It doesn't have to be this way

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24.

If you ever need to talk to someone about it, feel free to email me. When I was in high school someone very close to me committed suicide. I now want to help out in any way that I can.

The Design Idea: Suicide happens when pain exceeds the resources to cope (hence the title when pain exceeds). I chose the sun in the back as a glimmer of light in a dark situation .

# Most popular press articles suggest a link between the winter holidays and suicides (Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania 2003). However, this claim is just a myth. In fact, suicide rates in the United States are lowest in the winter and highest in the spring (CDC 1985, McCleary et al. 1991, Warren et al. 1983).
# Suicide took the lives of 30,622 people in 2001 (CDC 2004).
# Suicide rates are generally higher than the national average in the western states and lower in the eastern and midwestern states (CDC 1997).
# In 2002, 132,353 individuals were hospitalized following suicide attempts; 116,639 were treated in emergency departments and released (CDC 2004).
# In 2001, 55% of suicides were committed with a firearm (Anderson and Smith 2003).