are
hurt and angry that he took his life, leaving the rest of us to deal with the
fallout. Others are simply sad that a
good man is gone. I know I am. I’m left with feelings of guilt for not doing
more. But how could I have known if even
those closest to him didn’t know?
Wondering what more I could have done won’t help my
friend. He’s gone and I can’t change
that. But, there are others out there
who are hurting, who are drowning in despair and hopelessness. According to the Center for Disease Control, 41,149 Americans
committed suicide in 2013. According to Randomhistory.com, someone in the US attempts
suicide once every minute, and someone completes a suicide once every 17
minutes. Perhaps we can help
them.
I’m not talking about “raising awareness” or ice bucket
challenges or things like that. I mean
truly helping. Volunteering to man
suicide hot lines or donating time and money to suicide prevention and mental
health organizations is a good way to help.
Learning how to recognize depression and indications that friends or
family may be considering suicide is important.
There are a lot of reputable resources on the internet. Although it isn’t easy, talking about the
elephant in the room is a good start.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth
aged 10 to 24. We can help by
volunteering time and money to help youth organizations. Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Big Brothers/Big
Sisters, church youth groups, school organizations all need adults to help our
youth. Especially since so many youth
are coming from broken homes where the adults may be in jail or drug addicts or
simply don’t give a damn about their children.
Too many people feel hopeless. We
need to talk about depression and suicide and let people know there are people
that care and ways to heal their despair.
I’ve never experienced the depth of despair that drove my
friend to suicide. But I do know that
his death has left a big, ugly, jagged hole in the hearts of those who loved
him, knew him, and worked with him. Let’s
get involved and volunteer so we can reduce the number of jagged holes left in
the world.
