Sorry when I'm gone
... which is a common symptom in suicide. Loneliness does not necessarily mean being alone. For example, it’s possible to feel lonely when in a class with three hundred other students, in the middle of a party, or at a football game with hundreds of screaming spectators. It is simply a painful awareness of not feeling connected to others and having important needs that are not being met. Jared, a student from Ohio, was a case of suicide linked to loneliness. He felt as though he was excluded from a group and unloved by those around him. This feeling of loneliness caused him to think directly towards committing suicide. “On his last day he told his closest friend, Tony, that he could not endure anymore and that he would end his life the evening after school” (Helsel). All while feeling isolated and unhappy, Jared died just as the opening lyrics stated… alone. The song comes to a dramatic turn right when the lyrics state, “I’m too depressed to go on…” (Lyrics.com). The majority of suicide attempts and deaths happen among teens that suffer from depression. “Most teens who have depression think about suicide, and between 15% and 30% of teens with serious depression who think about suicide go on to make a suicide attempt” (Kidshealth.org). It makes perfect sense for Blink 182 to use depression in their song, since it’s a major symptom in suicide. I would like to recollect a personal encounter with suicide and depression I had in September of 2001 during my sophomore year of high school. One of my good friends, whose name I choose not to reveal, made a life-threatening decision when she overdosed on Tylenol. She had always been self conscious, and worried about everything anyone said of her, and she always described herself as suffering from being, as the song states, “too depressed to go on” (Lyrics.com). After taking 23 caplets in 9 minutes, she quickly passed out and was rushed from her house to the hospital. After a night in the hospital, everything ended up turning out okay. She recovered and spent the week at home by herself and eventually had her depression treated. Depression can be very heavy to bear, and it can involve thoughts of negativity, worthlessness, and most of all… death. It can convince a teenager that there is nothing worth living for, just as it almost did for my friend. Following thoughts of depression are, “You’ll be sorry when I’m gone” (Lyrics.com). These words are the verbalization of suicide threats. One of the first signs is when someone verbalizes the action of doing so. The lyrics verbalize the action of a suicide threat by making “a statement expressing that the person would not be missed if he/she were gone” (#1TeenageSuicide.com). Saying, “You’ll be sorry when I’m gone” is just as powerful as other phrases, such as "I just want it to end"; "I can't take it any more"; and "You won't have to worry about me much longer.” These are all suicide threats, and having a threat like one of these printed in the song makes the image of suicide much more clear. The song hits a point of sorrow when it reveals the phrase “Please tell mom this is not her fault” (Lyrics.com). It is most likely normal for a teenager’s parents to be consumed with so much pain and grief that they began blaming it on themselves. They start to think that if they would have changed their methods of discipline, paid more attention, and been around more, then they could have prevented such a thing from happening. When Blink 182 has lyrics stating “Please tell mom this is not her fault” (Lyrics.com), they are promoting the idea that the mother wi...