The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention provides informatiom for those who want to keep their friends and family safe. Today the ‘Talk Saves Lives’ presentation on warning signs and risk factors for suicide will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. AFSP North Texas Board Member Wendy Tyler will speak at today’s event. “So many people are unaware of how prevalent suicide and attempts are with our teenagers,” Tyler said. “In the United States, it is estimated between 100 and 200 teenagers attempt for every one suicide death that occurs. It’s not more common in low-income areas than in high-income areas. It is across the board.” People can visit the AFSP website for more information.
August 28, 2018
The ‘Talk Saves Lives’ presentation on warning signs and risk factors for suicide will be today, Aug. 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention North Texas Board Member Wendy Tyler will talk about suicide prevention and awareness as well as answer questions parents have.
“The whole thing is basically a community-based program from the AFSP, and it’s really to not just help people see warning signs because we hear about them all the time, but it’s to talk about risk factors as well,” Tyler said. “Then, we will look at the research and the statistics and what people can do to prevent it from happening.”
Attending the presentation will be free of cost to community members by funding raised through Prosper’s ‘Out of the Darkness’ walk last November.
“So many people are unaware of how prevalent suicide and attempts are with our teenagers,” Tyler said. “In the United States, it is estimated between 100 and 200 teenagers attempt for every one suicide death that occurs. It’s not more common in low-income areas than in high-income areas. It is across the board.”
Tyler said students who have suicidal ideations can be from all different backgrounds, and it’s not only because they’ve had a bad day.
“One of the things I will talk about tomorrow is how so many parents see their teenagers and how they may have gone through a breakup, didn’t get into the college they wanted to or that there was some precipitating factor and don’t know all that went on before,” Tyler said. “There could’ve been underlying issues as well. It’s never just one cause.
Senior Lauren Moss had a friend who ended his life her sophomore year. She attended the high school until her junior year when she moved to McKinney Boyd High School.
“I hear people making jokes about wanting to kill themselves, and sometimes it reaches the point where you don’t know when someone is actually crying for help until it’s too late,” Moss said. “It’s important to be able to reach out to these people and talk to them about getting help.”
Moss said it is important for parents to learn warning signs now so their kids can receive help because in the cases she’s seen about teenage suicide, the parents never saw or understood the signs.
“I think it has become popular to be self-degrading (rather) than confident,” Moss said. “You see YouTubers and other influencers on social media putting themselves down constantly, and it becomes this example for other people. It becomes this ‘norm,’ and I guess more people think it’s cool now to be depressed and not get help. I think it needs to be a goal we all have that those people receive the help they need, so they don’t have this weight on their shoulders.”
Senior Piper Wise also said she sees people make jokes about ending their lives more often than not.
“Suicide jokes have become this thing where, I don’t want to say it’s common, but it really is normal for people to say they have too much homework, and that they want to kill themselves,” Wise said. “It really shouldn’t be a joke. You never know when someone could be saying things like that jokingly, if they’re actually having those kinds of thoughts, or if they’re borderline. It’s insensitive and can be triggering to others.”
The message Moss wants to let teenagers know is that everything does get better, whether or not they believe it yet.
“If you think it may be easier to everyone else if you weren’t around anymore, that is so far from true,” Moss said. “The year after I lost my friend was a hard year. It was extremely hard. I constantly thought about him. Everything may be hard now, but it will get better. You don’t want to take a life away which you can build on and impact more people with.”
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-TALK. Tyler has also included her email, tylerfamily7@gmail.com, if people have questions or need to talk.
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