Suicide Prevention

It’s well known that about one million people a year are intentionally killing themselves and about 20 million non-fatal attempts at suicide are being made every year.

In our Sodom-like world, a suicide is taking place approximately every 40 seconds.

Suicide has increased 60% from the 1960’s till today.

By the time you finish this page, 5 or 6 people will have given up and taken their lives. G-d forbid.

Almost all people who kill themselves have first tried going to a psychologist or a psychiatrist usually more than once. Within a year of their deaths most of these broken souls reached out for help but alas it was to no avail.

It’s amazing how much knowledge has been accumulated and published about suicide, and how little understanding researchers still have about the problem. Millions of dollars have gone to studies which have identified the risk factors of suicide, and have hypothesized about the underlying reasons for suicide; screenings of high risk populations have been initiated, suicide prevention hotlines have been established, yet none of this is doing any good at all.

We don’t need to give away millions of dollars to researchers to tell us that mental illness, drug abuse and the growth of the internet is contributing to the problem of suicide.

I’ll tell you the reason for suicide and it won’t cost you a cent.

As civilization has become more technologically advanced, it has taken people progressively further from their source of life in G-d. The world has never been filled with more falsehood, vanity and filth than it is today and this is leading people away from G-d’s truth.

People who are blessed to know the truth are not fooled by this world. They know that life passes in the wink of an eye and that there is no real life except the life one can have through a connection with Him. Yes life is full of bitterness and innumerable forms of pain and grief, yet in pre-industrial technological times, people had the strength to accept and use the roughage of life to grow stronger and closer to G-d.

So if we can’t rely on today’s mental health system to teach people how to be happy and make suicide something of the past, who can we rely on?

We can do it ourselves!

Please allow me to explain:

A simple non-professional man went into a liquor store to buy wine for Shabbat. Inside, he noticed that there was a young man there who didn’t look right to him. He wasn’t breathing normally and seemed to be in a lot of distress. Once outside, the simple man struck up a conversation with the younger man who had purchased a large bottle of inexpensive scotch whiskey. Within a few minutes the young man was pouring out his life story to the simple man who listened with his full heart and soul. Afterwards, he invited the young man to spend Shabbat at his house. The young man accepted the invitation and spent a beautiful Shabbat with his new friend. At the close of the Shabbat, he revealed to his guest that he had in fact saved his life, for he had planned to commit suicide the same night that they “met” in the liquor store.

You don’t have to be a doctor to save lives; you just need to have the will to help others. Today as you go about your usual routine in the office or on the bus or even in the house of study, it’s very likely, if you’ll focus on it, that you will notice someone who is at risk. The person may or may not have developed a plan yet; but many people are thinking about it. If you look for G-d in that situation you too will know how to help that person.

By helping another you’ll save yourself too.

During the holocaust, there was a man who decided that he wanted to kill himself. It was the middle of the night and he had a “well-thought-out” plan to end his life. Moments before he was about to do it, his Rebbe, his teacher came to him and screamed at him: “Yisrael, (Israel) what do you think you’re doing!?… Yisrael, you selfish ingrate, what in the world are you doing!?…Yisrael, I spent years feeding you like an ox on Torah and emuna and this is how you’re going to pay me back!?”

Shocked by this, Yisrael’s eyes opened and he suddenly noticed that he was not the only one in the room. It was 3AM in Auschwitz and there was a multitude of broken souls weeping in their beds all around him. He spent the rest of the night moving from bed to bed comforting each one with the teachings of his Rebbe.

Look around, my friends. You’re not the only one in the room. If you open your eyes, you too will see that there is plenty of work to do.

In the merit of your renewed will to help others may you be written and sealed into the great book of life for the following year.