Suicide is simply defined as a self-inflicted death or the “willingly” killing of oneself. You may be asking yourself, so, “why would someone kill themselves and why does it bother me?”
Well, suicide is so detrimental and a massive “vehicle” used to carry people to their untimely deaths that world authorities are getting worried. Unlike a pandemic disease or war that may only affect people living around the affected areas, suicide is an international issue so September 10th is set aside as World Suicide Prevention Day while the month of September is chosen as a Suicide Prevention Month.
Since 1 out of every 5 American adults is experiences a form of mental illness in a given year and more than 90% of children who die by suicide have a mental health condition, there is a very clear connection between suicides and mental health and a probability of many more people dying through suicide in future, if care and steps to control it are not taken, especially in the U.S.
For this reason, I have put together the following 5 things you probably didn’t know about suicide to help you gain a fair idea of the menace.
1. Suicide Is The Second (2nd) Cause Of Death Among Young Americans: According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), suicide is “the 2nd leading cause of death for people aged 15–24”. Not only that, it is “3rd leading cause of death for people aged 10–14” and the “10th leading cause of death in the U.S.” As a matter of fact, an estimated 18-22 veterans die by suicide every single day.
Looking at all the facts and quite shocking numbers above, it is important to see that suicide is really claiming a lot of lives secretly that it ought to be treated as a serious health concern.
2. Depression Is The “Prime Suspect” Of Suicide: Contrary to the popular belief that drug addiction is the cause of suicide, depression still remains the major suspect (or causative agent) of suicide. Depression can be defined simply as the feeling of sadness and lost of hope due to a “loss” or tragic event in someone’s life. An estimated 2 out of 3 of all suicide victims were found to be depressed at the time of their suicide.
Many of the “physical” things that happen in our lives such as the loss of a loved one, breakup/divorce, bullying, and general lack of self confidence are usually some very popular causes of depression. However, depression leaves a psychological and emotional feeling in unsuspecting people and literally closes their ability to seek help with the idea that that are okay until they finally get to a point of “no return” to commit suicide.
We should not forget that indulging in drugs such as alcohol can really speed up the risk of committing suicide.
3. Suicide Has Clear Signs And Available Cure: Suicides are increasing because most people see it to be “sudden”. Others see it as a “shameful” act or “taboo” and will not like to talk about it or ignore it. However, suicides, like most things associated with mental illness, don’t happen “suddenly”. The idea of suicide evolves from one step to the other. A number of researches and surveys show that most suicidal victims show a level of clear signs of their intentions through a lot of subtle ways. However, the people around them either see no significance of the signs. Other people who may see the significance of the signs often do not know what to do about it.
The interesting thing about suicide is that sometimes those who say they will do it don’t end up doing it and those who show no signs end up doing it. If you or someone around you have said something like “I will kill myself”, do not take it lightly because they may do it. Others will not really say they want to kill themselves but may say things like “what is the usefulness of life?” or “why am I still here?”. If they are doubting why they are still living they could probably be thinking of ways to not live. Another sign could be a sudden swing in behavior such as sudden over-drinking or use of drugs.
If you or someone around you shows some signs that they want to kill themselves, you should be glad because like many other mental conditions, there is a preventive approach to handle these thoughts. Thankfully, the causes of suicide have cure. You want to take immediate action to seek professional help to both identify how far the suicide ideation has evolved and right steps to take to control or probably stop it.
4. More Men Die From Suicide Than Women: This will shock quite a lot of you reading this. Despite the myth and perception that women are the “weaker” vessels in society, the statistics on suicide illustrates a quite different view and shows that matters of mental illness is “no respecter” of a person’s gender. Though women are more likely to have suicidal ideation (thoughts of attempting suicide), more men end up taking their own lives than women. In fact, about 77.9 % of all reported suicide cases are men and not women. That is about four times more than the number of women. Plus, suicide is the seventh leading cause of death for males and the fourteenth leading cause for females. While most men who die through suicides use firearms, most women victims on the other hand use poisoning.
5. Most Suicidal Victims Desperately Want To Live: Yes, you read it correctly. Most people who want to commit suicide actually want to live. So why do they want to take their lives? The major reason is because they have lost hope. Suicidal victims have lost hopes in almost everything especially their lives and see no reason to continue to live. Some people believe they are alone or no one knows and understands what they are going through. For this reason, many professional coaches (like myself), psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health organisations have sought to help people with mental health conditions recover and gain full control of their lives again. Our aim is to help you acknowledge the beauty of life and the hope for great possibilities ahead of you.
So, there you have it – the 5 things you didn’t know about suicide. Now that you know, what are you doing about it? If you have suffered any of the situations discussed in this blog or a similar situation, you should note hesitate to seek professional help immediately. If you know anyone who may be going through some situations I talked about here or something similar, you want to take serious steps to prevent them from actually committing suicide.
At http://www.coachcai.com, we seek to offer professional seevices to people with various health and life challenges. However, if you are seeking professional mental health services we are asking that you locate the nearest hospital or provider for assistance. You can reach us HERE for further information or assistance.
Love and light, Coach Cai
Coach Cai 