Imagine one day you find that one of your friends is acting differently. They seem down and at a loss, and they express to you that they haven’t been interested in their favorite activities as of recently. This worries you, and you suspect that they are going through a negative mental health event. You want to help them talk to somebody who can help, but you’re not sure how.
“Signs of Suicide” is the name of the program, and it is to bring about suicide awareness and prevention and to help remove the stigma around talking about suicide and suicidal ideations,” said Loy Norrix school counselor Becky Parsons.
Through the week of January 27-31, a presentation known as “Signs of Suicide” was shown to fourth-hour classes to open students’ eyes to the signs that potentially suicidal people may show and offer help to those who are struggling with mental health. A collection of videos were shown, telling the stories of real people who have worked through depressive behavior and suicidal thoughts. The videos included skits to display how someone can assist a friend or family member who expresses behavior that may reflect suicidal thinking.
Senior Lanowyn Masterson expresses a relation to one of the skits.
“I wanna say the second one with the fictional people [stood out] when they were thinking about overdramatics and stuff like that,” Masterson said. “ I’ve definitely had a few friends where they put things on their Instagram notes or Instagram stories where I’m not really sure if they just want people to talk to them, and they don’t know how to go about saying that or if they’re genuinely in a crisis or not.”
Sometimes people are struggling themselves and are contemplating asking for help. It can be quite intimidating to find an adult and express to them that you are struggling, but Signs of Suicide teaches students that it is okay to struggle and that it is okay to need some help at times. For some students, the program was quite helpful in finding themselves or friends help, such as senior Raylee Maize-Scaife.
“ It did help me realize that I should probably act faster ’cause normally I try to push my friends to find it themselves,” Maize-Scaife said, “but knowing that I should get them help faster, like immediately.”
One of the main topics the videos discussed was helping your friends to get help as soon as possible rather than waiting for them to get it themselves. Many people struggle with suicidal thoughts without having anybody give them that nudge. With these videos, the hope was to show students that there are people there for them, and there are adults that can help.
“I hope that students are able to find resources if they’re struggling,” said Parsons, ”and that they see that there are trusted adults and that there are ways to alleviate those feelings and get help if you need it.”
Call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free 24/7 support.
