Reach out to prevent suicides: Your Say

Nearly 40,000 Americans commit suicide each year, making it the nation's 10th-leading cause of death. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

Suicide has a ripple effect that devastates family members. I am a grad student in psychology and have been working in our county crisis center. I encounter individuals who have tried to, or are ready to, take their lives. Many of them say they have no one who cares enough to hear how they are feeling.

Imagine a world that took the time to listen with an open heart. Generations could be saved.

— Ryan Beale

People who are physically healthy but choose to take their own lives are by definition not healthy. They need help, and we should be trying to give them that help. Mental illness has a stigma attached to it that needs to be addressed.

The emotional aftermath felt by family members and friends is devastating. The surviving family members struggle with myriad questions about what signs they might have missed, or what they might have done differently had they known the depths of despair their loved one was experiencing.

Those of you who cannot understand that should stop and look at your spouse, mother, father or other close family member and ask this question: What if they took their own life?

If that does not give you some empathy for this problem, then you should find a good therapist.

— Brian Kindel