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(TW: suicide & self harm for following thread) I’ve had a couple folks ask me why I haven’t tweeted about World Suicide Prevention Day today, but honestly, these “world recognition days” always make me kind of uncomfortable because they feel solely performative.
As someone who has attempted to take their own life several times, been hospitalized twice for attempts that were WAY too close to success, and still suffers to combat self-harm daily, every single day I’m still on this earth is suicide prevention day.
Every 40 seconds, someone takes their own life. Suicide is the leading cause of death in folks 15-29. We are losing anywhere from 80,000 to 1 million lives a year solely to suicide.
For every person who takes their life, there are at least 40 suicide attempts. That’s 32 million attempted suicides every year. 32 million attempts to end one’s own life. A day of recognition is doing nothing to truly mitigate this number.
The 10th of September is exactly the same as August 10th and October 10th for me. Check in on your friends and loved ones more than one day a year. Care about these numbers more than one day a year. Care about society’s disregard for mental health more than one day a year.
I realize how important these days are for destigmatization, but please do not look to those who are advocating every single day for others who suffer from the same struggles they do to speak on these once a year days. These are the days we get off.
As always, I am here for anyone who ever needs me. Think of all the dogs we haven’t even gotten to pet yet!! Let’s all stay around to pet them all together
(Please do not flood my replies and DMs with pity. As you can see, millions and millions of people suffer from this. I am not special. In lieu of pitying me on twitter, reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in awhile that you think would benefit from hearing from someone)
