Every 40 seconds a person takes their own life somewhere in the world. That’s almost 800,000 people every single year.

But let’s not look at these people as statistics, let’s look at them as victims of bullying and/or abuse. People just like us who are suffering to the point they just want to escape the pain altogether. Suicide and depression are often thought of as something that isn’t common and rarely happens. If that’s the case, how come suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians between 15 and 44 years of age?

Recently I was speaking with a friend of mine who had attempted to commit suicide. She had been sexually assaulted, abused and was struggling with an addiction, and lost herself to depression. In her own words, she felt that suicide was an “escape route” to all the suffering she was going through. She tried to overdose, but thankfully a friend helped her get the drugs out of her system just in time. Instances like this are not rare. For every suicide, 25 people attempt it. And these numbers are only rising.

So, what can we do about it? Raising awareness isn’t a bad place to start. If everybody was aware of symptoms of depression, would drop severely. Depression and suicidal thoughts are very difficult to read, however the more we understand about them, the less chance our best mate or son or daughter will find themselves alone and feeling like suicide is their way to evade pain.

Bullying is the leading cause of suicide. But what is bullying? A bully, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is “someone who hurts or frightens someone else, often over a period of time, and often forcing them to do something that they don’t want to do”. There is and always has been a cycle of bullying. Someone is bullied, they bully someone else who then bullies someone else. This can’t go on forever if we want to erase suicide. Bullying can make a victim lose themselves and make them want to end everything. Teachers and fellow students must do more to call it out, and harsher punishments must be made clear to offenders.

Abuse follows the same lines as bullying, they are both a person or group of people trying to assert dominance over a vulnerable other. Whether it be physical, emotional or sexual, the abusing of a fellow human being is a horrible deed that needs to be significantly reduced or even completely erased. It is a necessity to understand that child abuse is a heavy factor in adult depression. Almost every case of adult depression experienced a form of physical, emotional or sexual abuse in childhood. Again, more needs to be done to call it out, children should not have to experience these horrible acts.

I think we can all agree, suicide isn’t the most pleasing thing to read about. But think of it this way; if we got rid of suicide all together, would you have to read about it anymore? We, as a community, need to take time to understand what suicide is so we’re there for someone close to us when they’re on the brink. We, as a community need to fight back against bullying and abuse so that someone close to us doesn’t reach that brink in the first place. Imagine you lost a loved one to suicide? It could have all been avoided. Suicide and depression can affect anybody. It’s time we end that.