Suicide

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suicide

At the annual fundraising breakfast for the Larimer Center for Mental Health in November 2010, a grim statistic placed a hush over the 300-plus community members sipping their orange juices and sampling the quiche.

The speaker announced that in 2008, a suicide occurred once in every nine days in Larimer county, an area located in Northern Colorado encompassing approximately 290,000 residents.

In 2009, the suicide rate in Larimer County had jumped to one every six days.

There were some audible gasps, several shaking their heads, others looking at the speaker in disbelief. It seems that statistics have the greatest impact when they hit closest to home. And the fact that the rate is increasing so quickly moves closer the possibility that someone in that audience will have to confront a suicide of someone they know or love sooner rather than later.

This became apparent when the next statistic was read. Larimer County Commissioner Cheryl Olson, whose teenage daughter almost carried out a suicide, said that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that 80% of all people, at some point in their lives, will lose someone they know to suicide.

Help Information

If you or someone you know might be contemplating suicide, call 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) or 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

You can also use Hopeline at at www.hopeline.com. This website will connect you with a crisis center in your area.

Other Resources

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
3615 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016-3007
Phone Number: (202) 966-7300
Fax: (202) 966-2891
Email Address: clinical@aacap.org
Website URL: www.aacap.org
American Association of Suicidology
Phone Number: (202) 237-2280
Website URL: www.suicidology.org
Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network
Phone Number: (888) 649-1366
Website URL: www.spanusa.org

Larimer Center for Mental Health (LCMH) invited these individuals with hopes of making them contributors, an audience that included state representatives, symphony members, heads of businesses, and professors from the local universities and colleges. Yet these contributors sat realizing that, as part of this community, they are also the coworkers, friends, and family members of those who could possibly take their own lives.

National suicide statistics usually do not elicit such strong emotional responses. Jonah Lehrer, an author and blog writer who specializes in neuroscientific topics, tells us in his blog “The Frontal Cortex,” that depressing, large-scaled statistics leave people cold, or unemotionally detached. It’s because “our emotions can’t comprehend suffering on such a massive scale.”

Perhaps that’s why local nonprofit organizations such as the LCMH use the area’s statistics in their fundraising campaigns rather than emphasize the national numbers. Truth be told, local numbers are extremely upsetting – as they should be. It’s our friends and neighbors, those who are closest to us, that are suffering. These stories and numbers also make us take a step back and examine our own mental health, as well as our children’s, spouses, and aging parents.

Yet the national numbers are also as alarming, and as a nation, we need to take note, according to the website Mental Health America (MHA). According to this site, 30,000 Americans die by suicide annually. Another 500,000 attempt but fail to end their lives.

The question of why someone would choose to end his or her life perplexes those who are resilient to life’s challenges, handling stress and other pressures with determined resolve. In other words, why does the same stressful situation experienced by two individuals prompt one to consider suicide, while the other finds hope and the will to move forward?

Psychologists and other mental health specialists tell us that the main reason involves mental health disorders, illnesses that stem from neurochemical and neuroanatomical malfunctions. A delicate balance exists between the brain’s neural pathways and the neurochemicals that travel these pathways, and for those with mental disorders, this “balance” has been compromised. As in other physical illnesses, the body – in this case the brain - has a disorder that needs treatment and medical intervention.

Depression, for example, is one of the major illnesses that can progress toward suicide. The MHA website reports that 30% to 70% of suicide victims suffer either from major depression (see Depression)or bipolar disorder (see Bipolar Disorder), a condition marked by alternating extreme lows, depressive episodes, and episodes of inappropriate, intense euphoria.

Those who contemplate suicide simply don’t have the capability to push themselves out of extremely troubling situations and conditions – and thoughts. In many situations, these individuals don’t know they have a mental health condition, and haven’t received the help they desperately need.

Experiences of rejection, trauma, and loss cause an overpowering anguish that almost paralyzes individuals considering taking their lives. They don’t see any possible way out of their current situations, or any escape from the harsh environments that surround them. It’s as if they’re being mentally assaulted on a daily – or even hourly – basis.

Others feel ashamed or embarrassed for something they did, or something that happened to them. Or they feel ostracized, lost and disconnected from the culture and population of people around them.

In some cases, individuals don’t show any noticeable signs that they could be depressed, or experiencing extreme thoughts of taking their lives. These are perhaps the most difficult cases to comprehend, as these individuals often appear highly successful, happy, and in complete control. As in other cases of suicide, however, there’s an underlying problem that the individual is struggling with, feeling hopeless and beyond help.

A relationship break up, sudden loss of income, job, or home are all warning signs for friends, families, and acquaintances to pay special attention to, and keep a watch out for any changes in an individual’s behavior.

Other signs of suicidal ideation, listed on the MHA and MayoClinic.com websites are the following:

  • Verbal suicide remarks, such as "I wish I were dead" or "I wish I hadn't been born" or “You’d be better off without me”
  • Buying things that could be used to commit suicide, such as guns or stockpiling pills
  • Withdrawing from social contact, wanting to be left alone, and expressions of hopelessness
  • Dramatic mood swings, such as being emotionally high one day and deeply down and discouraged the next
  • Preoccupations with violence and death
  • Abusing alcohol or drugs, or exhibiting risky behaviors such as driving recklessly
  • Giving away belongings or prized possessions
  • Saying goodbye to people
  • Acting out of character, such as becoming very outgoing after having been shy

Eight out of ten individuals considering suicide actually signal their intentions, according to MHA. And those that call suicide hotlines and crisis centers are 30 times more likely than average to kill themselves. This points to the need for more public awareness campaigns on suicidal behaviors and language, so that friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family members are able to get help for those they suspect of taking their own lives.

And the importance of organizations such as LCMH can’t be understated. These organizations exist to provide help and resources to their communities, especially to those unable to afford mental health services. Mental illnesses such as depression are diagnosable – and treatable. These disorders do not have to result in the ending of a life.

In fact there isn’t any situation, condition, experience, or set of circumstances that warrants taking one’s own life. Help is available, and those trained in mental health disorders know how to dramatically change the direction of anyone’s troubled life.

One key to stopping the rising trend in suicides is bringing the national statistics down to a personal level. Communities and organizations simply need to find a way to halt opinions that suicide problems are beyond anyone’s control, that nothing can be done. When people purposely look around and notice others’ distress, and address that distress, change occurs.

As Lehrer in his blog article, “The Science of Charity,” said, despite the fact that our emotions shut down at grim, overwhelming statistics, “we’re still wired to care about each other. We feel pleasure when someone else feels better.”

Those desiring to make a difference in their communities, and in the lives of those struggling with severe emotional distress, a career working in a mental health field is a challenging yet rewarding experience. Positions are available in community organizations such as LCMH, or numerous other medical and mental health facilities.

Mental health counselors and therapists are trained to detect signs of suicide ideation, and those disorders that are progressing toward this extreme.

For more information, contact schools offering degree programs in mental health counseling or psychology.