McKee 1

Marcus McKee
UWRT-1102-007
Ms. Morton
November 15, 2016
Extended Prose Piece
Dear reader,
For my topic, I chose to research about depression and the affects that it has on people
contemplating or actually committing suicide. First and foremost, I think that it is necessary to
give a little bit of information about myself regarding my topic. Just like most people, I have
been through some tough breakups and other common things in my life that caused me to feel a
little depressed. Other than that, I have never been severely depressed or even thought about
committing suicide. That is also the reason that I decided to research this specific topic. I realize
that suicide is a big deal and I have always wanted to learn more about it and really try to get an
understanding on why people think that it is what they need to do. After reading A Clockwork
Orange, I figured that this would be the perfect time to research this topic that most people do
not really like to talk about. When I was in high school there was a guy at my school who
committed suicide out of nowhere, and this is where the depression part of it comes into play.
This really caught everybody off guard because anybody that knew this guy, knew that he was
always very outgoing and seemed to have his life together. Come to find out, he had been
depressed for a long time because of a breakup between him and girl that he had been dating for
a couple of years. I was not really close to him, but his friends said that they had noticed a small
change in his behavior since the breakup, but figured he would eventually get over it and move
on with his life. This comes to show that know matter how small the situation may seem you can

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never really tell what is going on in someones head, or how serious they could be depressed.
When this guy committed suicide it really opened my eyes and made me think about how the
whole situation could have changed if only his friends would have sat him down and talked to
him about what he was going through. I also think to myself, if I were to be in the same situation
that his friends were in, would I have had a conversation with him or would I have just thought
lightly of the situation like his friends did and not say a word? Like I said earlier, suicide is a
tough topic to talk about, and usually does not get brought up until it happens to someone you
know or someone you are close to. While researching, I was introduced to many things about
depression and suicide I have never thought about, or did not even know existed. I have put in a
lot of time and researching, and hope that some of the things I talk about open your eyes the
same way they did mine.
For this piece of writing I thought that it would be best for me to write in the form of an
informative inquiry paper. Because of how serious my topic is and the way it is not talked about
often, in my opinion, I think it is best that you should learn from what I write and through all the
research I have done. I also used the process of elimination, to choose the way in which I think
my topic should be discussed. I did this by looking over a variety of different options and
brainstorming how each one could work until I came up with which was the best. My intended
audience is for anyone that is suffering from extreme depression or contemplating suicide. My
paper would also be good for anyone who has a friend they think may be suffering from extreme
depression or suicidal. My overall purpose for my piece of writing is ultimately to spread the
awareness of depression and suicide and teach readers more about the issue.
Thank you.

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First and foremost, I want to talk about the part of my topic that people are the most
common with, suicide. When I say most common I am not saying that it is talked about more
often, but pretty much everyone knows what it is. The fact that everyone knows what it is but is
still hardly ever talk about, in my opinion, is a big problem. The only way to lower the number
of people who commit suicide is to raise awareness by letting people know that life is worth
living and no matter what, suicide is not the answer. For anyone that does not know, suicide is
when someone gets to a low enough point in their life where they think that the best, or maybe
even the only choice they have is to kill them self. A suicide attempt is when someone tries to
kill them self but either something goes wrong or someone catches them in the act and stops
them from doing it. Throughout my research I have seen many instances where people consider
suicide murder, but in a way it is. It is really weird to think of suicide as murder, but in a way
you are still murdering someone, just not another person.
In my opinion, I see suicide as a very selfish act. My reason being is, no matter who you
are, there are people that love you and care about you. When someone commits suicide all it
does is bring everyone who cared about them down. The fact that someone could care so little
about putting loved ones through a huge tragedy, such as suicide, to me is one of the most selfish
things a person could do. My dad has told me stories of people he knew that committed suicide
because one of their children had committed suicide some time before, and their parents were too
devastated to live anymore also. When it comes down to it, the temporary problems you are
having at the time can always be fixed, but once you take your own life there is no coming back.
Leaving loved ones devastated, possibly for the rest of their lives, is something that I could never

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imagine doing. Even when your physical presence is no longer on this earth, the memories that
you made with your loved ones are going to stay with them forever. It is nothing but selfish to
make them live the rest of their lives with only the memories of you.
The biggest thing about suicide people do not realize is how serious of a problem it is and
how it is only continuing to get worse. Throughout my research I ran across many facts and
statistics that I think are very important to know regarding how serious suicide has become.
There was one statistic that stuck out to me more than any other. According to SAVE, there is a
death every forty seconds worldwide, that is due to suicide. This statistic really opened my eyes
because this shows how serious suicide really is and how us people as a whole are not doing the
things we should be doing to change this problem. Another statistic I got from SAVE that is just
regarding the people of the United States, shows that out of all the people that die, suicide is the
tenth leading cause of death. There is no reason all of these people should be deciding to take
their own life. People need to be educated on the warning signs, and learn ways to have a
conversation with someone they think is possibly contemplating suicide. In one specific part of
the SAVE website there is a category of facts and statistics regarding different age groups. The
craziest fact they have, in my opinion, is one that states suicide is the third leading cause of death
for Americans 15 through 24 years old. This comes to show that people in their late teens and
early twenties have to start making changes to change this statistic.
When it comes to trying to figure out if someone is contemplating suicide there are
actually more ways to tell than most people would think. There are many warning signs, but you
have to remember that you are not always going to be able to easily tell if someone needs help.
Everyone is different so you have to understand some people mostly keep to themselves, while
on the other hand some people like to talk to others about their problems. The most obvious sign

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someone will show, regarding suicide, is telling someone that they have been having suicidal
thoughts. When someone is this outspoken about something this serious, it is always important
to take them serious and listen to what they have to say. The last thing you would want to do is
simply tell them to just get over it, because they are obviously trying to get help about a serious
problem. Another big way you can tell if someone needs help is if somebody you know all of a
sudden has a big change in their behavior that makes them seem like their life does not matter as
much any more. People like this are usually not the type that will openly tell someone that they
are going through a troubled time and need help. When you notice someone like this it is best to
have a talk with them and find out what is going on. When confronting someone about a serious
matter whether you think they are going to try and kill them self or if you have just simply
noticed a change in their behavior, you want to go about it the right way. The first thing you
want to do is start off letting them know you have noticed a change in their behavior and there to
help them in any way you can. This is a big deal to someone contemplating suicide because it
lets them know that there are people that really care about them. Then, you should simply ask
them if there is anything going on in their life that they want to talk about. The next step is really
simple; all you have to do is listen to what they have going on. When you are listening to what
they really try to connect with them and understand what they are going through. It is also very
important that you tell them you understand what they are going through and that you can help
them out by getting them the help they need.
There are also things called risk factors that do not necessarily predict suicide, but make
it more likely someone is about to go through a hard time and possibly have some suicidal
thoughts. When you know someone is about to be going through a rough time in their life it is
best to be understandable of the situation, instead of hashing it out and making it worse. The

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most common risk factor is when someone goes through a breakup in a relationship. Often times
people feel that they cannot go on with their life without that specific someone in it. For
example, sometimes when someone spends so much of their time with another person, and all of
a sudden that other person is not in their life anymore, they sometimes tend to not mentally know
how to go on with their life. In this kind of situation, a friend should try and talk to the person
going through the hard time, but also understand that something like that takes time to get over.
A risk factor that really takes a toll on people is when someone has either a family member or
someone close to them die. Someone who is grieving from a loss of a loved one should never
have to go through something like that alone. The majority of the time the person grieving needs
as much help as they can get, to get through such a tough time in their life. Talking to someone
about a loss is never easy because you know that you can not completely understand how they
are feeling at the time. There is also a right way you should talk to someone while they are
grieving. The first thing you should do is tell them how sorry you are about their loss in a nice
and genuine way. When you talk to them you need to make sure that you do not hide your
emotions about the situation because it will make them think that you are not being sincere. The
best thing to do, that shows that you care and want to help with the situation, is by offering your
support to get them through their loss as easy as possible. The last place that someone grieving a
loss wants to be, while going through this devastating time, is alone. They have already lost
someone that meant a lot to them, it is completely wrong for them to have to suffer through such
a period of time with no one to help them through it.
According to WebMD, over ninety percent of people who die by suicide have clinical
depression or another diagnosable mental disorder. Depression in general is the biggest cause of
suicide worldwide. The most common definition for depression is a common and serious

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medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think, and how you act.
Depression does not just make you feel down about life, but can have a huge effect on a number
of different things. A huge aspect of your everyday life that depression effects is the way you act
socially. When severely depressed you can sometimes tend to not want to be as social as usual
and can even become hard to get along with in some cases. While depressed you can become
where you do not want to deal with anybody at all, and make it almost impossible to have a
conversation with. This symptom can not only just ruin your social life but also have a negative
impact on the way you are at your workplace. There are many symptoms when it comes to
depression but the one that makes you feel the worst is the empty feeling. To give you a better
definition, when you feel empty it is like you feel helpless and as the feeling gets worse you start
to feel worthless. When this stage starts to set in, you start not caring too much about your life at
the moment, and can be one of the worst feelings possible. A sad part about this stage is
sometimes people feel like turning to drugs and alcohol is the only way that they can feel
somewhat normal and go on with their lives. Depression over the years has caused an unreal
amount of people to become drug attics or alcoholics.
If you are wondering how people actually become depressed, here it is. We have nerves
in our brain that pass messages to one another that are called neurotransmitters, which is a
chemical in our brain that we have to have a certain amount of. If our brain lacks the amount of
neurotransmitters it needs, our brain will not pass along the messages the way it is supposed to,
causing us to be depressed. Some people think they are depressed if they feel down for a couple
of days, but that is not the case. Depression only occurs when you are feeling down over a long
period of time. It is not hard to tell if you are depressed. When you get depressed, the way you
feel starts to interfere with the way you would normally live your life. Depression can get you to

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the point to where you feel angry with anyone and everyone to the point where you do not want
to be around anyone.
This day and age, there are numerous things you can do to treat depression. The most
common way of treating depression these days is by taking a medicine called antidepressants.
The way this medicine works is by improving the chemicals in your brain that caused you to
become depressed in the first place. Just like any kind of medication, antidepressants have its
pros and cons. The biggest con about the medication is that it does not start making you feel
better right away. According to studies, it can take up to an entire month before the depression
starts to go away. There are also other side effects that come along with the medicine even
before it starts to work. Some of the side effects that come along with it are loss of sleep,
appetite, and even cases of people not be able concentrate. One of the worst things I found out
about antidepressants is, sometimes when people on the medicine start to feel back normal, they
quit taking it and short period of time the depression comes right back and they have to start the
process back over again. According to some of the labels on the antidepressant bottles, one of
the side effects states that the medicine can cause depression.
Another way people treat being depressed is by going to psychotherapies. There are many
different types of psychotherapy but all of them have the same goal, treating depression.
Psychotherapy in general is a form of counseling that many people call talk therapy.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is mainly for people that the medications did not work
for. ECT has been able to provide relief to people suffering from severe depression and could
not get any other type of medication to work. ECT is also known to work faster than anything
else and the patients usually go in for treatment a couple times a week. There are also a variety
of side effects that can come along with treatment. Some of the worst known side effects are

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extreme confusion, disorientation, and sometimes even memory loss can happen. Although the
side effects are not so good, the treatment is completely painless.
Now to bring all of my research together, I will talk about how depression and suicide go
right together. Just like I stated earlier on, depression is the number one cause of suicide
worldwide. Also when it comes to the biggest symptom you have while having suicidal
thoughts, it is most likely depression. So when you put the two together severe depression
carries a high risk of suicide, and suicidal thoughts carries a high risk of severe depression. It is
almost like the two can escape each other when it comes down to it. Suicide and depression are
also alike in a way that they are both extremely serious problems but do not seem to be taken as
serious as they should. Remember that if you need help, regarding depression or suicidal
thoughts it is best that both should be treated by a doctor in the mental health field. Even the
symptoms of depression can almost always possibly end up in the area of having suicidal
thoughts. Also remember that there is nothing wrong with wanting to seek help for a serious
problem you are having, regarding suicidal thoughts, and no matter what there is always
someone to talk to about it.
I truly enjoyed doing all the researching and putting in the time to make sure everything
is precise. This project helped me learn a lot, and like I said at the beginning, I hope you learned
a lot through the things I discussed.

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Annotations
Borchard, Therese. "What Suicidal Depression Feels Like." Everyday Health. N.p., 3 Sept.
2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2016, http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/therese-borchard-sanitybreak/what-suicidal-depression-feels-like/

"Depression and Suicide." University of California Santa Cruz. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016,
http://caps.ucsc.edu/resources/depression.html

Goldberg, Joseph. "Recognize the Warning Signs of Suicide." WebMD. N.p., 13 Aug. 2016.
Web. 7 Nov. 2016, http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-recognizing-signsof-suicide#2

Rakel, RE. Depression. Primary Care. 26.2 (1999): 211-24. Print (library source)
"Suicide Facts | SAVE." SAVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016, http://www.save.org/aboutsuicide/suicide-facts/

"Suicide Facts | SAVE." SAVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016, http://www.save.org/aboutsuicide/suicide-facts/