In Brief
- Every year millions of people around the world try to kill themselves—and nearly one million of them succeed. Suicide is the 11th biggest killer of Americans and the third-leading killer of 15- to 24-year-olds.
- A motivation to die, often fueled by mental illness, is only part of the problem. To intentionally end their own life, people need the will to carry out their plans. This resolve depends on factors such as fearlessness and being able to tolerate pain and to act impulsively.
- The latest research shows that fearlessness can be conditioned: people who gain experience with pain, whether from abuse by others or by their own hands, gradually improve their ability to tolerate discomfort; they also get used to the idea of harming themselves.
- Poor impulse control, sometimes fueled by alcohol or other substances, may spur suicidal acts.
At age 18, Erica Hernandez tried to kill herself—twice. Depressed and plagued by family problems, she first took “every pill in the house,” she says. Then she attempted to drink herself to death. But whether through luck or indecision, her attempts were not drastic enough to end her life before help arrived. Now age 31, Hernandez has found “peace” through her church and a parent-child psychotherapy group she has joined.
Every year millions of people around the world try to kill themselves—and nearly one million of them succeed. Suicide is the 11th biggest killer of Americans and the third-leading killer of 15- to 24-year-olds. The U.S. suicide rate is increasing for the first time in a decade, primarily as a result of the rise in the practice among whites aged 40 to 64, according to a new report covering the years 1999 to 2005 from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The economy is now adding to the problem: the chief financial officer of Freddie Mac killed himself last April, and so have some Americans who have been evicted from their homes. The U.S. government’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, begun in 2005, is also getting record numbers of calls: 57,625 in August 2009, up from 47,191 the same month a year before.
This article was originally published with the title Daring to Die.
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25 Comments
Add CommentI agree completely that it has been proven, that physical barriers/obstacles can lessen the frequency of suicide at a particular lethal location. I was astonished to read that "when a net went up under the Golden Gate Bridge, people could not jump to their deaths..." as UNFORTUNATELY there still is no net, and we are campaigning hard to find the $50M to get it done. On average, on person completes suicide at the bridge every 10 days. Our daughter and only child, Casey died there at age 17 on Jan.29, 2008, and we have scores of friends who have lost a child, sibling, spouse, co worker, neighbor or parent from that bridge....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe will fight for the funding and continue to try to bring attention to this best kept secret in the Bay Area, and will do so until the net is actually installed.
What is interesting about this article is what it does not make abundantly clear. 2005 statistics show that the rate of suicide for men in the US is 17.7 per 100,000, for women it is 4.5 per 100,000. A striking differential, but those number are nowhere in the article. Suicide is a mens issue, yet the tone of the article has a womans perspective. Do our lives count so little that these facts are not shouted from the rooftops?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think we should remove the obstacles and barriers. People who really want to die will find a way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRather than trying to prevent just the final act we should have programs in place that can help people well before they reach that point. It would be a much better use of resources.
The article says that many suicides are by people that "act impulsively" - some maybe but there are many that show clear evidence of planning.
The net idea sounds a bit like an expensive band aid-type of fix. The money could be better spent strengthening organizations that will lift and inspire people or providing medical assistance for those who need it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYet another article based entirely on the presumption that every human being must live until they die of some incurable condition, and not for lack of trying to string them along for as long as possible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExternal, artificial termination of a life fit to live (as decided by it's owner) is not acceptable.
External, artificial extension of a life unfit to live (as decided by it's owner) is equally unacceptable.
As one who was suicidal, I had the pleasure of meeting many others who were as well. Some suffered greatly for years, others simply had no love of the society in which they were forced to live, and wished deeply enough not to be a part of it. Regardless, it took most of us years to be ready to let go, and longer still to actually do something about it. The moment of truth may have come in an instant, and a split-second decision to let go the awful rail and fly free was made, but it was merely punctuation at the end of a sentence.
Even if I could think of one person who decided to do it, on a whim, that person would be no less deserving of the outcome. If you desire the end of your life, and take action to end it, that right is yours and yours alone. For some, it may be the only right they truly have.
I would love to see the bioethics argument for forcing every individual of a species to be born, live and survive, at any cost.
This is a gossamer article, unbecoming of SciAm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPutting a net under any bridge is a waste of time and money, except during construction. Most determined suicides are neither stupid nor lack imagination - they will simply find another way to do it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLife is a gift but unfortunately most people don't understand the goal and purpose of life and therefore do not appreciate the gift or the ramifications of suicide, abortion, euthanasia, or other such wrong "choices". It is best to remember "this too shall pass".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt the age of 26 (I am 63) I had a spiritual awakening which I talk about on my blog at http://carltonnewman.blogspot.com. It was a direct encounter with the Light of God and it awakened spiritual faculties and senses I previously had no idea existed. I was able to contact souls who were no longer in physical bodies (what most people call "the dead"). A lot of people who have made the transition from physical life to life out of the body are very confused about where they are and some do not even know that they are "dead" and without a physical body. The movie "A Beautiful Mind" portrays this. John Nash is able to communicate with them but they don't know they are "dead". And why is John Nash able to see them when others can't? People who have used drugs such as opium and cocaine prematurely open their spiritual centers such as the Third Eye chakra. The chakra is "blown open" or "ripped open" and it takes sometimes many lifetimes to heal. These drugs were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries (as they also are today) and were more acceptable. When people re-embody with their spiritual centers forced open they sometimes "see" and "hear" beings from other dimensions of the "Physical" realms, primarily the Astral Plane. The Astral Plane has 33 levels from Purgatory to The Pit of Hell with each getting successively darker and the inhabitants more depraved. People who have some spiritual development to those with more advanced spiritual development rise to the Etheric Plane which also has 33 levels from Devacon (wish fulfillment) to just below the Ascended Planes of Total Freedom and Power. Some of those from the Ascended Planes have Etheric Retreats, Schoolrooms of the Spirit, which souls attend between embodiments to help them make greater spiritual progress in succeeding embodiments. We may travel to these Retreats in our etheric body while our physical body sleeps at night. A major Retreat, open to all, is called The Royal Teton Retreat which is located in the Etheric Plane over the physical location of the Grand Teton mountain range near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is hosted by the Ascended Masters Lord Lanto and Confucius.
Those who commit suicide end up in a kind of gray "no mans land" in a very, very sad state with a tremendous burden of regret.
As someone who is very familiar with this subject, I find this article very relevant and accurate. Bringing unusual facts about suicide out into the open, help us to better understand the struggles that some people have to endure when touched by this difficult subject. With that idea in mind, I want to invite you all to learn about our film, Nothing Against Life, schedule to be produce in the summer of 2010. http://www.nothingagainstlife.com/ We're sharing three different videos as well as a blog about suicide and film. Our only goal is to create a space for a respectful dialogue about the subject of suicide...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat exactly do I have to buy for the privilege to read the entire story? Had the impression I had already subscribed. OOPS! Could it have been another periodical? If so, my apologies. But then why do you keep sending me emails to read what you publish? Make up your mind, please!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLike what you're saying. Especially agree with the profound thought that precedes a suicide attempt. It is rare that a person who attempts suicide hasn't given it plenty of thought, and based on their standards of what is acceptable to endure a life governed by psychic pain. As you say, the so-called "whim theory" is merely the punctuation of the sentence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso wanted to comment on disparity figures between men and women. From what I have read men who make the decision are often more likely to succeed than women are. Doesn't mean that women make fewer attempts, but for whatever reasons do not manage to make the break as cleanly as men, and therefore survive for however long that may be.
I read that one must have the guts to kill oneself. This is nonsense. One must have the guts to keep on living in spite of extreme difficulties one may endure. Eventually, the problems that causes the person to wish to die will dissipate, leaving a person happier that he/she did not kill oneself. As someone says below "remove obstacles", I say that we should make as much obstacles as we can to prevent people from killing themselves as the future is always better than what we think of at the moment we want to kill ourselves. The author is wrong in saying that it takes guts to kill oneself. It is stupid and a product of the fear that the future will be "impossible". The human being is able to adapt to difficulties, especially for someone with guts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe the author needs to be checked out psychologically for saying that it takes guts to commit suicide. That is not a sane saying. We should have the guts to live and change the things that can be changed and accept the things we cannot. Suicide is cowardice.
Shame on you!!! Shame on Scientific American for posting this!!!
i do not agree with the safety nets completely. that would be to much of a waste in this economy. look at all of the major bridges people jump off of to commit suicide. i do not think there will ever be a clear cut method to stop people from committing suicide. it is a terrible thing, but it is inevitable if they do not reach out for help. until the day we can tell all the signs of a emotional unstable person it will continue to happen. most of the people i know showed no apparent signs that they were suicidal at any point. most people are taught to control their emotions and never vent them out. i "think" that is the major problem that cause people to do it. if not please correct me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi meant one of the major*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA few days ago, I was trying desperately to try and convince one of my best friends that life was worth living, that he had people who cared about him, that he shouldn't despair. It's a terrifying experience to try and talk someone determined to die out of committing suicide. In the back of your mind, you're always thinking, "No matter what I say, he may disregard me. Ultimately, I am powerless. My friend might very well kill himself." Thankfully, he decided not to go ahead with the act.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you feel suicidal, keep this in mind. Your life is not solely yours. You irreparably damage those close to you. Suicide is the most solipsistic, selfish act you can do. In ending your pain, you traumatize those close to you.
Re: p43 "Indeed, last year Nicholas Hughes, the son of author Sylvia Plath (who stuck her own head in a gas oven), proved that he inherited his mother's disposition to die by his own hands: he hung himself." I think 'who stuck her own head in a gas oven' was a crude and insensitive remark. Sylvia Plath, a troubled young woman, was one of the outstanding poets of the 20th century. Reducing her tragic death to a flip description is not the kind of discourse I would expect to find in an intelligent publication such as Scientific American Mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHotblack,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also would love to see the bioethics argument for forcing every individual of a species to be born, live and survive, at any cost.
Well put, Thank you
The issue of suicide is far more complex than the article indicates. First, the early Christians held martyrdom in very high esteem and the word "martyr" comes from the Greek word "witness" because Christians witnessed for the truth of Christianity by refusing to renounce their faith which was considered unacceptable by the otherwise very tolerant Romans, simply because Christianity (and its parent Judaism) were the only religions which refused to accept other Gods and religions as equally true ("Thou shalt have no other God before me.") So hundreds of thousands of Christians martyred themselves for the "truth" of their religion. This became a problem for the Church after it was established as the official religion of Rome and special edicts were handed down prohibiting this practice of witnessing for the truth which was, essentially, suicide.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany other cultures have had martyrs too, or people who are willing to sacrifice their lives to "witness" for the truth of their religion (Islam) or their emperor (Japan) or simply their private truth.
Two generations ago homosexuality was considered a crime in the United States punishable by a long prison sentence. It is still considered to be a high crime in some places, punishable by death (Iran.)
Now homosexuals in America are fighting for the equal right to marry. It isn't unrealistic to imagine a time when the attitude towards rational suicide (see Jack Kevorkian who served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence, essentially as a martyr to the cause of suicide) is commonly accepted as a human right guaranteed by the Constitution.
To end on a light note: Suicide, which is illegal in the United States, is the only act that is a crime if you are prevented from actually carrying it out, but isn't a crime if you do because then there is no one to punish.
Think about it. (But not too long :)
You clearly have never had anyone close to you commit suicide. No one can try to place logic upon an act so clearly illogical.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDusty: I have had someone close to me commit suicide--my mother. She died after many attempts when I was 15-years-old. I believe it was a "logical" act as she had a severe mental illness (bipolar I) & spent a lot of time in mental institutions & was about to be involuntarily committed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBack then (40 years ago) the treatment for bipolar was not as effective as it is today. I also have had several suicide attempts & have "inherited" the mental illness of bipolar I disorder. I am doing better now that I am on medication & am doing individual therapy & Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, but I am 55-years-old & have been suffering since I was a teenager.
When one is in so much psychic pain as my mother was & the future doesn't seem to hold much promise, I see the decision to commit suicide as a "logical" act. (Also tried to get a lobotomy.) It actually was a relief when she died as she was in so much pain. I never knew my mother, only her illness as she got "sick" when I was three-years-old w/a psychotic episode.
As far as why men have a higher rate of completed suicides, I've read that is because men usually will use a more violent & powerful method (such as a gun or hanging vs. women who will typically overdose on pills). My mother was successful finally when she changed methods from overdosing on pills to another that is pretty gruesome so I won't write about it here.
I was actually relieved (& some of you will call me "heartless" or "cruel") when she passed away, as she was in so much misery & I thought finally she is no longer in pain. Also because of her mental illness, she was an abusive mother & we had a very chaotic home life. Nowadays, we children would most likely have been put in foster homes.
Perhaps today she could have been helped w/the newer methods of treatment.
I don't think it was mentioned in the article about what can predispose one to attempt suicide. Of course, mental illness is a major factor, but also "modeling" this behavior by a parent or close relative is an important indicator a person might consider suicide a "coping" technique (albeit a very dysfunctional one). I believe it was easier for me to attempt suicide, because I witnessed my mother doing that behavior when life was overwhelming & so painful & she couldn't see any relief in the future. So genetics can be a factor (such as inheriting a mental illness) as well as environment (modeling behavior of a parent or other close relative or even the phenomenon of a "rash" of suicides in teenagers after one classmate commits suicide).
It is this society's pathological fear of death that is the true problem. Our journey to death is as important as our journey through life and we should be seeking to understand and accept it, rather than label everyone who seeks another path as "mentally ill".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGiven that impulsivity is a component that contributes to the ability of an individual to carry out suicide, I agree that barriers are of critical importance in preventing suicide opportunities.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour letter assumes that there is some "spirit" or "area" that exists after life--but that has never been proven nor does there exist empirical evidence for such a sheol. Those who commit suicide (or attempt to do so) are not worried about any continued existence but seek release from this existence. Life has become a burden. The problem is that the individual who commits suicide, does so because there appears to be no viable alternative, there is no one to speak with objectivitely about the choice who will pose options or accept his or her decision, and so forth. I will determine my own exit from life, as it is a private decision and has no buttress by external forces or people, and I will determine the date, time, and method.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSuicides are not only the proverbal "call for help" but also a conscious determination to become independent of others, or a reference that there is no one to whom the suicide can turn. There are numerous reasons for suicide. It is up to the individual and any other person if that individual seeks someone to speak with--without being criticized, ostracized, or intimidated. Objectivity is to be the key to rational discourse.
It is claimed that atheists and people without religion have the highest rate of suicide. This is easily explained. Religion survives because of its imbreeding of fear: of a vengeful god who will damned the troubled, the bullied, the unwanted who ends his or her "earthly existent" to an everlasting fiery hell--there is no love, no compassion, no tenderness in religion, for all ontologies claim that people are meant to suffer ("to offer up their pain for the glory and pleasure of god"). Religion does more damage, psychologically, to the individual than any other fact for god(s)/goddess(es) are the greatest bullies--and the most effective: they key the mortal humbled to endure more hatred and cruelty in "this world so it is not their plight in the next" as Aquinas, Luther, and other apologists for a deity define. Religion is the ultimate totalitarian state, but (as Sigmund Freud and his daughter noted: it is an illusion--one that painfully lives on and serves no purpose.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf religion disappeared and people were equals, there would be less bullying (the majority that comes from the bully pulpit of self-proclaimed mediators of god), less reason to assert oneself, and less reason to hate living. Viki Knox of New Jersey showed the world how her religion infected her thinking as a teacher and increased bullying--and suicide. This was the catalyst in the bullies who pushed recent immigrant from Ireland Phoebe Prince to kill herself in Massachusetts, and the greatest bully of all is, as of this date, Dakota Ary of Fort Worth, Texas, who determined he was in charge of what a teacher put up for discussion, what the teacher said, and shouted down the teacher in the absurd notion that what he did was protected by the First Amendment. Ary, like other bullies, forget that the First Amendment affords freedom of religion--but also freedom from religion, and that no single god is meant for everyone, nor any religion can serve the needs of all. On the contrary, it is religion that has spiked the numbers of suicides, increased bullying (as with Columbine in Colorado), and led to a rise in preteenage suicides. It is time that these issues are addressed, which I am beginning to do in my blogs and publications, but there must be others engaged in research, discourse, and discernment.
First, I'm terribly sorry for your loss. It's something no one should have to go through, especially like this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, I don't think a net is going to be of much help. If a person wants to die badly enough to overcome the fear of death and the instinctive fear you feel when something that could *actually* end your life is staring you in the face... they'll find another bridge, or another method altogether. The effort should be directed towards finding and treating the true cause of the person's death: the feelings that make a person choose so drastic a step in the first place, and the cause of those feelings. Therapy, treatment, identification of signs in loved ones, identifications of signs in oneself while they still have the will to pull themselves off of that path.