When you were in school did suicide prevention programs help or made your impulses to ctb worse?

[asian.neet]

I'm just curious on this because I feel like being aware of suicide through assemblies back in middle school didn't really help.

people just *don't get it* til they become suicidal themselves ngl. I am suicidal because I feel like I don't belong in this world, and getting kicked out of college is the trigger.

People don't get its structural oppression and default to "awe this kid is bullied or their partner broke up with them"

I dont think the suicide prevention program in K12 schools help at all. Instead it throws a useless number to call in times of distress inmy opinion

I'm curious on what people think and if you remember any sort of suicide prevention program being implemented at school. Thoughts?

 

[Praestat_Mori]

When I was in school (and where I lived as a teen) suicide / MH stuff wasn't a topic / problem at all there weren't mobile phones and no internet and the like.

 

[tiyijinn]

We didn't have any mental health programs at all. It probably would have made it worse, as I feel absolutely miserable when people bring up the suicide-prevention bullshit and motivational speeches.

 

[Moniker]

I think suicide prevention programs can be helpful for teenagers only because it is the crowd that most likely would impulsively have suicidal thoughts. Though I'm just speaking generally here.

I don't think my feelings (which started when I was around 9 and have persisted) living were ever impulsive nor irrational. I'm sure we're all aware of what suicide prevention has to offer us: tone-deaf aphorisms and condescending infantilization. When I saw through all of that during my time in school, it just reinforced my feelings that the world would have nothing to offer me if I made efforts to recover.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

There's always the question WHY so many young people - sometimes in very young age - think about dying. Imo this is not natural. What triggers so many young people to think about ending their lives before they even started?

I don't want to sound like a pro-lifer here but this is sth I that I really think about a lot considering the avg age here is 21 +- 3 years.

 

[Kit1]

I am in my late 40s now. My first proper attempt to ctb was when I was 14 years old and it was the teachers from school who took me to hospital after an overdose that I had taken on my way in to the school. I was in hospital for a couple of weeks, had my stomach pumped, discharged and returned to school - the following day, they took me back to hospital after another attempt an d a repeat of what happened earlier happened again. No one spoke about it at school - no safeguarding questions asked, no support for myself or for my classmates offered.

Both my children attend/ed the local high school and had class/school mates end their lives. There wasn't any suicide prevention or support offered for those left behind except a cursory offer of the school pastoral care service - whatever that means.., When I spoke to one of the teachers, he casually said that a student does occasionally take their life and this is accepted as normal by the teachers!

 

[woh6]

My school didn't have any programs in regard to suicide or mental health.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

I am in my late 40s now. My first proper attempt to ctb was when I was 14 years old and it was the teachers from school who took me to hospital after an overdose that I had taken on my way in to the school. I was in hospital for a couple of weeks, had my stomach pumped, discharged and returned to school - the following day, they took me back to hospital after another attempt an d a repeat of what happened earlier happened again. No one spoke about it at school - no safeguarding questions asked, no support for myself or for my classmates offered.

Both my children attend/ed the local high school and had class/school mates end their lives. There wasn't any suicide prevention or support offered for those left behind except a cursory offer of the school pastoral care service - whatever that means.., When I spoke to one of the teachers, he casually said that a student does occasionally take their life and this is accepted as normal by the teachers!

May I ask you why you tried to OD? I'm sure there must have been triggers that made u trying to die via OD.

 

[Kit1]

There's always the question WHY so many young people - sometimes in very young age - think about dying. Imo this is not natural. What triggers so many young people to think about ending their lives before they even started?

I don't want to sound like a pro-lifer here but this is sth I that I really think about a lot considering the avg age here is 21 +- 3 years.

Speaking for myself when I was young - I had been abused throughout my childhood and been pretty much alone to fend for myself since the age of 14/15 and never had consistent carers. I couldn't see a life and tried to end it all at 14 - actually I left home soon after I was discharged and the abuse stopped - though by then I was living on the streets.

May I ask you why you tried to OD? I'm sure there must have been triggers that made u trying to die via OD.

Repeated child sexual abuse over several years, abandonment by birth parents and when they took me back aged 5/6, the beatings and emotional abuse started. I was non verbal and was bullied at school. I cannot remember ever being happy during the first 19 years of my life - always scared of being raped or abused in some way.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Speaking for myself when I was young - I had been abused throughout my childhood and been pretty much alone to fend for myself since the age of 14/15 and never had consistent carers. I couldn't see a life and tried to end it all at 14 - actually I left home soon after I was discharged and the abuse stopped - though by then I was living on the streets.

I'm sorry you had such a terrible childhood. But actually that is the reason that made you suicidal. This is so sad and life is often so unfair.

 

[Kit1]

Perhaps if young people are offered real support, then not many of our youngsters will be on SASU - I certainly could have been helped, but it didn't happen. It is heartbreaking when we bring babies into this planet and let them down so badly. It really has not got any easier for young people now.

 

[PixelPlant]

my school didn't care about suicide prevention programs at all. they didn't really talk about it and if they did talk about it, they would always say stuff like "taking your own life is selfish." or the classic pro lifer quote "life is amazing"
it just wanna make me ctb even more when these ppl exist

 

[mintgreendolphin]

I don't know why our parents would periodically tell me and my siblings that they didn't care if we decided to CTB when I was in HS, we were all doing well in school and were a well behaved bunch of kids that got along well with each other then. Anyway because of them, the handful of times people were invited to speak about suicide prevention during Monday morning assembly I just tuned out everything those people said cause they would all pull the "think about your parents and how much they would miss you" shtick which in my case obviously wasn't true. Lol

 

[Some place nice]

I have only had one of the many schools I've been to do a thing about suicide prevention. It was just the principal telling us "not to do it" and "people will miss you" aand it was only once. They focused more on drug addiction, bulling, and how to identify a school shooter.

 

[wait.what]

We had no suicide prevention or mental health programming when I was in school either. I rather doubt adding any would have helped much. For one thing, the flagship "prevention" program of the era was the D.A.R.E. anti-drug program. Over the 40 years since D.A.R.E.'s creation, study after study has found that kids who participate in it are actually more likely to use illegal drugs.

Thank God the 80's didn't try persuading us not to kill ourselves. We probably would have all spontaneously combusted on the spot.

 

[Orange Cat]

When I was in school, they never talked about suicide prevention or mental health at all. When I was in high school, one of my friends stole a gun from her uncle and shot herself in the woods near her house. The school didn't offer any counseling for the students. None of the teachers talked about it. When any of the kids tried to talk about it or mentioned her name, the teachers just quickly changed the subject.

 

[okdroplet]

It doesn't even exist in my school.
Suicide as a topic is very taboo here, no one talks about it unless they're being silly and joking.
(e.g. "ugh I wanna kms I don't wanna study")

But once there was a girl who was caught having her wrists slit, I don't know what happened to her, but everyone in school found out and thought it was "weird".