During vent sessions, these phrases are often echoed through the halls of PHS:

“I want to kill myself.”

“I want to shoot myself.”

“I’m going to throw myself off a cliff.”

In this day and age, students set ambitious goals, especially as they prepare to reach major milestones such as sitting down for standardized exams and beginning the college application process. When they discover that they have too much on their plate, many resort to complaining as a means to destress.

Too often, the complaints of students have become desensitized to genuine mental health concerns, which creates a situation in which those listening to the rants are subjected to unpleasant and uncomfortable conversations.

The problem with the casualty of these phrases is the lack of recognition that some students are genuinely struggling with suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. Humor can be an outlet for stress, but reducing situations as serious as self-harm and suicide to a simple one-liner is destructive and disrespectful. Saying phrases such as “I want to kill myself ” can be insensitive to students with mental health concerns. While they may seem like throwaway phrases to some, they could have serious consequences for others.

With the normalization of suicide jokes comes an inevitable side effect: their misinterpretation. Students at PHS have become too comfortable with turning suicide into a centerpiece for humor, and this has made it too easy for people to misread their friend’s joke as a simple comment made in passing, when it may be a serious cry for help.

Alternatively, it can be misinterpreted as a cry for help when it isn’t. A Journal JAMA study from January 2024 found that globally, 20 percent of teenagers have suicidal thoughts every day, and that suicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death in adolescents today. Evidently, suicide and mental health are serious concerns in our age group, and when a person who struggles with these concerns speaks about it in an unserious and light hearted way, their friend could misinterpret it as a warning sign for a suicide attempt.

Suicide jokes also force the student on the receiving end of the statement into an uncomfortable position. Even though PHS has trained guidance counselors and school psychologists to identify and assist with these situations, the student still has to assume the responsibility of discerning whether or not their friend really needs help.

For students who are in a good mental state, being more mindful of those struggling around them would not only help make the school environment a safer place, but it would also make the student environment feel more accommodating. For students who may be struggling with mental health or having suicidal thoughts, it may be best to talk to a professional — both those inside or outside of school — or even call the Youth Helpline, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, or the Mobile Response and Stabilization Response all located on the back of PHS school ID’s.

Complaining about school and life is inevitable and understandable, but there are less harmful ways to do so. No matter how challenging our academic or social lives become, suicide should never be joked about.