I recently watched To Save A Life with my youth groups.
It was directed by the same people who came out with Fire Proof, several months earlier.
To Save A Life is a movie about a high school student who commits suicide and then the movie plays out the aftermath of the student's death through the lives of the people who could have stopped it.
But, can you ever really stop a person from committing suicide?
In college many years ago, I remember writing a paper regarding the effects of a person who is at risk for such a thing, and I got marked down because I kept referring to this person as "committing suicide." The professor wrote in huge red ink that I should refer to this as simply "suicided" which was the correct term.
Whatever dude. Committing suicide rolls off the tongue better than suicided. "A person who has suicided" doesn't work...
Anyway, back to my original though....can you ever really stop a person from committing suicide?
The movie suggested that yes you can. If you only acknowledged the person's presence or became a better friend to him or her.
But is this really true?
I have never had someone commit suicide that I known personally, but I know people who have. And I would hate to believe that their friendships are not worth living for.
Depression is a clinical disease. Just like cancer. Just like diabetes. And we all know that relationships cannot cure people from cancer or diabetes. So are we naive to think that relationships can cure depression?
I am not too sure.
But, can relationships with people help seek out the signs of depression and determine the people who are considering suicide, enough so to intervene?
I would like to hope so.
