TW: Self-harm, attempted suicide, breakdown (The first and last two paragraphs are safe, please do read, they contain important messages. The text is too long so I broke it down to two parts.)
I just wanted to send out this announcement to say: Check up on others. Not just your friends, family, or loved ones, but also those you may not have paid much attention to before, whether they seem happy, normal, or down. You never know when people need help.
A classmate of mine today had a severe mental breakdown that quickly turned into a highly physical and dangerous one. She was uncontrollable with her emotions and started yelling and screaming, hurling things every which way, and repeatedly hitting herself with a textbook. It was extremely lucky that everyone in our class was alert since she had been acting weird for a couple of days, so we already sent for help when we sensed something coming from a mile away before the breakdown started.
Our homeroom teacher, counselors, and numerous directors arrived quickly. She threatened to kill herself when one of the counselors approached her. She took the straps of her bookbag and looped them around her neck, threatening to commit suicide right there and then. When the counselor tried to talk to her calmly about it, she proceeded to head toward the door, as she could easily jump from there and we are three floors up. Everyone outside at the time had to literally barricade the door.
Thank Lord that the counselor was obviously experienced and the escalated situation calmed a little, but she was still very unstable and the whole class was quickly evacuated. It was the biggest fortune in the unfortunate that she didn't have any weapons that could do immediate damage to herself or others at the time. She is now safe back at home getting rest, and no one was physically harmed.
