#1

Bucketlist : To be In A Photo With Luke Hemmings

Detached To The World of the Living

          For our interdisciplinary project, we were to make a documentary about an issue that affects the society nowadays. Our group chose to cover the topic on depression and teen suicide and in the process of making the documentary, I definitely learned a lot and would like to find ways to help  those people going through the certain issue.

        Suicide is defined as the intentional taking of one's life. The person who commits this may see his/her actions as some sort of solution to a severe problem he/she is facing. Suicide is mainly rooted on depression.

        We chose this problem because depression is common nowadays and has affected many people to the point of feeling suicidal and there are many people who have committed and want to commit suicide,which is a bad thing because there are people who have not reached their full potential and they could have been the person to change the world for the better.

         We also made a survey on the topic, to which we made the high school learners in our school answer. As the one who was tallying, I was shocked to see the devastating results. The results show that about 70% of the whole high school community have felt/experienced depression in some point of their lives and about 20% of these people have attempted to take away their lives. Most of their reasons of feeling depressed were about grades and family problems.

               A close friend of mine in Luzon, who's of the same age as I am, luckily allowed me to interview her for my documentary. She suffered depression for 2 years because of feeling like an outcast and bullying, and is currently going to rehab. She tried several attempts to take her life by overdosing herself with pills and cutting. When she was 14, she attempted to take her life by hanging herself and she succeeded.............although, she was revived five hours after her death, thus making the attempt a failure. Now, she has become more positive because of the gift of life God has once again given her. She is also helping other people going through the situations she went went through to regain their self-worth by giving them advice through online support groups.

               We also interviewed a psychologist and she shared to us the behavior changes to watch out for in someone feeling depressed or suicidal because the adolescence is a turbulent time because of the sudden changes in a teenager’s behavior. These include:

• ·        Withdrawal from family and peers
• ·        Loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities
• ·        Difficulty concentrating in schoolwork
• ·        Neglect of personal appearance
• ·        Obvious personality changes
• ·        Sadness and hopelessness
• ·        Changes in eating pattern (sudden weight gain or loss)
• ·        Changes in sleeping pattern
• ·        General Lethargy or lack of energy
• ·        Violent actions, rebellion, or running away
• ·        Drug and Alcohol Use
• ·        Loss of ability to tolerate praise
• ·        Symptoms often related to emotional state (headache, fatigue, stomach aches)

                 Through this making of our documentary, I realized that it is directly affecting society in general because of what it is doing. But often, society just accepts it, unless it is someone very close or important. The effects of suicide the family of the one who has committed suicide is usually the risk of becoming too preoccupied with the reason why they have committed suicide and also denying or hiding the fact of what caused the death, while thinking they might have prevented it. And they are also vulnerable to the many emotions about the situation, helplessness, anger, sadness, longing, and complicated grief.

We also found ways to help:

         1.) Take suicidal behavior or attempts seriously and get assistance quickly. A suicidal teen needs to know that there are people who care and are available to talk to, without passing judgments on his/her feelings

         2.) Don't hesitate to bring up the topic. Your concern will be reassuring and people can take the opportunity to open up about their distress.

         3.) Acceptance is usually the key. If the person feels accepted in society or in a group, they may not feel that they are useless or not welcome and want to end their lives to end the pain they are suffering. Also to see the signs of suicide and be able to talk or help them through whatever is paining them. And also to stop bullying, because it is one of the major factors which make a person commit suicide.