13 Year Old Boy Plans to Kill Himself Goes Viral

Tuesday, 12th March 2013

13 YEAR OLD BOY PLANS TO KILL HIMSELF GOES VIRAL – I think many of us fully understand just how cruel the world can be.  We are constantly bombarded with images of war torn countries with people being killed or of how young people go on a killing spree, such as the awful events of Sandy Hook.

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The Killing Of Innocence: Sandy Hook Elementary School

On top of all the vile acts that people carry out there are also those who feel that life simply has nothing to offer, a trait that appears to be growing in our children, as they become quickly aware to the evils of this world and those who are often bullied.

Image: CBS

For one young man, Noah Brocklebank, a seventh grader from Columbia, Md, the bullying as been so intense that he finally decided that it was time to shuffle off this moral coil in order to find peace.

Over the years Noah has been subjected to intense bullying from classmates. So stricken by the bullying Noah took to self harming himself; often by cutting deeply into his arms.  As the years marched on and the bullying continued Noah decided that it was time to end it all.

Image: CBS

Noah was just a week away from this 13^th birthday and decided to take photographs of his self-inflicted wounds and post these on his Instragram social network account, along with a message, ‘Day of scheduled suicide, February 8^th 2013, my birthday.’

“I just felt like everything was worthless. My life was terrible. I had no one.” Noah

Noah’s statement is a stark realization of how many teenagers feel, especially those subjected to intense bullying.

Luckily for Noah his mother, Karen Brocklebank, saw the pictures on Instragram and had him committed to a hospital for over a week in order to get him the treatment to overcome his anxieties, depression and wanting to end his life.

Image: CBS

Karen knew all too well the pressures young people can be put under and when bullying is leveled at someone relentlessly on a daily basis, the effects to a person’s ability to see themselves as worth anything is simply inflated to a point where there is no self worth.

At a loss and at her wits end Karen came up with a rather novel idea, one that could easily have backfired, but with nowhere else to go she decided to put the issue on Facebook hoping that people would send messages of support to Noah so that he would realize that there are more good people in the world then there are bad.

This could have been a bad move, considering the number of ‘Trolls’ that lurk in the social networks.  These individuals are the most despicable kinds of humans and in cases like Noah’s it is not unusual for them to bate on the individual in order to carry out the act.  Trolls thrive on human suffering and relish the chance to do further damage to the victims.

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The Vile Behaviour of Internet Trolls

Fortunately for Noah this was not the case and indeed instead of people simply giving support and encouragement online they wrote him physical letters.  These started to appear in the mailbox as a trickle, but it wasn’t long before Noah received over 2,000 supportive letters and this continues to grow.

It is the 12^th March 2013 and Noah is very much alive, thanks to Karen’s quick thinking, the help of hospital staff and the thousands of people who sent Noah a letter of encouragement.

Image: CBS

Rarely do I get to write an article that fills me with joy or restores my faith in humanity.  With so much bad news it is often difficult to find the good – it really is like try to find a diamond among the sewage of humanity.

For Noah… Life is a journey; it’s about exploration of the world around you and the people in it. It is about understanding others and most importantly understanding yourself.  Bullies often admonish others due to their own inadequacies and therefore pick on people they feel are far superior.  Therefore you are superior, you are a unique individual with so much to give.  Live your life Noah and live it knowing that are people out there who deeply care.

Your story has affected the lives of many people and I would personally like to thank you for restoring my waning faith in humanity – you’re a real star, that’s for sure.