Mariette Hartley's Argumentative Essay About Suicide

Suicide Takes Over

A lot of people believe that the world is a bright, colorful happy place, but what they don’t realize is that it’s not as happy and bright as they thought.

Imagine living in a world of grey, you always feel as if you have no reason to get out bed in the morning. You feel as if there is this weight on your shoulders that is just too heavy. This is what it feels like to have depression. Nancy Farrell lost her brother Tom to suicide because he had a mid life depression, also known as mid life crisis. He was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts, though he did not believe in his recovery, he remained severely depressed, and finally took his own life (Huffington Post.)

Nancy and her family didn’t know much about suicide, they

Mariette wanted to help others that felt that they needed to escape life. she wanted to aid those who were suffering the pain of a loved one's death, those who didn’t know how to deal with the grief. Mariette also saw a rise in suicide rates. So in 1987 in New York, Mariette found a group of others that had, had similar experiences as Mariette, so they decided that they should do something to help others and raise awareness about suicide. They decided to create an organization to help raise awareness (About AFSP.) The AFSP organization has evolved a lot over time, they were once a small organization, but they became a lot bigger over time. They have lots of volunteers to join the programs, join fundraisers and help raise awareness about suicide. AFSP has gained over $40,000 to create fundraisers and programs to help get support. They help make sure that people who have tried to commit suicide go to therapy and get help so this doesn’t happen again. The author of the article American stated, “We plan to create a project called Project 2025 to have fundraisers and programs to help reduce suicide rates by 20%. Project 2025 will provide new insights into which strategies can most effectively fight suicide and save lives”(American). The organization's philosophy is to have lots of knowledge about suicide and how to solve the problem. They want to

The charity distributes their funds by giving money to researchers so they have more information on how to help with suicide and how to prevent it. They give money to scientists to have statistics about suicide. AFSP distributes their funds effectively, by using funds to fund research for suicide prevention, create and distribute education programs, advocate for public policy, support survivors of suicide loss.

Has the Charity Been Helpful?

The charity has been helpful because they have started to slowly decrease the amount of suicides each year. The charity helps people who have wanted to attempt suicide, and people who have attempted suicide to reconsider their options. The charity has made a positive impact on lives because, they people who think their only choice is to commit it, they help them realize that, that is not the case, they have more than one option. They help people whose loved ones have committed suicide, to better understand why they did it, and have a little more insight as to what suicide is.

What Are the Statistics/Numbers About How the Charity Has Helped Others Or Helped Decrease the Problem?

They 87.1 percent of contributions go to fundraising events. They plan to decrease suicide rates by