A 2008 study showed suicide rates had increased for the first time in a decade. One local group, the Crisis Call Center’s Survivor of Suicide Loss, offers support for those left behind, and over the weekend they held a candle light vigil.

Experts say suicidal thoughts leave people feeling isolated and separated from the world because they can't imagine that anyone could understand the way they feel. But according to the Associated Press, as many as eight million Americans consider suicide every year. About 30 thousand actually go through with it.
And right here in Nevada, we have the fourth highest rate of suicide.

John’s daughter battled a bipolar disorder. She hung herself when she was only 16. He remembers his daughter as being full of life. He tells the audience about when he taught her to drive. It brings a smile to his face.

Another woman’s brother shot himself on Halloween. When his daughter found him, the scene before her was so grotesque that his daughter thought her dad was playing a prank. He shot himself with the gun his grandfather gave him as a little boy, a gun no one even remembered he had. His sister remembers him as funny, smart, and accomplished. A father and husband, married for almost thirty years, with a master’s degree.

As the lights turn off, dozens of flames flicker in the darkness. Every lit flame represents a person who ended their life prematurely. Who thought the pain of leaving was more bearable than the pain of staying here---on Earth.

The deceased are daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandfathers.

The vigil leader talks about remembering the ones they’ve lost. “Let’s remember the way their face lit up when they smiled, the way they walked, the way they wore their hair.”

As the seconds, days, and years crawl by, survivors of suicide victims realize time doesn't always heal.

One woman lost her husband after forty years of marriage. It’s been a couple years, but the pain lingers.

But that's why these survivors gathered. To mourn together, to give each other the support that the ones they lost didn't think they had.

A woman who works for the crisis call center says suicide is “such a devastating loss because the question why is always lingering.”

And in the process--foster hope--so a life that could be saved, isn't lost.

There is support and information out there for people affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts. You can call the Crisis Hotline at 1-(800) 273-8255. You can reach the Crisis Call Center at 775-784-8085 or visit crisiscallcenter.org.