There Is A Strong Link Between Bullying And Suicide

The rate of sui­cides has been increas­ing dras­ti­cal­ly through­out the years. The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Sui­ci­dol­o­gy con­duct­ed a study in 2016 show­ing that the sui­cide rate amongst 15–24 year-olds was 13.2%, and 25–34 year-olds was 16.5%. It is not always clear when indi­vid­u­als are hav­ing a dif­fi­cult time liv­ing, many of them keep this suf­fer­ing to them­selves. Accord­ing to Men­tal Health Amer­i­ca, “sui­cide is the tenth lead­ing cause of death in the U.S.”. It is impor­tant for com­mu­ni­ties to con­tin­ue rais­ing aware­ness for sui­cide pre­ven­tion, this can decrease the rates and offer help to every indi­vid­ual who has ever felt sui­ci­dal.

The rea­sons for com­mit­ting sui­cide vary. Every­one has dif­fer­ent social fac­tors that could pos­si­bly add pres­sure, stress, and influ­ence their minds to process sui­ci­dal thoughts. A com­mon rea­son why indi­vid­u­als com­mit sui­cide today, espe­cial­ly younger groups, is cyber-bul­ly­ing. The Megan Meier Foun­da­tion states “cyber-bul­ly­ing has neg­a­tive effects on vic­tims, such as low­er­ing self-esteem, increas­ing depres­sion and pro­duc­ing feel­ings of pow­er­less­ness”.

After los­ing her youngest son, Kay Redd, to sui­cide influ­enced by cyber-bul­ly­ing, Debra Antney cre­at­ed the cam­paign No Reck­less Inter­net Post­ing (NO R.I.P.). Antney, also the moth­er of rap­per Waka Floc­ka and CEO of Mizay Enter­tain­ment, decid­ed to use her plat­form to raise aware­ness and explain that indi­vid­u­als are account­able for what they say to oth­ers.

Cyber-bul­ly­ing is a harm­ful action bul­lies are rely­ing on to covert­ly tar­get their vic­tims. As a result, this harass­ment sad­ly goes unseen by fam­i­ly and friends. Stop Bul­ly­ing sug­gests that par­ents and guardians should be ful­ly aware of what chil­dren are doing online to pre­vent cyber-bul­ly­ing. If noticed, it should imme­di­ate­ly be report­ed to the school, police, or to the social media out­let. It is also strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed that sup­port be giv­en to the indi­vid­ual who was bul­lied. Fill them with pos­i­tiv­i­ty and guide them to find a healthy solu­tion to this unfor­tu­nate expe­ri­ence.

To learn more about the NO R.I.P cam­paign, be sure to watch the video below:

Blogged By: Mitzi Peña