Suicide is spoken of in secret, I should know, and I’m trying to change its private whispers to a conversation that is dying to be heard. When my boyfriend took his life in January, it shook me to the core. How could a man who was so intelligent, so accomplished, and so adventurous fall so fast? I’ve been looking for answers ever since. On Saturday, September 29th, 2007, I will join survivors and supporters around San Francisco and the nation who also want answers. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (AFSP) Out of the Darkness Community Walk is not as large as those walks for breast cancer or leukemia, but the cause is equally important. Right now, 450 participants will walk at 9:00 a.m. in Crissy Field, which looks out onto the Golden Gate Bridge. Last year, the community walk in San Francisco was just 300 strong. We’re making our way.
In its fourth year, the San Francisco walk has already raised $65,000, which is $22,000 more than last year, with a final goal of $100,000. This walk and other walks happening around the country will raise money for AFSP’s research and education programs. These programs hope to prevent suicide, increase awareness about depression, and to support programs for survivors, like me, who have been left to heal in the place of their loved ones.
According to the National Safety Council (NSC), whose goal is to educate people to prevent accidental injury and death, 1 in 119 humans will die of suicide, just steps behind those who will die in motor accidents, by stroke, or cancer. So why is it that suicide is the one cause of death that stunts a conversation and clears a room? Because we are scared and we have attached a stigma to the disease that usually causes it. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a psychiatric disorder that was diagnosable at the time of their death. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that by 2020, major depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability for women and children in the world, and while women attempt suicide more often, men complete suicide at a rate four times that of women.
