WARNING: The following post contains information about suicide that may be triggering for some individuals, please exercise caution.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide. For this reason, the theme for World Mental Health Day (October 10th) 2019, is focused on suicide prevention. WHO invites everyone to join them in 40 seconds of action to raise awareness of the scale of suicide around the world and the role that each of us can play to help prevent it.
Suicide is defined as the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally.
Thinking about dying, or feeling as though you want to die is not as uncommon as some believe. You may feel as though you want to die because you've done something that is unforgiveable (by God, your peers or family, or yourself), because you've failed at something very important to you, because you've experienced tremendous heartbreak, or because you've lost too many loved ones in life.
- Being overwhelmed to the point where you want to die is an understandable response to a lot of life's mishaps. However, the key is, how to keep living when you frequently feel like you want to die. The answer lies in the things we do that keep us going, people in the mental health field call this, "coping mechanisms".
We want to challenge U-Reporters who have had these feelings to share a video, 40 seconds or less, on social media describing what they do to keep living even though they want to die. We hope that by sharing these suicide alternatives, it will raise awareness about the scale of suicide among T&T youths, but also provide alternative ways of dealing with life for other young people experiencing similar feelings.
Two ways to take the challenge:
1. Record a 40 seconds (or less) video of yourself doing or describing what you do that keeps you going and post it on social media with the hashtags : #UReportTT #VoiceMatters #40Seconds
2. If you want to anonymously share your coping mechanisms you can email the text to lparkinson@unicef.org
Everything will be shared on U-Report's social media channels.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicide or mental health issues please have a look at these resources:
Coping Strategies: brief list, extensive list
Public mental health services: North West Trinidad, Eastern Trinidad, South West Trinidad, and Tobago
Hotlines, for when you just need to talk it out:
For those under 18
For those over 18
Cover photo credit - Shehzad Noorani
