The Rope that Ends the Life of a Loved One | Teen Ink

The Rope that Ends the Life of a Loved One

January 8, 2014
By 623Solange BRONZE, Cambridge, Massachusetts
623Solange BRONZE, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

I can remember the day like it happened yesterday.
“It was May 24th, 2011. My husband picked me up from work and we went to the grocery store to buy some breakfast for the rest of the week. As we were in the line to pay for our stuff, I got a phone call from my oldest daughter, Amanda. My eyes filled with tears and I broke down. Her exact words were, “Momma come home NOW Sophia hung herself” as she was breathing hard and in terror. We both rushed out of the store and drove home. As we scampered up the stairs to Sophia's bedroom where we found Amanda laying near her body reading a letter. My husband went to her side to comfort her even though we didn't know how to comfort ourselves. Tears came rushing down my face as I watched her in pain even though she was dead. The image of her body stays in my head till this day. When I try to think of other things all I can picture is her body hung in her closet by a rope.
That rope was what held my beloved daughter to a shelf.

That rope was what finally allowed her to do what she wanted.
That rope was what ended her life.”
The tragedy of a young person dying because of overwhelming hopelessness or frustration is devastating to family, friends, and community. Parents, siblings, classmates, coaches, and neighbors might be left wondering if they could have done something to prevent that young person from turning to suicide. Once You get the call or find a love one dead because of depression or self harming some people’s instinct is to always think that they could have done something better to help them and prevent this. The truth is, for some people they never really knew that their loved one would have done this and been in this type of harm but it is easier for them to say they could have done something better to prevent the issue of suicide. No one really knows why but its just an instinct.
Is that what people really want? To blame themselves for an insident that they couldn't change. When what they could have done to prevent suicide was to education and give public awareness. You see every year about 30,000 people die from succeding in their attempt of suicide. All these lives could have been kept if people were envolved in public awareness. On average, one person commits suicide every 16.2 minutes. If you do the math that's about 89 people we lose a day in America. However, thoughout the world we lose about 2,000 people a day. And It is more likely someone will die from suicide than from homicide. For every two people killed by homicide, three people die of suicide. Now in the news we always hear about homicides and we here about them frequently. But to know that every two people killed by homicide, three people die of suicide this fact is just breath taking. Do you understand? Thats 1 person every 16.2 minutes, 89 people a day and, 30,000 people a year.
Each suicide intimately affects at least six other people. I can relate to this fact. One of my closest friends suffers from depression. When it was time for her to finally tell me her condition she was afraid. I was the first one to know out of like 6 of us and she ended up telling me about 2 years after she found out herself. When I asked her why it took her so long to tell me her exact words were “I was afraid you were going to judge me” I sat down and talked to her and told her “ No matter what happens i am gonna be here for you no matter what”. About three months ago I found out that she was in a treatment place. I never got to see her but when she came out she told me why she was there. It turns out that she tried to commit suicide by an overdose. Fortunately, she failed her attempt. At times I do wish that I am always there for her because the one time i wasn't there she tried to commit suicide. I always imagine what would happen if she was gone and her attempt to commit suicide worked. I wasn’t the only one affected by this because the other six important people in her life felt the same way.
We would have lost our best friend.
We would have lost the one person that brought us all together
We would have lost the person that means the most to us all.
So why suicide? Why do people kill themselves? What is the reason why people end their own lives?
One answer could be that it is not your decision. A fact shows that there is increasing evidence that individuals with a family history of suicide are more vulnerable to becoming victims of suicide themselves. This means that having the issue of suicide in your family tree can sometimes impact you more than losing the ones you love. You might actually lose yourself too. People who commit suicide is because they have made a lot of mistakes and don't know what to do. When I was looking for suicide stories online i read this one suicide story that caught my eye. It was about a boy who commited suicide and left a letter. his girlfriend found the letter and decided to read it. It was a very emotional and life changing letter. In the letter the girlfriend found out why this boy commited suicide. The reason why was because he had made way to many mistakes. He told her that he had knocked up a girl while his girlfriend (the one reading the letter) was off on vacation with her family. He also cheated on her with another guy and found out that he was gay. The only reason why he commited suicide was because he didn't know how to explain himself to the girl.
But the reason why most people commit suicide is because they are depressed. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would all be better off without me” to make rational sense. Depression is the number one reason why people commit suicide, however it is treatable. Another important reason why most young kids commit suicide is because of bullying. Yes i know we have bullying essemblies twice in a school year but that still doesn't change the numbers of people who die each year. A lot of lifetime movies based off on true stories show us what bullying can so to people. How it affects not just there lives but those people that mean something in their lives too. So too those bullies, whatever your doing is not cute, you affect many lives, and you honestly need to find a new hobby.
So how do we help prevent suicide? How do we stop the ones we love from ending their life? Their are many ways you can help when it comes to preventing suicide. You can give public awareness but that might not always work. Another option is to talk to a theropist. You can go to local hospitals and have half hour sessions. It doesn't hurt talking to people about your day or how your feeling. It can only make you feel better. Together we can lower the number of suicide deaths by the minutes, hours, days, and years. From a suicide death in every 16.2 minutes to a death in every 30 minutes. From 89 deaths a day to 60. From 30,000 suicide deaths a year to 15,000. We can make a difference by saving our loved ones and allowing them to live their life on a longer note.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.