Suicide Guest Speaker

The guest speaker this week was very informative as well as presented information that was interesting and informative. The speaker did present some things that seemed like common sense to me, but some of the class might not have known it. Actually, I didn't know that JMU had a entire suicide program for students. Considering that the William and Mary has such a high suicide rate and the whole Rutgers situation recently, it seemed like a good time to present this material. As she explained, 80 percent of people think about suicide and to me that doesn't exactly say that people think that the world would be better without them or anything like that. I feel like people just wonder what it would be like if they weren't around in a sense.

Becoming aware of the signs of suicide seemed to be the important part of the presentation since it involves you and your friends. I know we all have had some rough times, and for some people times can get so rough that suicide becomes contemplated and becoming aware of these signs can help the cause. One topic found very interesting was the people who attempt suicide and end up living. Like the people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. There was also a presentation where a man who has been on death row came to speak saying how he attempted suicide and failed, saying it was the biggest regret of his life. If only suicidal people could listen to these presentations or people who attempted and failed, it would probably change their lives. But overall, I feel like the presentation went extremely well and opened my eyes to a couple things.