September: A Month to Remember We’re Not Alone

It’s 2025. We scroll through polished feeds, share quick reactions, and trade likes as though they’re lifelines. Society is louder than ever — about politics, about opinions, about success stories. But when it comes to saying, “I’m not okay”? The silence is deafening.

Most of the time, you have no idea who is struggling. Sometimes there are signs, but they are subtle. A smile that doesn’t always reach the corners.  A friend who cancels plans more often. A coworker who laughs at the right moments but fades off when no one is watching. We see people every day, yet we don’t always see them.

And still — we struggle to talk about it. We scroll past the word “suicide” or “mental health” as if it’s too heavy to touch. Or the thought of I can’t deal w that today comes. We whisper about it, instead of saying it out loud with the compassion it deserves. We forget that asking for help is not weakness; it’s a human need.

Community is a human need.

The truth is, it only takes one person reaching out to make a difference. A text. A call. A gentle, “Hey, I’ve noticed you seem off. Want to talk?” Sometimes, that single act of noticing becomes the thread someone can hold onto when everything else feels like it’s unraveling.

This month is a reminder: the strongest thing you can do for someone — and for yourself — is to break the silence. To lean into the awkward.

To risk being wrong, but still show up.

Because in 2025, with all our technology and all our noise, what still saves lives isn’t an app or an algorithm. It’s connection. It’s empathy. It’s choosing to care enough to pause, look closer, and say, “You matter. I’m here.”

If you’re the one struggling, please hear this: you do not have to carry it alone. Asking for help isn’t giving up — it’s choosing to stay, choosing to fight another day. And if you’re the one reaching out, know that your small act of courage may be the thing that keeps someone here.

Let’s not just talk about suicide awareness in September. Let’s live it — with compassion, with courage, with the willingness to see people as they are, not just how they appear.

<3 - H