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Amanda Sirkedzhyan
Professor - Vana DerOhanessian
English 115 Progression 3
26 November 2014

Such an untimely loss...

Suicide has sadly become one of the most common forms of death in our population
during this modern age. It currently takes the lives of nearly 40,000 Americans citizens every
single year. That number is to high for a controlled variable that could be prevented by simple
things like watching what you say to people or asking for help. Varying from young children and
teens to mature adults and seniors, the problem is spreading rapidly and catching like wild fire.
An average of one person dies by suicide every 13.3 minutes. Since when did this become a
normal statistic for our country to be proud of and known for? With depression rates
continuously escalating and bullying reaching its all time worst, the people of this society are
slowly spiraling down a black hole. But how do you possibly make a terrible problem begin to
get better and progress positively? By finding the roots of the problem and then attacking straight
to the center of the issue, bringing a better cure for depression and a better means of stopping
bullying from occurring. But sadly a better cure for depression can not be found until we study
depression itself and find out what it truly is, we have a simple idea of it but no one truly knows
the science of it. What is really going on in your brain when you are depressed? What triggers
your brain to feel such emotional pain and suffering? The only way to understand and reach a
possible solution is to completely grasp the concept of the problem itself and progress from
there. Suicide has turned into a popular solution to a very difficult and complex problem,

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depression and bullying may be two completely different things but they both effect an
individual in catastrophic and devastating ways.
For young adults 15-24 years old, suicide is the second leading cause of death. The sad
truth of the matter is that the few survivors that attempted suicide never seek professional help,
sometimes leading to further problems as they grow to an older age. Suicide reaches a broad
audience and effects people of all types, no matter your profession, your sexual orientation, or
your choice of clothing to school. There was a recent loss in our celebrity community that surely
hit us all tremendously. On August 11th of this year, we all received the shocking news that our
favorite childhood actor and comedian had made the sad choice on his life and committed
suicide. Robin Williams, an American hero and a role model to us all was suddenly gone. The
genie from the lamp, Mrs. Doubtfire, and one of my favorites Teddy Roosevelt, he touched our
hearts with his witty jokes and hilarious sense of humor. Why did he do it? Why did he chose to
leave us so suddenly and in such a sad way? At the young age of only 63, Robin Williams had
made the sad choice to quietly check out of this life leaving behind his legacy and all of the heart
he gave us. Depression, it has begun growing faster than we could ever learn to slow it down.
Another sad case of suicide takes us to a small high school in Massachusetts, where a 15 year old
teenage girl, Phoebe Prince, was bullied to the point that she was done living this life. I do not
understand how someone could push a person to the point that they wanna die, do you not see
the sadness in their eyes when you attack them constantly? With a problem as big as bullying, the
only solution is to show people that there are consequences for the bully and his/her actions. In
this case, two boys and four girls, ages 16 to 18, face a different mix of felony charges that
include statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury, harassment, stalking and
disturbing a school assembly. A proper choice of punishment for a such an untimely loss that left

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an entire family broken and an even larger community shaken. From a well known actor, Robin
Williams, to a young tormented little girl, Phoebe Prince, both were effected with such trauma
that they needed a way out.
Sadly not all cases of suicide we hear about are actors and stories on the news, but some
come right from your school and may possibly be the person sitting right next to you. Sadly if
you are sitting next to me then the case is true for you, I suffered an excess amount of bullying
and torment while growing up through my middle school and parts of my high school years.
Having to deal with the pressures of school work and reaching an age of maturity, I also had to
worry about what I had in store for me ever day I stepped onto that campus. Can you imagine
waking up every morning and being terrified to go to school? Can you imagine going to bed
every night praying you wont wake up tomorrow? Everything from name calling to pushing and
shoving, I quickly and quietly grew tired of this life and the same old routine I hated so much.
Allowing the bullying to push me to the edge and landing me into a state of depression, I began
falling down the rabbit hole and no one knew the trail I had just entered. It began with just
stealing an extra Advil so I could stop crying and finally get some sleep, it led to self hatred and
insecurities, and in the end it came the time that I finally decided it was the end of the road for
me in this life. It is true that most suicide attempters do not have the courage to tell anyone, I
attempted it about 3 times and I never once asked someone for help. Sometimes when you reach
that sad place that you are just done trying with everything, you do not think anyone can or will
even try to bring you back. But after I grew the courage to talk to someone I learned that I was
completely and utterly wrong in that situation, when I finally convinced myself to talk to
someone it turned my life around and saved me from such an untimely loss. Without the help of
the few people around me I would not be here alive and well today, I would have allowed the

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bullies to make me another statistic and example in someone elses paper. So no matter how
personal the case of bullying or depression is to you, it still is a major topic in our society that
should not be taken lightly.
In the end, suicide rates are growing and people are becoming more and more blind to
this fact. We need to open our eyes and realize that bullying does hurt and that depression is a
real disease that many people suffer with. Until we get the public to understand these two things,
we wont find a cure. 1 in 65,000 children ages 10 to 14 die by suicide each year. This statistic
truly makes me saddened, to know that a child that young has to die. To know that that child will
never grow up to fall in love, have children, or grow old. It is sickening to know that lives are
being cut short for sad reasons and a lot of people are standing by doing nothing, some are
standing by and provoking it. Every time you bully someone in any sort of way, you are
provoking a chain of events that could lead to a loss that you may be responsible for. Teaching
people to love one another is a solution that could help prevent further loss in our community
and in our families. Imagine if the one in 65,000 children happens to be your child, what then? Is
that the only time you would care? When it finally becomes personal to people is when it finally
becomes real, I feel by that time it is already a little to late to care. When my mother found out
about my past and my history with the problem, she was absolutely devastated. No mother needs
to see their child suffer and no child deserves to suffer like that. Think of who you are hurting
and how you are effecting their lives in total, before you start name calling and harassing and
person. As for depression, the only way to help a patient is to understand the patient. So patience
and caring are the two things that may be the cure to pulling someone out of a place that can hurt
them tremendously in the future. Depression and bullying are serious problems, we need to unite

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as one community and put our efforts to stopping and solving, not provoking and making the
problem worse.

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Work Cited
"Save. Suicide Awareness Voices of Education." SAVE. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage>.
Stucker, Matthew, Todd Leopold, Greg Botelho, and Dan Simon. "Robin Williams' Death Ruled
Suicide." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://
www.cnn.com/2014/11/07/showbiz/robin-williams-autopsy/>.
Eckholm, Erik, and Katie Zezima. "6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmates Suicide." The
New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.