why you should care about a stranger’s suicide

(i cannot feature anyone else’s story without their permission, so i am featuring mine.)

because if nobody had cared about me when i was down, i would probably be dead by now.

whether they were strangers or people i knew, their care and worries about me always got to me.

its not like i never feel suicidal now. nuh uh. there are still times when i feel suicidal. but remembering everyone who cared for me when i was incapable of caring about myself, all the people who were kind enough to check up on me when i was down in the dumps, is what has gotten me through, and what still gets me through.

and its not just the 135 people who would be affected by my death (data as per this statistics), it would be much, much more than that, not counting the people seriously affected by my death (17 as per an average number).

it would be everyone who ever knew me, worked with me, or even saw my smile or was helped by me or helped me. can you imagine someone who you helped, and they smiled back in gratefulness, commit suicide? i cannot, even though i have been so close to death.

you should care about a stranger’s suicide not just because they are known to you. in my experience, the words of a stranger always helped me more than that of a person i knew already, probably because of the existing (and biased!) notions i had about the person known to me.

let me tell you, ‘they didnt care when i was alive, but when i want to die, they dont want me to’ is a very real thought. it has happened with me multiple times, which makes the intervention of a stranger far more effective for me, at least to me.

now think about the stranger who wanted to die by suicide. wont they have any family members, friends, or other loved ones? who would be affected by their death? if your caring for them saves them, isnt it an amazing thing?

conversely, it is entirely possible that someone in your network who is always smiling and busy showing themselves as happy is contemplating suicide (god forbid though!). i was one such person before my depression struck.

if you care about a stranger and a stranger cares about your loved ones, isnt it a good deal?

note- everything here is my own experience, the reality could be far different. usually, though, reality is a mix, so make what you want of this blog.

source for these images- Why do people care about strangers that want to commit suicide? – Quora