Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, a day devoted to mobilizing global action for suicide prevention through awareness-building and research efforts. Held annually on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day serves as a reminder of the lives lost to suicide each year and acts as a motivating force to encourage wide-spread prevention efforts.
Each year in America almost 30,000 people commit suicide, and 70% of those people tell someone or give warning signs before taking their own life. We all play an integral part of identifying warning signs for suicide in our friends and loved ones. Listed below are some of the most common warning signs for suicide to look out for:
- Appearing sad or depressed most of the time
- Deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble sleeping and eating
- Feeling anxious, agitated, or unable to sleep
- Neglecting personal welfare, deteriorating physical appearance
- Withdrawing from friends, family, and society, or sleeping all the time
- Losing interest in hobbies, work, school, or other things one used to care about
- Expressing feelings of excessive guilt or shame
- Feelings of failure or decreased performance
- Feeling that life is not worth living, having no sense of purpose in life
- Talk about feeling trapped—like there is no way out of a situation
- Having feelings of desperation, and saying that there’s no solution to their problems
Every branch of the military has programs to address suicide, and all members of the military and veteran community can call the Military Crisis Line if they are in crisis. Callers don’t even have to be in crisis to reach out to the Military Crisis Line. The responders who take the calls have educational resources and information to share. In addition to the phone calls, users can have a confidential online chat from the website as well. You can reach the Military Crisis Line at 800-273-8255 and press 1.
