Introduction:
Stephen Chbosky writes “That’s why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem. And he called it “Absolutely Nothing” because that’s what it was really all about. And he gave himself an A and a slash on each damned wrist. And he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn’t think he could reach the kitchen”. This is an excerpt from a poem known as the suicide poem, seen above, which is featured in the book Perks of Being a Wallflower. Suicide is a mental health issue that is a taboo in American society, there are a lot of stigmas not just around suicide but, also mental health in general. Individuals refuse to believe that mental illness diagnoses are real and that the brain can “get sick”. It is an ignorant assumption that has allowed the number of suicides to increase yearly. So what can we as community members in our various roles do to decrease the number of deaths by suicide? What can family members of individuals who have died by suicide do? What can survivors of attempted suicides do? The answer, which can be found in the video below, which will introduce you to the themes of this blog post.
Continue reading “Behind the Mask: Silent Suffers and Issues of Suicide”