Bullying is One of the Leading Causes of Suicide
TRIGGER WARNING: In addition, if you are affected by bullying or suicide/suicidal thoughts, this blog post may be triggering. If you need support right now, please seek help from a therapist, other mental health professional, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), there are 130 suicides every day. Suicide is "the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-34 years old, the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 35-44 years old, and the fifth leading cause of death for people ages 45-54 years old" according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control 2021). People die by suicide for many sad reasons and bullying is one of the main causes of suicide. While suicide is not a good solution to anyone's issues (not invalidating anyone affected by suicide at all when I say this), the reason that people often take their lives is not because they want to die; it is because they want their pain to end. They think that when no other ways are not ending their pain that suicide is the only way to end their pain.
Related Links:
- How to Talk to Someone with Suicidal Thoughts
- 100 Reasons to Stay Alive
- The Importance of Showing Respect for Other People While Advocating for Your Own Respect
Life is not easy, but some people just cannot take it anymore due to how vulnerable their minds are. This world has a lot of cruelty and when bullying happens in schools and adulthood, sometimes the victim will attempt to get help, but unfortunately, the people who the issue is reported to will sometimes make up excuses so that they do not have to act on it. I have observed that not all but many authority figures who this issue gets reported to will often tell the victims to "just ignore the bullies" every time implying that they do not care. Unfortunately, in most cases, ignoring typically never works to begin with and in school settings, when a person who is bullied will ignore or do whatever alternative solution they were supposed to stand up to their bullies, they may get snapped at by a teacher who suggested the utilized solution to stand up to the bully. Sometimes we do not know if someone died by suicide due to bullying, but bullying is one of the main causes of suicide statistically; so, I am just using bullying as an example of why a person may end their pain by suicide. People die by suicide because of bullying if no one is doing anything or enough after the reports of the issue(s) or if the bullies keep these negative behaviors up no matter how many times that they are confronted. Sometimes the people who are being bullied are even afraid to speak up out of fear that no one will care. Then, as a result, they may figure that suicide is the only way out if no one or the majority shows (enough) care. Bystanders will sometimes even be in the same room when someone is being bullied and do absolutely nothing about it. They pretend to not even see it sometimes. Teachers are there for a reason and one of those reasons is to protect their students. Teachers especially are there to protect their students from any harm as one of their ethics and bullying is harmful even if it is name-calling, gossiping, yelling at or talking down to someone, exclusion, and/or making fun of them because it can harm the victims' feelings and self-esteem and can even be traumatizing. These types of bullying are emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and psychological abuse. In regards to workplace bullying, managers are there for a reason as well and one of those reasons is to protect their employees.
Related Links:
- Adult Bullying Is Not Talked About Enough and Can Be Just As Traumatic or Sometimes Worse Than Childhood Bullying
- Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- 100 Reasons to Stay Alive
- The Importance of Showing Respect for Other People While Advocating for Your Own Respect
I have observed that the majority of the time that schools and workplaces mostly discuss that there is a bullying problem and actually start taking it seriously is only after a person dies by suicide due to bullying, after assemblies about the topic, or even after people leave a school, workplace, group, or activity because of bullying. They will say, "There is a huge bullying problem here" after a person's suicide that was connected to bullying, after the assemblies about it, or after a person leaves (This seems to be a rare reason when it is discussed, but it has been discussed in some settings that I was in); Meanwhile, however, when someone is being bullied right in front of their eyes or a victim of bullying speaks up, barely anything is done. Sometimes even nothing to resolve the issue is attempted at all and the people who the issue is reported to will be lazy and make up excuses such as telling the victims, "People are going to be mean" or "That's just the way that they are" so that they do not have to help while saying that they do care when they do not show it because those are the only excuses that they give the victims, which result in sorrow. Then, they may tell the victim that they are not following their "advice" when the victim either does follow it and it does not work or the victim does not follow it because they know that it will not work from what they know in their prolonged traumatic experience of being bullied. They should at the very least lecture, suspend, write up, file a police report (which unfortunately seems to barely ever happen and doing so depends on the details of the bullying), or discipline the bully somehow because that behavior is completely unacceptable and should NEVER EVER be tolerated. Victims of bullying will often take their lives when they get home from school or work or sometime at night. Sometimes no one knows why an individual chose to die by suicide because they never reached out for help due to lack of hope caused by how severely the situation impacted their mental health. They sometimes do not even leave a suicide note stating why.
I apologize for being so redundant as I write this, but like I said, while this is disturbing, sometimes people who are bullied attempt to get help, but if the help is not working to end their pain, they figure that suicide is the only way to end their pain. They do not want to die, but as a result, they think that there is no other way out if no one is able to help them or does not help them. While feeling pain demonstrates that we can feel something and is real and sometimes we have to fight through pain, the thing is that when anyone is being bullied, the pain can really severely affect their mental health, which can eventually lead to depression (the serious mental illness kind) or even be so traumatizing that it may result in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and then, that can often lead to suicide. Bullying could affect ANYONE'S mental health to this severe point, and you never know who could be affected that much, which is why bullying should always be taken action upon immediately and bullies should always be disciplined. There needs to be a zero tolerance policy for bullying in all schools, workplaces, and any environments. Nothing is gained by the victims when the bullies are not stopped and punished. The school or workplace should suspend them along with any violent or threatening behavior reported to the police. The stigma is growing way too much over the years. There is literally one suicide happening one after the previous.
Related Links:
- What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
- How to Talk to Someone with Suicidal Thoughts
- The Importance of Showing Respect for Other People While Advocating for Your Own Respect
- Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- 100 Reasons to Stay Alive
I do want people to realize that there is hope and a few kind people out there. While they are hard to find, there are teachers, administrators, and bosses who do show true care about handling bullying incidents, teaching about bullying prevention, incorporating practices to support mental health in the workplace, and utilizing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Trauma-Informed Care and Education. There are true friends as well.
Related Links:
- How to Talk to Someone with Suicidal Thoughts
- Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- The Importance of Showing Respect for Other People While Advocating for Your Own Respect
- 100 Reasons to Stay Alive
You might also gain a better understanding of bullying prevention and suicide prevention by reading:
- How to Talk to Someone with Suicidal Thoughts
- World Suicide Prevention Day 2022
- Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- Discrimination Against Students with Disabilities/Disabled Students/Differently-Abled Students
- The Importance of Showing Respect for Other People While Advocating for Your Own Respect
- 100 Reasons to Stay Alive
If you are affected by bullying or suicide/suicidal thoughts, remember that you are not alone and there is hope. If you or someone you know needs support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.
You can also visit The Mighty's hotline resources page by clicking on this link: https://themighty.com/suicide-prevention-resources/
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