7 year old commits suicide

[Grey Day for Elcia]

A five-year-old girl in Japan hanged herself with a scarf due to being picked on by older students at her school. Her parents found her when they arrived home from work, but she was long gone. Dad pulled her down and performed resus until an ambulance came. Fairly tragic.

 

[samaugsch]

le snip

That is heartless man! I know you might have the strength to endure hardship but some people don't! As the beast said in X-Men 3 "is it cowardly to want to escape persecution?"

He's probably trolling.

As someone who's attempted suicide before, I really, really hope he's trolling.

To be fair, the only reason I consider this to be that big of a deal is that a freaking seven year old decided to take her own life. Seriously, how many people do you know that decided to kill themselves before finishing grade school?

 

[Tanis]

I'm apathetic to it.

People die all the time.
He chose to take his, at least he can sleep.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

I'll never understand suicide as a result of bullying.

I mean when you have a tangible, physical reason for your depression (Like a person who's bullying you) and you're desperate enough to take a life.

Kill the bully!
Take the fucking option that might make your life (and other people's lives) better.
Because you know that bully's just going to bully somebody else now.

It's a terrible thing when someone's more willing to kill them self than doing something that might have a positive effect on their life.

That's not how you see the situation when you are pathologically bullied. When you are belittled and pushed around by someone with power over you (be it a husband, a wife, a boss, a parent, a schoolmate, etc.) all day, every day, you begin to believe them when they tell you that you're worthless and weak. A battered woman said of abuse: "If someone tells you you're ugly and dumb for long enough, you start to believe it."

If they're bigger, more powerful or more important than you, or even if you think they are, you feel minuscule and powerless. You've tried telling others and seeking help, but it doesn't stop. You've nowhere to run or believe you've nowhere to run. You believe they're better than you, that no one will care if they beat you. You feel alone, isolated and unimportant.

That's what bullying does. It turns the victim into their own biggest enemy.

People don't kill themselves to escape bullies. They commit suicide to escape themselves.

Source: someone who attempted suicide

 

[manic_depressive13]

Depends on why exactly I'm compelled to kill myself, I'd say.

If I'm going out, I want to make sure that no one else is put in my position because I was too selfish to kill my abuser(/whatever). I want to be damn sure that my bully won't cause anyone else's demise or painful existence.

Are you suicidal? I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just asking because I don't think that's how the average depressed individual thinks. They are encouraged to believe they are weak, and as such it is their fault alone that they are being so strongly affected by the bullying. Anyone else would "man up" and "deal with it".

Besides, at the stage where you are about to kill yourself, you don't really give a shit about anyone else. You're not thinking "Since I'm on my way out, I'll make the world a better place" (although I'd argue subjective judgement of character isn't a great way to do that anyway); you're thinking "I'm a useless sack of shit. I should die," and that's about it.

I don't think it's selfish not to kill your abuser. My stepfather abused me when I was younger, but I have no intention of harming him before I kill myself. My mother obviously likes him (or at least feels she can't do better). After all, she chose to stay with him despite watching him threaten and abuse her ten year old child. As such, I'm pefectly happy for her to keep him. I think it would be more selfish to kill someone who probably has people who care about them, even if they mistreated you. After all, you won't even be around to reap the benefits of an abuse-free environment, because you'll be dead.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Why do these threads about bullying portray it as the Worst Thing In The World also simultaneously express horror at the act of suicide? If it is as bad as you say it is, why should anyone have to endure it just to endure it? I'm still trying to shake some of the psychological trauma of being bullied as a child and it's not nearly as bad as it was. But I've had to live through years and years of this old bullshit hanging in my brain, and that 7 year old won't have to suffer through any of that.

My only point is that you weren't there. How can anyone but that kid make an assessment on whether or not he should have kept living? (Even if he's only 7.) It was Detroit for crying out loud. I'm not trying to make light of it or justify it, but it can't be undone and no one understands what it was like to be in that kid's head. Who knows? He might have grown up to be a serial killer.

Anyways, I still suspect foul play at this point. I consider every option, but apparently little kid suicide is something that happens. I can't imagine the pain the family must feel.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

The kid had problems and shit happens.

That's why the TC had nothing to add, because there is nothing to add.

The only one at fault here is the kid.

 

[Sirtety]

I...I can't believe.....

To hear that out of nearly 40,000 suicides a year that even 1 was a child as young as five....

My mind is blown and I weep for our species.
This is easily some of the most depressing news I've ever read.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

Interesting. I also didn't realise such young people would think about killing themselves like that to solve issues. It's almost depressing, really.

 

[viranimus]

Im sure I will catch high holy hell about this. Honestly I think this is viewed backwards.

Of course it is a tragic thing, but beyond the tragedy it has more to do with this over sensitized to bullying bullshit that helped cause this. At 7 years old you have no concept of what a miserable life is. You barely understand what life is at 7. But if you see your role models on TV who are all those 15-25 somethings doing PSAs about all the horrors they endured from bullying and look around your house and school and things look to be progressing that way, I think it prolly could influence someone impressionable to project a thought of how hopeless the future is going to be. I cannot help but to wonder if that did not play some sort of role in this.

This touchy feely approach does not work. As long as humans exist, Bullying WILL exist. There is no amount of public service, no amount of raising awareness, no amount of anything short of the species evolving into entities of light and energy is ever going to make it go away and you have to make a choice in this existence either you are going to let the things that happen to you define you as a person, or your going to define what things happen to you as a person. Its so wearisome seeing this attempt to stop it from happening when its a fundamental part of our society. Trying to get rid of it is like asking humanity to cut its own arm off. Even if it wanted to, its not really going to be able to do it.

This whole naive concept of trying to stamp it out is the wrong way to go because it will never go away. You need to present it to a child, teach them of its existence, then teach them how to deal with it instead of blindly letting nature take its course. You empower the child to defend against it, you dont both perpetuate and foster the hopeless nature of bullying by acting like its a temporary affliction to overcome. Stop teaching children that they can be anything they want to be and that they are special and unique lives and start explaining the real life problems their future will bring them and prepare them long in advance.

Maybe we would see less of this, Lord knows going the other way weve definitely seen enough.

 

[somonels]

Stress and depression cause abnormal growth in a developing child and it can be argued that the lack of life experience and knowledge make suicidal reasoning more common per case.
My point? None, just wanted to throw this in here, need to 1UP my posts somehow.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

I really think that bullying isn't taken seriously enough, i mean people DIE because of it, and students who do horrible things like this ongoing bullying rarely get more than a slap on the wrist, if even that much, at least where I go to school.

 

[Keymik]

You continue to ruin my faith in humanity world.

 

[Bertylicious]

Im sure I will catch high holy hell about this. Honestly I think this is viewed backwards.

Of course it is a tragic thing, but beyond the tragedy it has more to do with this over sensitized to bullying bullshit that helped cause this. At 7 years old you have no concept of what a miserable life is. You barely understand what life is at 7. But if you see your role models on TV who are all those 15-25 somethings doing PSAs about all the horrors they endured from bullying and look around your house and school and things look to be progressing that way, I think it prolly could influence someone impressionable to project a thought of how hopeless the future is going to be. I cannot help but to wonder if that did not play some sort of role in this.

This touchy feely approach does not work. As long as humans exist, Bullying WILL exist. There is no amount of public service, no amount of raising awareness, no amount of anything short of the species evolving into entities of light and energy is ever going to make it go away and you have to make a choice in this existence either you are going to let the things that happen to you define you as a person, or your going to define what things happen to you as a person. Its so wearisome seeing this attempt to stop it from happening when its a fundamental part of our society. Trying to get rid of it is like asking humanity to cut its own arm off. Even if it wanted to, its not really going to be able to do it.

This whole naive concept of trying to stamp it out is the wrong way to go because it will never go away. You need to present it to a child, teach them of its existence, then teach them how to deal with it instead of blindly letting nature take its course. You empower the child to defend against it, you dont both perpetuate and foster the hopeless nature of bullying by acting like its a temporary affliction to overcome. Stop teaching children that they can be anything they want to be and that they are special and unique lives and start explaining the real life problems their future will bring them and prepare them long in advance.

Maybe we would see less of this, Lord knows going the other way weve definitely seen enough.

I agree with Viramus. Bullying is awful and this case is terrible, but whilst bullying must be combated we do also have to teach kids how to deal with it. If you wrap a kid up in cotton wool how can we expect them to deal with bullies in the real world?

 

[FamoFunk]

That's just... horiffic. It's scary that a 7yo would even think about ending it never mind actually going through with it.

Feel sorry for him and his family/friend. How awful.

 

[Xannidel]

Like everyone else above, this is a real shame to hear that a child has killed himself. I do not think anyone is to blame, divorces happen all the time however if the child did not get proper adult help with his bully situation I suppose that could lead to the child feeling really stressed and unable to really cope with it by himself. I guess even at that age parents and siblings need to continue to communicate and maintain a healthy relationship with the younger child.
I hope that his family and friends are doing okay with all that has happened.

 

[Grant Stackhouse]

It's really unfortunate that the kid killed himself. It frustrates me though to see so many people and states blaming bullies for the deaths of their victims though. I forsee too many children getting criminal records for things that don't really count as bullying, as a result of over-aggressive and reactionary legislature.