8 Million Americans Consider Suicide

Yahoo:

More than 8 million Americans seriously consider suicide each year, according to a new government study. About 32,000 suicides occur in the United States each year, but a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicates that many more give the idea serious thought.

Read the whole story: Yahoo

Comments

[YoMama]

04:19 PM on 09/18/2009

Here's a pretty good piece on how to talk to a person contemplating suicide: http://mindprod.com/humanrights/suicide.html

It may also provide some comfort to those who are themselves thinking about it.

[BartRoberts]

04:15 PM on 09/18/2009

Let the lack of affordable healthcare continue to escalate and soon it will be more than 8,000,000 Americans considering suicide.

Plus, suicide among all Americans went up when baby bush was president.

[Jasek]

04:03 PM on 09/18/2009

Living with a chronic debilitating illness often sends me to consider suicide. I don't know how many more years I can live with this. Each day you never know how you will feel, I.e. pain fatique etc. so each day is different and it controls your mood and your life. My illness will never go away, I have a saving grace and a love for two things which cause me to go on. My mom, and my dogs, after that I know I can't spend another 10-20 yrs. like this.

Do not call me a coward, I have been hospitalized before and you haven't walked in my shoes. Maybe I'm just not as strong as others.

[whit4brains]

06:41 PM on 09/18/2009

I don't think you are coward.

No one knows what it feels like to be you. I'm sorry you have to deal with a chronic illness.

I'm glad you have your Mom and your dogs to help you get through the hard times.

[Jasek]

05:38 AM on 09/19/2009

Thank you for your kindness

[Aesthete]

03:39 PM on 09/18/2009

The urge to take one's life has always been somewhat mysterious to me. I recall the hours that my father, a pastor, spent talking someone down from taking his or her life. Sometimes my mother helped as well. I've even participated in intervening to prevent a suicide. I don't recall that any of the would-be suicides that I knew of were suffering from the effects of a bad economy---in fact, their situation was more often quite the opposite. Even now, as we are currently in the throes of a deep recession, I am finding that most people are resilient and even creative in handling the ups and downs of life. I suspect that the reasons for wanting to take one's own life are deeply personal and unique to each individual. In my father's lifetime, the term, "clinical depression" was not much heard. One of those whom he counseled was a very intelligent and successful young woman who was happily married to a loving and supportive husband and had a fine career. Everything was going great for her except that she wanted to take her life.

[Jasek]

03:38 PM on 09/18/2009

If anyone lives with a chronic debilitating disease, then they understand about contemplating suside. Each day is different,i.e. pain, fatique etc. you never know what to expect or how you will react to it.

Iv'e tried both western and eastern medicine, have a great Dr. but this never leaves me. I think about sucide regularly, have been hospitalized and still can't stand the low quality of life I have.













































Howdo people with chronic diseases do. I guess I'm just not strong enough. Right now there are two deterents in my life, my mother and my dogs.

Don't ever call me a coward since you have never walked in my shoes.

If you don't have your health you have nothing.

[mredder4]

02:37 PM on 09/18/2009

I usually think about it at least once per day. Every day, for about 13 years now. Although sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm thinking about suicide or just death in general.

[Zeroes]

12:32 PM on 09/18/2009

Pharmaceutical Companies...

[BlackJAC]

02:55 PM on 09/18/2009

No kidding: just half a tab of St. John's wort had me contemplating ending it all for three hours.

[bigsexyshaq]

12:23 PM on 09/18/2009

I have bipolar disorder, and nobody knew it until I was in my early 20s. I was seriously considering suic.ide for a few weeks. I am not a "goth kid" or whatever the stereotypes may be... in fact I am opposed to that style and music. But I was in the hospital for a few weeks, and now take medication every single night and I no longer have this desire as anything more than a fleeting thought that I know won't happen.

There was a post about Kurt Cobain's bandmembers not wanting him to be in Guitar Hero. The AMOUNT of people who did not understand that Cobain had a MENTAL ILLNESS that he couldn't help, that he was born with, took me by surprise. Nobody "consciously" thinks, hmmmm, I MIGHT JUST commit suicide today because I'm THAT insensitive. That is not how it works, even if it might make some people to label others that way.

We don't need another Kurt Cobain to realize finally that suicide is a huge problem for many, many ORDINARY Americans.

[Terry6202]

12:57 PM on 09/18/2009

Thank you. I have bipolar disorder too and I recently became aware of the writer David Wallace Foster who committed suicide a year ago at the age of 46 when he went off of his medicine. He was the coolest person but his meds stopped working. You are right - people don't understand how this is a mental illness.

[balancedsolution]

11:56 AM on 09/18/2009

This # will go up as the economy sputters and people are underemployed and unemployed.

Thanks again George W.

Plus when the military get back home, they'll have PTSD and the #'s will rise.

What a country.

[krocklin]

11:17 AM on 09/18/2009

Older people will increasingly be included in this group.
Too many people are in far worse condition financially that they ever thought they would be at this stage in their life.
And any healthcare bill will come too late for many, further contributing to their financial woes.
Also prospects for an upturn in the economy - and the generation of more jobs - is just plain unrealistic - at least for many years to come.
The younger generation will adapt, but those who grew up in more prosperous times are increasingly being subjected to more and more stress and worry about their circumstances as they get older.
In fact life expectancy, supposedly going up, will go DOWN for the generations that grew up in earlier times.
I grew up in the 50s, and I and my friends my age have noticed more and more of us dying in our 50s and 60s.

[quirk1971]

11:11 AM on 09/18/2009

Statistic doesn't surprise me unfortunately. The emptiness of this society is the logical conclusion of the materialstic and meaningless lives the 20th century society has structured for itself. We are now living the consequences of it. I hear a very profound statement once about how when man killed God, man set the course for his collective suicide.

[apolloguide]

11:07 AM on 09/18/2009

This 32,000 is a questionable figure. The real figure is much higher. These are just overt statistics, the real numbers on suicide are much higher when the potential suicider lacks the nerve to kill themselves and instead continues to support Republican politicians and therefore kills themselves over time through ignorance and sloth and bad habits. Some deaths take longer to carry out and voting for the GOP is as good as signing your own death warrant; it just takes a little longer and is much more expensive and while cowering as a Republican you have the danger of infecting others with the same fatal disease. Most right-wing types murder members of their families before committing suicide on themselves. The other deaths are counted as murders while only the suicider is entered into the books as a suicide. Statistical lies are still lies.

[LRM216]

10:46 AM on 09/18/2009

"The thought of suicide has gotten many of us through a bad night".

[bigsexyshaq]

12:25 PM on 09/18/2009

If one knows one's self well enough, it can be a very effective mental tool.

[tlgeiger62]

06:40 AM on 09/18/2009

National Suicide Hotline: http://suicidehotlines.com/national.html

Call for an intervention or just to talk

1-800-SUICIDE
1-800-784-2433

1-800-273-TALK
1-800-273-8255

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/8-million-americans-consi_n_290075.html?show_comment_id=31212969#comment_31212969

[LaHenche]

06:16 AM on 09/18/2009

My last Dr. Visit (out of pocket, about 3 years ago, today, still no insurance) I lied to him when asked if I was depressed or thought of suicide.

Have thought about it much. I like to think I would not- no way in hell- ever do it. I just thought about it yesterday, cutting some fruit. The knife accidently slipped and cut my finger. My mind started to ramble on about what would have happened if I accidently sliced my wrist, and hit a juicy vessel...bleeding to death alone. Peaceful.

However, thinking about the pain that I would cause my friends and family...my little girl...really, really, kills me and crushes my soul. So, I just sit and cry just a little, not the big release that I know I need from a really good cry. It just doesn't come. Like a stunted yawn.

Don't you hate that?

[DallasDon]

07:32 AM on 09/18/2009

Yeah I do LaHenche. Crying is really underrated.

I have only cried the way you described a handful of times in my life. It's a something I seem to have learned and then keep forgetting. Only to remember it years later.

It's interesting that you lied to your doctor about your true emotions and thoughts and are unable to achieve the big release of a really good crying episode.

Crying is simply and expression of our emotions. It's something that is inherently a part of us, yet we deny it. From the time we were children we're told not to cry.......... Denying a basic human emotion and hiding it, repressing it from ourselves and those around us. Which is not healthy.

It might help if you are able to truly let go, give yourself permission and allow yourself to really cry. For just a brief moment, let go of your sense of self control and release whatever emotions you're feeling.

Best of luck to you.

[Jasek]

04:25 PM on 09/18/2009

Are you a Dr. of some sort? I have an interesting story am not afraid to tell it but not on this forum, first why do you want to know?