A Suicide Soapbox

First of all, this blog post is in no way relevant to what we typically discuss; I simply would like to discuss something that is important to me in hopes to maybe help someone at some point in time. I am hoping to help bring awareness to this topic so that if ever faced with a similar situation, you all could potentially help to save a life.

Tomorrow marks one year since my cousin’s premature death. AJ was 22 years old who loved our country, life, and those people he shared it with. AJ took his own life one year ago. This event was the fifth attempt at taking his life, and he was pronounced brain dead a few hours after the event. Despite being his fifth attempt at suicide, this was unexpected to our family. The first time AJ attempted to take his life was as a senior in high school. That time, he took a bunch of pills and wrote notes. He ended up vomiting a lot of the pills back up, and the rest were pumped from his stomach since he was quickly found after this attempt. A second attempt at his life was made about a year or so later when he slit his wrists. Again, he lived through the attempt and went on living life. Each time, AJ was provided help and counsel and once he was “better” everyone went about their business. Each time, we didn’t know why he was doing these things. Each time, he lived and perhaps we took that all for granted.

Last year, we received a call from my uncle just a few days before Thanksgiving. He told us that AJ had died. While our family had been quite disconnected in recent years, this did not take away from the situation at all. Later, we learned of the other two attempts at suicide, but again, no why. To this day, we still do not know why AJ chose to take his life and we probably will never know. If you had met him, you would have never guessed these things about his past, or that he would end up taking his life. He was the life of the party, he lit up the room whenever he entered, and he was one of the comedians of the family. While we were not particularly close, with the age gap between up and the distance between where we grew up, AJ was still my cousin. Growing up, all of us were close and they say that cousins are your first friends in life. AJ’s death really hit me, and it still is saddening to this day.

If someone you know has voiced contemplating suicide, do not take it lightly. Even if they get mad at you for helping or saying something, don’t sit back and possibly let it happen. React, no matter their reaction, because you just might save their life. I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason, but maybe your helping someone and saving their life has a reason greater than of them taking their life.  There are numerous websites, programs, and hotlines that could be of great use. Also, you never know when just talking to someone could make a difference.

Thanks for reading my story and taking it seriously. Even if you don’t think this is relevant to you, you may unfortunately face this situation one day. If this helps even one person, then there was a greater reason for writing this post.