Suicide… one of the top ten leading causes of death in teens today, is also one of the most “hush-hush” topics in society. You see although September is National Suicide Prevention Month and suicide has a higher rate in high schoolers, schools refuse to talk about it unless a student actually commits suicide. Some principles, have said that they “… believe in crossing that bridge when they get to it.” My question is, why not raise awareness and help prevent suicide rather than promoting ignorance amongst the teen community?

On September 27, I asked the students in all four of my classes if they knew what the month of September represented, and in all four classes they did not know that it was National Suicide Prevention Month. Due to the fact that I am a junior with multiple seniors in my classes, I was extremely disappointed at this finding. Honestly, I took this personally offensive. As a teen with suicidal tendencies, I felt like it was another way for society to say that I do not matter. For teens like me, it just proves what we already know.

Dwight L. Moody said, “I have had more trouble with myself than with any other person I have ever met.” The first time I heard this quote, I was in a treatment facility for suicidal ideation and behavioral issues, it was read to me during a group. To me, it means that I hate myself so much that I do not have any more room to hate other people. I guess you can say that it is subject to your own interpretation, but the concept still seems to remain the same. But, Moody was not the only one who understood the feelings of the suicidal teen.

G.K. Chesterton, wrote a poem called “A Ballade of Suicide”. In the poem, he exclaims multiple times “I think I will not hang myself to-day.” To me and the other girls in my treatment facility, it meant that although he hurt, he would deal with the pain for yet another day. After hearing this, we came up with a saying, or rather an equation for suicide. The equation is: Pain x Hurt= Suicide, or PxH=S for short. This equation was our way of explain why we kept choosing to attempt suicide.

Although, suicide is not as largely talked about as car accidents or terrorist attacks, on average there are 14 teen suicides a day. I believe, that that alone is cause enough to at the very least raise awareness about suicide. But, society cannot hide teen suicide forever, at the rate society is going, I am sad to say it may become a very popular topic.