Suicide Deaths

* 30,000 lives are lost each year to suicide meaning a suicide in the USA alone occurs every 18 minutes.
* Suicide is the 8th most common cause of death.
* Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for 18-25 year olds.
* There are 4.1 male deaths by suicide for each female death. However females attempt suicide nearly 4 times more often than do males.
* Nearly 60% of suicides are completed with a firearm.

Suicide Attempts

* In an average year, there are 734,000 annual attempts of suicide. (USA only)
* For each death by suicide, there are approximately 25-30 failed attempts.
* Five million living Americans (estimated) have attempted to kill themselves.

Suicide Survivors

* Each suicide intimately affects at least 6 other people.
* Based on this, there are approximately 4.5 million American survivors of suicide.

Other Stats:

* Persons under the age of 25 account for approximately 16% of all suicides.
* People living in a household where a firearm is kept are almost 5 times more likely to die by suicide than people who live in gun-free homes.
* There are nearly 2 attempts of suicide each minute.
* Worldwide, a suicide is completed every 40 seconds.

If you are a survivor:

* Survivors need to talk about their loss of a loved one to suicide. They need to deal with issues of resentment towards God, towards the one who died, and towards those who have blamed them for the death of their loved one.
* Each survivors journey is different. "How to help a survivor" is very difficult, what is welcomed and helpful for one person may be a turn off or hurtful to another. Because of this, it is very important to listen, don't lecture and don't pretend to know it all, and most importantly, unless you yourself are a survivor, don't tell the survivor that you know how he/she feels. Don't try to put a time limit on the survivors healing process--the survivor will NEVER totally get over it. Don't ever minimize a survivors loss.
* Survivors need support, love and concern from their relatives and friends. This applies to both the time immediately after the suicide, including the funeral and for as long as necessary afterwards. Best help for a survivor is your presence and your special gift of listening, caring and being there. 

Suicide Loss

* Suicide loss is one wound that does NOT readily heal. It is characterized by a long, severe and painful grief that may eventually stop worsening but never lessens. There is actually no closure for the suicide survivor.

* Individuals experiencing a 'normal' death (due to disease, old age or other natural causes) usually adjust to their loss within weeks or months. This is not true for survivors of suicides.

* There is NOTHING positive about suicide loss, it does not make a survivor stonger. Suicide loss shatters personal beliefs, depletes self-esteem, strains interpersonal relationships, brings out anger and feelings of betrayal, leads to depression and sometimes to suicide.

* Contact with others who have experienced a loss due to suicide is usually beneficial. It lets the survivor know that he/she isn't alone and validates how one feels and acts as a survivor is 'normal'.

* Survivors need to talk about their loss. Survivors need compassion, support, love and concern. The shock, denial,embarrassment and the stigma concerning suicide are overwhelming for survivors. They need all the support they can get. The survivor doesn't need to hear such sayings as: "you'll get over it in time". Hopefully, the survivor will learn to cope with it in time, but they will never 'get over it'.

* The anniversary of the suicide is a very painful event. Relatives and friends should make every effort to be available, to listen, to call, to visit or send a note, or to perform little acts of kindness.

* Accept the survivor's feelings. Feeling of rage, anger and frustration are not pleasant to observe or listen to, but it is necessary for the survivor to recognize and work on these feelings in order to work through the grief.

* Do mention the name of the loved one lost to suicide. It is comforting that their loved one hasn't been forgotten.

Mental Illness

Mental illnesses are the leading cause of suicide. These diseases are potentially fatal, but very treatable. 

Quote by Kay Redfield Jamison:
 
   "This country does not make it easy to get health care for your brain. There's no pretense that there's unfairness in mental health coverage. Until we say that the brain is just as serious as an organ and just as serious a cause of death as the heart, kidney, liver or the lungs, we're not going to be able to treat the people we need to. We're going to lose 30,000 lives a year just as we are now."

Ninety to ninety-five percent of suicides are associated with a history of mental illness.

Bi-polar illness is very genetic and is characterized by severe mood swings, from elation and irritability and paranoia to profound despair, hopelessness and suicidal tendencies. It's a disease affecting energy as well, a slowing down of energy, no desire to do anything, no passion for life. All the things that ordinarily give comfort and substenance have no meaning whatsoever. Bi-polar is very connected with suicide, more than any other illness. It is also connected with alcohol and drug use which increases the risk of suicide. 

* If you have a depressive illness along with an alcohol/drug problem, you're much more likely to kill yourself than if you have only one or the other*

Depression being undetectable

People can hide depression. People may look as though they are quite 'normal' when in fact, they suffer from profound depression. If you are young, your natural inclination is to try and fit in with other people, to look normal, to appear well. This happens more commonly than one would like to think. If cases of depression, bi-polar illness, you're more likely to complete an act of suicide. If you have bi-polar illness, and you are under the age of 30, the statistics are very compelling that you are at highest risk to complete suicide.

Suicide Prevention

Suicide is a serious public health problem. Approximately 500,000 people each year require emergency room treatment as a result of attempted suicide. 

* If someone is struggling with depression or are acutely suicidal, get treatmentfor them immediately. This is often easier said than done. If they won't get into treatment, walk them to an emergency room, do not leave them alone, commit them against their will. One of the most difficult things that a parent can ever have to do is commit a child to a psychiatric hospital, but if it's necessary and it saves the child's life, then that's what has to be done.

If someone you know:

*Threatens suicide
*Talks or writes about wanting to die
*Appears depressed, sad, withdrawn, hopeless
*Shows significant changes in behavior, appearance, mood
*Abuses drugs, alcohol
*Deliberately injures himself/herself
*Says he/she will not be missed if gone
*Gives away treasure belongings

You can help:

*Stay calm and listen
*Take threats seriously
*Let him/her talk about his/her feelings
*Be accepting: do not judge
*Ask if he/she has suicidal thoughts
*Ask how intense/frequent these thoughts are
*Ask if he/she has a plan
*Ask is he/she has a means to carry out the plan
*Don't swear secrecy--tell someone
*Assure the person it is OK and necessary to get help

GET HELP: You cannot do it alone:

*National Suicide Prevention Lifeline-a prevention hotline dedicated to providing immediate assistance

1-800-273-talk (8255)

*National Hopeline Network 1-800-suicide (784-2433)

For more information about suicide, please visit:

www.fiercegoodbye.com


**** According to the American Psychiatric Association, "the level of stress resulting from the suicide of a loved one is ranked as catastrophic--equivalent to that of a concentration camp experience".

The grief that Suicide Survivors experience is described by psychologists as "complicated grief".  Those of us who experience complicated grief are actually grappling with TWO realities, GRIEF and TRAUMA. Grief is normal; trauma is not. The combination of circumstances is like a vicious one-two punch. We are grieving the death of our loved one,AND we are reeling from the trauma of suicide. The first is difficult enough, the second can often times be unbearable. Suicide heightens the agony of loss as it complicates and intensifies the loss. 

Traumatic grief is not a linear process,a straight path mapped out from one starting point to a final destination. Rather, it is a journey filled with twists and turns, unexpected detours and dead ends that force us back over ground that we had already covered. Often, several different overlapping emotions may assault us at once, and we find ourselves caught in cycles of good days and bad.

WE ARE IN TURMOIL!!