Dear Future President,

Suicide is one of our world’s biggest issue but we take it so lightly like a bag flowing with the wind it comes and then goes and people stop thinking about it. Most people don’t take it as a true issue with the world because it doesn’t affect everyone but to the people it does affect it is a very big deal to them. Imagine having to deal with the pain of knowing that someone you care for killed their self and you did nothing to stop it.

According to Medical News Today “...Approximately one million people commit suicide each year worldwide that is about one death every 40 seconds or 3,000 per day. For each individual who takes his/her own life, at least 20 attempt to do so.” All we have is AFSP ( American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) for suicidal people but most people don’t even know about it so they feel like they have no one. What’s the point of having it if no one knows about it? Many reasons for suicide are sense of burden, sense of emotional pain, escaping negative feelings, altered social world, and hopelessness. Researchers dissected 20 suicide notes written by people who attempted suicide. The notes were evaluated on 5 dimensions: sense of burden (would my loved ones be better off without me?). Sense of emotional pain (how much suffering is in my life?). Escaping negative feelings (is death the answer to ending this pain?). Altered social world (is death the answer to my troublesome social relationships? And hopelessness (is there evidence that life is going to get any better?).

Suicide has never been good thing. Many people deal with suicidal thoughts. At that moment it might feel like it’s the only way out for some people but think about all the other people that would be hurt it the process. Each suicide intimately affects at least 6 other people. People may be in pain but if they end their life they’ll just be putting their loved ones through the exact same pain they went through.

Tell me how a six year old girl can walk in front of a train just because she wanted to be with her mother that died a couple months before. How a six year old has the strength to take her own life and no one is doing more to prevent this.

Did you know that suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds and second for 24 to 35 year old’s. For every one person complete suicide there are 25 attempted suicides. You say you’re trying to make our state a better place then why not try hard to try to prevent the state’s third leading cause of deaths. Create suicidal groups people can go to and talk and have people who will listen. Lower the cost of therapy and talk to their loved ones and try to get them to help out more and notice a lot more. The people need to understand how big of a deal this really is and try to do more to prevent it. Anyone can commit suicide but most people don’t even see how much pain that person is in. If only they saw and knew how to try to help them, they could have possible saved their life.

Sincerely, Serena Idle