Borrow my hope: Suicide awareness needs to be 24/7/365
The teal-and-purple ribbon commemorates lives lost to suicide.
This past week marked National Suicide Prevention Week in the U.S., and World Suicide Prevention Day took place on September 10th.
I’m incredibly glad these events are in our calendars. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to bring recognition to those struggling with suicidal ideation, nor would our society confront itself on what it can do more to prevent suicide.
On my Instagram, I’ve replaced my profile picture with the teal-and-purple ribbon that commemorates lives lost to suicide. I’ve also posted several graphics I made on Canva to show support for those dealing with suicidal thoughts, and another graphic gave suggestions for how people can reach out to those with suicidal ideation. The number of Instagram posts and stories I’ve seen this year related to suicide awareness and prevention has been incredible.
At the same time, those with suicidal thoughts deserve year-round care and support.
Across the entire year of 2020, almost 45,000 Americans lost their lives by suicide. We need to ensure that 24/7/365, our society has awareness as to what it can do, and should be doing, to prevent suicide. This won’t be easy. Having conversations about suicide is still taboo, which is a topic that I’ll discuss in future newsletters.
But awareness needs to be year-round. Because year-round, people struggle with suicidal thoughts. Because year-round, people end their lives.
We can’t abandon the topic of suicide prevention now that National Suicide Prevention Week has passed. We can’t let go of the hope that at least momentarily we’ve provided for those feeling hopeless.
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