If you experience suicidal thoughts or have lost someone to suicide, the following post could be potentially triggering. You can contact the Crisis Text Line by texting “START” to 741741.
Two people from popular culture died this week by suicide; Kate Spade on Tuesday and Anthony Bourdain on Friday.
On Thursday, the CDC published a report about the rise on death by suicide in the United States between 1999 and 2016. According to their statistics, suicide rates have increased by 25% nationwide and up to 57% in a few individual states, such as North Dakota. According to the data the CDC receives from various reporting agencies, 2016 saw nearly 45,000 deaths by suicide in the United States, which is approximately 105 people in America who die by suicide everyday.
We heard about two of them this week, but in reality, according to those numbers, this week in America, 735 people have died by suicide. That’s the equivalent of an entire junior high school in my town being wiped out.
That’s a lot of hurting people whose lives mattered, who left even more hurting people behind.
According to the lead scientist of the CDC study, 54% of those people who died by suicide did not have a diagnosed mental illness.
That doesn’t mean they weren’t suffering from a mental illness, it just means that for some reason, they had not sought medical help for what was troubling them.
But that statistic caused me to ask a question, “If they aren’t doing it because of mental health issues, why are people choosing to die?”
I scoured the internet searching for answers. Some of the other reasons for suicide, besides clinical depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and other mental health issues(diagnosed or not) include:
Situational depression: this happens when a person has experienced a negative impact in their life, but hasn’t quit met the criteria of clinical depression.
Divorce, separation or end of a relationship.
Loss of a child: either through death or custody battle.
Death of a loved one.
Financial loss.
Terminal illness diagnosis.
Fear of being “found out”: a person may have made decisions that will cause somebody close to them to lose respect for them or refuse to love them anymore.
Fear of consequences for their actions.
The list can go on and on. Some of the sites I got information from are: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-causes.html, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/index.html, https://www.healthline.com/health/suicide-and-suicidal-behavior, and https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/suicidal-ideation/
The common thread in all the reasons for suicide is feelings of hopelessness.
Feeling as though the situation you are in will never get better.
Experiencing pain so intense that you’re sure it will never go away.
Expecting those you love to be angry with you, lose respect for you or stop loving you because of choices you’ve made.
Hopeless is a terrifying place to live.
It tells you that you’re alone and nobody will understand you.
It tells you that the world and those you love will be better off without you.
It tells you that death is the only solution to end the pain you’re in.
It tells you that you’re helping your loved ones by ending their suffering too. They may be devastated now, but you’re saving them years of heartache of having to live with you.
Hopelessness is a liar, one that clouds your mind and judgement so that you believe the lies it tells you are the truth.
This week we heard about two people who died by suicide, don’t forget the 733 others. Be there for people, listen to them and guide them towards the help they need.
If you need support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or reach the Crisis Text Line by texting “START” to 741741.
You must be logged in to post a comment.