Suicide is the second most common cause of death among 15 to 24 year-olds, after car crashes.
"Awhile back I couldn’t save someone. Now I want to help people,” said Allison Cutlip, WVU’s coordinator of suicide prevention.
Cutlip works at the WVU Wellness Center, which provides help for students who are struggling with depression or other issues. She helps depressed students and trains others to become counselors themselves.
“Most suicide attempts happen when students move in, during Christmas, and during graduation,” said Cathy Yura, assistant vice president for student wellness.
According to Yura, students sometimes don’t adjust well to moving away from home. Students feel homesick, abandoned, and like they don’t fit in. The feeling of being scared that they will never fully adjust to their college living style.
Christmas is when most finals occur, which can bring fear to students. Grades can cause severe mood swings for good and bad, said Yura.
“Oh my god, I can’t work or I can’t find a job; people feel they’re going to launch out of college and make the big bucks, which does not happen and can lead to depression,” said Yura. “That’s why graduation can be a scary time for a young adult. They feel like there's no future ahead for them,” said Yura.
“Self-mutilation, cutting, drinking too much, isolation, and a loss of interest in everything, they push people away,” Yura said. According to Yura, these are all warning signs of a potential suicide attempt. Warning signs have to be taken seriously. Talk to the person and see if they're alright or tell others, and make sure they get proper help, Yura said.
“Show the person you care what’s going on with them don’t be judgmental, take everything they say seriously,” Cutlip said. This is important when dealing depressed people. According to Cutlip, sometimes they say things that don’t seem like a big deal, but to them it’s important.
People who fail at suicide need help immediately.
“After a failed suicide attempt that person is likely to attempt again if not given the proper help. If they go there once they will go there again," said Yura.
“We worry about potential copy cat’s; once one person commits suicide this can lead to many more,” said Cutlip. Copy cat suicide occurs when people see someone successfully commit suicide.
According to Cutlip, they proceed to kill themselves in the exact same way. Or a wrong message is given to them that leads to suicide. Cutlip said after Robin Williams committed suicide, there was a picture that read, “The genie is now free” which led to glorification of suicidal actions.
“One of the risk factors of suicidal thoughts is harming others before taking their own life,” said Cutlip.
According to Yura, check if the person has any homicidal thoughts, have they ever talked about harming others even jokingly.
There is a national suicide prevention week every year, Cutlip said. WVU Wellness goes to the Mountainlair for this week. Stickers, t-shirts, and handouts are given out there. This helps raise awareness for suicide.
“Trying to talk with people that have a stigma towards suicide or mental health is really hard to deal with,” Cutlip said. People can be really guarded when the topic of suicide is brought up. They don’t want to talk or hear anything about it. So when Cutlip was working and trying to raise awareness it can get frustrating. According to Cutlip, some people view mental health as an odd problem. They view that person as odd or weird and want nothing to do with them or the subject matter.
“We agree that you have all the tools that you need and you're ready to live the life you want,” said Cutlip. This is referring to when counseling ends. The counselor determines the patient is now level headed, and ready to move on with their life.
According to Cutlip, everybody is different for counseling length, certain people need counseling which meets for three to six sessions, which happen every other week. While others need to have sessions more frequently by meeting every week.
