Video Transcription

How knowing the warning signs of suicide could save a life

Shay was a very bubbly person. Everyone loved her. She was one of those people that you just liked to be around because she made you happy. She just had this vibe about her that made you giggle. She was my absolute best friend. We did everything together; we were inseparable.

One day, things just turned for the worse, and I ended up finding her after she’d committed suicide. I had to call emergency services and get her to the hospital. “What if?” were the words that just made everything horrible. I just kept looking over different ways I could have tried to help her, different ways I could have stopped her.

Honestly, for the first few months, I felt like I wasn’t living my own life. I felt like I was actually sitting up in the clouds watching myself live. After a while, I decided that I didn’t want other people to go through everything that I did. I didn’t want to see others’ loved ones leave this world and leave people like me behind to pick up the pieces.

I think at the moment, suicide is one of those things that people don’t like to talk about. People don’t advertise the warning signs of suicide. So, we found them and decided we would create the seven warning signs of suicide. We put the seven warning signs of suicide on business cards and we hand them out at shopping centers, out in public, just wherever we can really. They’re the warning signs. If you ever see them in a loved one, we find that most people don’t know them at all.

The warning signs of suicide are something that is incredibly close to me. Actually, my boyfriend’s father committed suicide, and my sister did too. I think that’s where the missing part of preventing suicide is. A lot of people are raising money for suicide prevention, but for me personally, Shay didn’t seek help, so she wouldn’t have been able to get any of that funding to help her before she got suicidal. I think there’s the missing link.

We find that the seven warning signs of suicide are helping family and friends catch their loved ones before it gets too late.

Video by FYA