Nisa Karan's Story:
SUICIDE
I was supposed to write this post yesterday (as I promised Sunday) but I forgot, so I am sorry.
I wanted to write on a bit of a sensitive topic today. I don't know how much heat I am going to get into for bringing this up but I am going to do it anyways.
This weekend I learnt (and saw) the taking of a life. I learnt that the "Blue Whale Suicide Challenge" had something to do with it. I became obsessed with it over the weekend and did all the research I could to understand what this game is about.
I will give you a brief run down on what I gathered:
1. It Originated in Russia
2. It is run by curators/administrators (from past arrests, these people seem to be adolescents); these are the people who keep you accountable for completing your challenge.
3. You are given 50 challenges to do, all of which are sick, contributing to making you extremely mentally unstable. (From self mutilation, to drawing morbid pictures, to cutting whales into your own skin, to waking up at unusual hours to promote delirium, to watching psychadelic horror movies assigned, etc. etc)
4. The last challenge to become the "WINNER" is to kill yourself.
5. All of this is done, with people watching. I.e. the suicide I saw was from Facebook Live.
6. The aim seems to be children, who are vulnerable.
Mental health is a huge issue. I don't know about you but in my culture, it seems to be very undermined and "taboo". Whatever you are experiencing is just "a part of life" and you are just "supposed to deal with it".
This is not true.
Mental Illness is REAL & it is debilitating.
When someone tells you the are depressed, BELIEVE THEM. I know many people use the term loosely but erring on the side of caution - ASK IF THESE PEOPLE NEED HELP.
You do not need to be their psychiatrist but you can refer them to the experts that can help them. You could be the one person who can make the difference between life and death.
Parents, you know your kids well. If you suspect something is wrong, TALK TO YOUR KIDS. Acknowledge that what they are experiencing is REAL and help them through it.
Friends/Family, if you notice unusual behavior from a friend/relative, TALK TO THEM ABOUT IT. IF your friend is disengaging, not coming out to socialize, isn't returning calls or texts, there may be a slight chance that it actually is not about you and there is much more to it. I've lived it before, when I went through something and became disengaged, my friends circle thought it was most appropriate to think and feel that "I think I am too good for them", "I am a backstabber because I must be hanging out with other people", "I chose my boyfriend over them", when in reality it was NONE OF THE ABOVE, and to a super vulnerable child, this is all it could take to tip them over the edge.
I am so horrified that a game like this is making waves across the globe, if you check out the history there's apparently over 120 counts of child suicide as a result of this challenge. Yet the signs were all there, the kids were drawing images of themselves hanging off a ceiling fan, jumping off a building, lying across railroad tracks, extreme self mutilation, they have bleeding wounds in the shape of a whale for god sake. TALK TO YOUR KIDS.
I am going to stop here because I can go on forever but I want to leave with some public resources if you or a loved one needs the help:
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Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention
The LifeLine Canada Foundation
