Shootings and Suicides

by Claudia Campos
311healthbeat.blogspot.com

Michael Gebers article at www.washingtonpost.com, "On Campus, a Vow of Non-Silence" addresses concerns about the silence kept by students that lead to tragic events like shooting at school.

Shootings and suicides are serious events that affect everyone including college students across the United States. The importance of a students mental health should be addressed. Students are like all other people and all people have problems. Many factors contribute to these "snapping" moments in a persons life. Life in general is complicated and full of expectations.

Students have a full load that include school and work. Mentality and emotions are connected to everything. Behavior can sometimes be difficult to understand and people can't always help. It is up to the student alone sometimes to figure things out and to recognize their behavior and seek out help. All the talking sometimes makes things worse but the point is to get it out in a more productive and healthy way than self punishment and shootings.

Reporters thoughts

Everyone feels anxious, stressed, scared, angry, lonely, and everyone is trying to figure out their purpose in life. It is only natural and human to question and feel this way, but those who take it to the extreme end up hurting not only their selves but others too.

Solutions varied. Talking to someone is the first step. There are programs that help but in the end it is up to the person to really step forward and analyze their thoughts and behavior. At Long Beach State the Counseling and Psychological Services proved students counseling appointments, anyone interested log onto www.csulb.edu/caps. To recognize what is wrong is hard, but it is a start.