World Suicide Prevention Day

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.

The colour: Yellow. 

The WHO estimates that about a million people commit suicide each year. That's one death every 40 seconds or 3,000 suicide deaths every day. For every person who dies by suicide, 20 people attempt to take their own lives. The number of lives lost to suicide exceeds the number of lives lost due to homicide and war combined. Even so, the number of suicide could be more due to the fact that many suicides are hidden among other causes of death such as car accidents and unwitnessed drownings.

This is a serious issue. It need just as much exposure as breast cancer awareness and any other causes we've been fighting for over the years. It is especially important for young people. According to the WHO, suicide is one of the leading causes of death among the young.

In conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day, the IASP (International Association for Suicide Prevention) has drawn up a list of things we can do to be part of this cause. Most of these ideas revolve around conducting exhibitions, conferences and forums for the general public. If these are too big a scale for you, the IASP also has smaller ideas that might work.

Among those ideas are, wearing Yellow on the day (10th Sept, TODAY!) to promote the cause and bring awareness to the issue. Also, you can light a candle by the window at 8pm in support of WSPDay, bringing awareness about suicide prevention and in memory of loved ones, or just anyone, lost to suicide.

This is an important day to me. I do not personally know anyone who has committed suicide or attempted to. But I know some people, friends (if you would allow the use of the term), who go through a tough time and are cutters. They are depressed and some have tried to end their lives. Naturally, this hits close to my heart.

So, I'm going to don the yellowest clothes I have and tell anyone who will listen about WSPDay. I'm lighting a candle at the stipulated time and I hope you could do the same. This is one of the biggest social issues we are facing now. It needs as much exposure as possible. 

My prayer goes out to everyone. :)