It is estimated that 3,000 people a day are lost to suicide. That means that on October 15th, 2011, two-thousand nine hundred and ninety nine other people took their own life. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine families’ lives were forever changed. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine other people were struggling like my brother was and found only ONE answer to their problems that day.
I am trying to put that in perspective… 3,000 people a day…
2,966 people died on 9/11. So for the purpose of today’s blog, when you think of what suicide is doing to our world, think of the way you felt on 9/11, which is coincidentally tomorrow. Let me be very clear: I am not minimizing the importance of 9/11, but I think it actually plays well as an analogy to better understand the impact suicide has daily.
We’ve seen the images and the devastation of that day. That is what suicide does every single day of the year. It terrorizes its victims and takes their lives. Three Thousand a Day, Three Hundred Sixty Five Days a year.
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) and IASP have, since 1960, recognized today as a day of remembrance for those who lost their life to suicide.
When I got to the office, I opened this blog, as I do every Monday morning to make an entry. This time around, I also went through the IASP’s Suicide Prevention Day page. It took me all of four seconds before I got up, closed my door, and sobbed… not just for David, but for all of the other families who are going through what I am going through on a daily basis.
If you have the strength I encourage you to do the same:Â www.facebook.com/events/219365821453424/. So many different people, so many different stories, all with the same ending. There is not a race, religion, gender, political belief that is not represented on this page. What do I see? Pictures of ordinary people smiling in a picture, just like you and me and anybody else we know. David is now one of those people on this page. I hope to not have to see anybody else I know on this page and try to do a little something each day to help knock that number down.
Three Thousand People a Day…..
At 8:00 p.m. tonight, I will light a candle and place it near my window. For my brother and the two thousand and ninety nine other people who took their lives on October 15th.
