I have been reading of late that suicide survivors are now "coming out" to warn of the national crisis. Thank goodness. Would you believe 130 American's die every day from suicide! 47,000 took their own lives in 2017. It is estimated nearly one and a half million survived suicide in 2017. My aunt did so decades back; as was my oldest daughter. As a nation we put huge effort into cures for cancer, AIDs, Alzheimers, etc. Maybe its time to face this out in the open as well. God bless those who survived and are willing to tell their story publicly.

Is there a cure; I've no idea but so many times people that are mentally fragile have no real options as insurance companies say they have overstayed their hospital time. Why are we having a skyrocketed increase in suicides? We study things like frog farts with national funds; maybe a little more towards this would be good.

Off my soap box.

 

There's a political component, but I know that's not allowed in this subforum. (Let's just say mental healthcare is expensive and many private insurances do not pay for it)

I've lost two of my close friends to life long battles with depression. Unfortunately there are so many aspects to depression, a cure for those other diseases would likely be 'easier' (in context, none of this is easy)

 

My Dad, 2 cousins and a young man we knew took their lives. So sad. I still think of my Dad as I worked with him when he did it and the young man was only 22 and had everything going for him. The human mind is very complicated and one never knows what goes through it. RIP to all.

 

Medical care for mental health issues is sorely lacking, not enough providers, not enough facilities and the hoops the patients and the families have to jump through to get care are beyond ridiculous, and often cruel. I wish more survivors were open about their attempts. I have a friend who tried it. She said she regretted it immediately, but we've barely spoken of it since. She ended up in an ER for at least three days, (on watch 24/7) in paper clothing, waiting for a facility to have a room. When a room was available, she was taken out of the ER in handcuffs, and I'm not sure what that was about. Perhaps because her attempt involved a vehicle and CO2 and the police were called. Awful.

 

as you know I'm rather passionate about the issue.
a few years after my dad Died of a heart attack I had visited an uncle, my dad's older brother.
A few hours after the visit, he put a rifle in his mouth. He survived but it cost him an eye.

Two years ago I was really struggling with my health. The pain was omnipresent and unrelenting.
We've since righted the ship.
I would be lying if I said I would not have welcomed death. There were many nights when I went to bed hoping not to wake up.
I never got to the point of acting on suicide.

 

Suicide among young people is skyrocketing, almost epidemic levels, now first responders are seeing huge increases, and veterans as well. Big spikes occurring in quite a few groups of people. Many people with a lot of life to live and many reasons to be alive seem to be taking their lives in record numbers.

I'm not sure why man has to travel to Mars when there is so much to be fixed here on earth, that money would be better spent helping people.

 

Not politics, just some startling facts regarding suicide: When it comes to gun related deaths in the US, more people die by suicide than by assault. That's not true of younger people. Among those under 35, more die from gun assault. But for those age 35-44, suicide passes homicide for number of gun related deaths, and the difference increases dramatically with age. Among those 65-74 years of age, a gun related death was ten times more likely to be the result of a suicide rather than a homicide.

I think this speaks to Dave's point about how serious suicide is as a societal issue. It is not an argument for any action regarding gun control. Those who choose to take their own lives by gun have many other options that do not involve firearms.

When looking at young people in the US, specifically 15-21 year olds, the rate of death by suicide which has seen a significant increase in the last four years is approaching the rate of motor vehicle deaths, which have been cut nearly in half since 1999. When I was young, car accidents claimed more classmates than any other single cause, at least as far as I was aware.

(CDC data for CY 1999-2017)

 

There have been a (record?) number of suicides at the NYPD. Not sure what is going on there.

 

I also worry about the suicide rates among active members of the returning military and veterans. It is higher than is widely known.

 

Also reports of farm suicides increasing significantly now, mostly related to farm income / financial stress