Originally, this entry focused on Sydney Aiello’s tragic suicide. I finished it early Sunday morning. And by Sunday afternoon, came to the tragic realization that it needed to be updated.
First: Parkland survivor Sydney Aiello died by suicide last week. The young teenager had survived the massacre at Stoneman Douglass High School, which claimed 17 lives.
According to Sydney’s mother, Sydney “struggled with survivor’s guilt and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in the year following the tragedy. And while she reportedly never asked for help, she struggled to attend college classes because she was scared of being in a classroom.”
Like all Stoneman students, Sydney was affected by the tragedy. Like far too many, she lost a friend:
Sydney lost her “longtime friend,” Meadow Pollack, in the shooting.
Next: The second victim. On Sunday afternoon, news broke that a second Parkland survivor had killed themselves. It was a sophomore male, and he, like Sydney, shot himself. As I type this entry, much is unknown about this student, including his name. Unfortunately, the notion of a suicide contagion effect is very, very real – and it is highly possible that this is what we are witnessing here.
The ugly truth is that a trauma never ends when the bullets stop firing. There are always long-term after effects. According to a 2018 survey:
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Nearly 22% of people who had been raped had also attempted suicide at some point in their life.
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Approximately 23% of people who had experienced a physical assault had also attempted suicide at some point in their life.
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These rates of suicide attempts increased considerably among people who had experienced multiple incidents of sexual (42.9%) or physical assault (73.5%). They also found that a history of sexual molestation, physical abuse as a child, and neglect as a child were associated with high rates of suicide attempts (17.4% to 23.9%)
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People with a diagnosis of PTSD are also at greater risk to attempt suicide. Among people who have had a diagnosis of PTSD at some point in their lifetime, approximately 27% have also attempted suicide.
There is no easy, glib solutions here, but there are ways to mitigate suicide risk after a traumatic event. The American Psychiatric Association lists a few helpful ways to deal with a traumatic event, including:
- Keeping informed but avoiding over-saturation with an event.
- Learning about local resources and sharing that information.
- Remembering that you are not alone and talking with family and friends about your experiences.
- Remembering that anxiety and depression after an event are normal, and seeking help if this continue or if you become overwhelmed.
There is, as always, a relatively standard thread here: If you endure a traumatic event, seek help. You are not alone, you are not weak or foolish, and you didn’t deserve whatever happened to you. Therapy – or even just talking to someone – can make a powerful difference.
I have a tendency with these blog entries to take smaller events and turn them into larger points. That’s a conscious decision informed by my experience with mental illness. But I want to conclude this entry by making sure we don’t lose sight of Sydney Aiello or the second student, name currently unknown.
It goes without saying: Sydney and others affected by Parkland didn’t deserve what happened to them. It’s a human tragedy. But Sydney and her classmates spent much of their time after the shooting advocating for a better world. I hope that some good comes of this tragedy, and I hope it is done, at least in part, in memory of Sydney, this second student, and all those affected by this tragedy.
Mike Schlossberg - Author 