September is national suicide prevention month.
For those who have never had thoughts of wanting to die, it may be hard to relate to those with suicidal ideation. The fact is that suicidal thoughts are becoming alarmingly more prevalent in the United States. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide rates are on the rise. In February 2023, the CDC published that nearly 3 in 5 (57%) US teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 and nearly 1 in 3 (30%) of female high school students reported that they had seriously considered suicide. In 2021, about 12.3 million Americans seriously thought about suicide, which translated into nearly 50,000 deaths that year or 1 death every 11 minutes.
The fact is that the right help is not reaching people in time. In fact, increasing rates of suicides are occurring while there is national divestment in mental health care.
We can all do our part to help and prevent suicidal deaths.
A first step is gaining knowledge: there is no profile of who may be suffering from thoughts of suicide. People who have suffered from abuse, bullying, or sexual violence are at higher risk, but suicidal thoughts can affect anyone with no regard to gender, age, status. Those with depression may be more prone but some people hide their emotions well.
The next step would be getting comfortable with having open conversations: a common myth is that talking about suicide somehow condones or encourages it. By avoiding difficult conversation, well-meaning people may think that they are helping, but the opposite is true. According to those who have survived suicide attempts, like Sonja Wasden, author of award-winning memoir “An Impossible Life” and the article in Huffpost 9/2/23 I survived my suicide attempt. There’s 1 uncomfortable thing we can all do to help save others, “the one thing we can all do to help prevent suicides is have open and inclusive conversations with our families, friends, coworkers and students, and in our communities, where people can share their unique experiences without feeling ashamed or broken. This expands our collective understanding of suicide by hearing different perspectives and creates a more supportive environment for those struggling.” Avoiding the topic does not make the thoughts go away and it could result in a lost opportunity to show support and deter someone from moving forward with the attempt.
In recent times, there has been more open and receptive discussion on suicide, but there is still a stigma surrounding it. As we move forward spreading awareness, more people will become comfortable with conversation.
Sonja Wasden commented, “Suicide is not inevitable for anyone. Talking openly about suicide leads to more people seeking help for their mental health, which reduces the risk of suicide. This is how we save lives.”
The CDC offers tips and strategies for suicide prevention on its website to help anyone prevent suicide by learning warning sings and how/where to get help. In short, “Ask, Keep them safe, Be there, Help them connect, and Follow up.” See https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/be-there-prevent-suicide/index.html for details.
Suicide is preventable.
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