On Oct. 8 at 6 p.m., suicide-attempt survivor Dese’ Rae Stage will speak about her journey with suicide and bipolar disorder at Mississippi State University in the Colvard Student Union Ballroom. Stage is known for her writing and photography along with her advocacy for suicide awareness. She battled self-harm for nine years which led to her attempt to take her own life.
 After receiving help, Stage turned her experience into a life mission. She created the movement “Live Through This” which is a series of pictures and stories posted online from suicide attempt survivors. “Live Through This” encourages survivors to publicly own their stories of survival and erase the anonymity that often follows suicide.
According to livethroughthis.org, “ It humanizes the issue of suicide by putting faces to the statistics that have represented those with lived experience of suicidal thoughts and actions for years.”
The movement focuses on creating a welcoming environment to speak about personal accounts of suicide attempts. Stage sits down with survivors and helps them understand what is going on in their lives along with sharing their story. “Live Through This” places the survivors’ photo online with a snippet of their story for viewers to read and watch. Along with the website, Stage and a group of other survivors travel across the country to share their stories and bring awareness to suicide and the issues surrounding it.
Sponsors for the event include Health Promotion and Wellness, MSU Connection Project, Student Counseling Services, PCSW and Safe Zone.