More and More Americans Are Dying by Suicide. What Are We Missing?
Alia E. Dastagir USA TODAY
America’s suicide rate won’t stop rising.
Numbers released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 48,344 people died by suicide in 2018, up from 47,173 the year before. While the increase was small, just two-tenths of a percent, the rise in deaths over time has been steady. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 35%.
Death rates in 2018 increased for only two of the 10 leading causes of death: suicide and influenza/pneumonia.
“I was 100% unsurprised,” said April Foreman, a clinician and board member at the American Association of Suicidology, noting systems of science and care have remained static. “That’s not acceptable. We need to start treating these deaths seriously and respecting these survivors by upping our game in public health.”
Suicide is the nation’s 10th-leading cause of death, with 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, though that rate alone belies the scope of the problem. While thousands of people die by suicide each year, millions think about it.
In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted it, according to the CDC.
Despite more awareness and less stigma around suicide, theories about the intransigent death rate abound.
Some suspect a lack of funding is to blame. Money to research and combat suicide continues to lag behind other leading killers. The National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, spent $103 million on suicide and suicide prevention in 2017. It spent $689 million that year studying breast cancer, which killed only a few thousand more people. In 2018, spending on suicide increased to $147 million.
It’s impossible to solve a problem, suicide experts say, when it is not well understood.
“We’ve tried a lot of things, including telling everybody to just magically know the signs and care more. I don’t think that’s going to work,” Foreman said. “We haven’t tried … spending at the scale of the problem, and since we have tried it with other diseases and it’s worked, there’s no reason to not try it.”
Others say there’s reticence in the suicide prevention community to admit that some of the most promising interventions may not work on a broad scale and that suicide’s intractability is a sign it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
“It’s demonstrating that everything we’ve been doing, all the repeating of the same things over and over, it’s not working,” said Dese’Rae L. Stage, a suicide survivor and founder of Live Through This, a project that amplifies the voices of people who’ve survived suicide attempts. “If our whole goal is to help people, then we need to help people, and that requires a little bit of critical self-reflection on ourselves and on the field.”
Some experts say reducing the suicide rate won’t occur without examining the environments people live in or larger societal ills, such as economic insecurity and discrimination that may drive people to despair. Survivors agree.
“It’s not like someone is just broken,” Stage said. “There are all these things that happen in their life that break them. Abuse, poverty, homophobia, marginalization. Are we too focused on the individual and not enough on the systemic causes of suicide?”
For example, a study published this month in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that increasing the minimum wage by $1 could reduce the suicide rate among workers with a high school degree or less, especially when unemployment rates are higher. Being unemployed or living in poverty can increase the risk of suicide, according to the CDC.
This month, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention announced it had moved into “Phase II of Project 2025,” which aims to reduce the suicide rate by 20% over 10 years. The plan is focused on four areas: firearms, health care systems, emergency departments and corrections systems.
If successful, it would reduce the suicide rate to its lowest level in 30 years.
“If you look at the history of suicide prevention, you will see several similar movements in the past where they say, ‘We want to reduce this rate by so much by this time,” Foreman said. “I think that’s the right goal, but I don’t see us absolutely insisting for the … changes that we would need to get there.”
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time day or night, or chat online.
Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.
Alia E. Dastagir is a recipient of a Rosalynn Carter fellowship for mental health journalism. Follow her on Twitter: @alia_e
——–
Suicide Rate Has Risen Distressing 35% Since 1990 In U.S.: Study
Suicides are tragically on the rise.
An alarming study released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that 1,171 more Americans took their own lives in 2018 than the prior year.
In total, there were 48,344 suicides two years ago.
Even more disturbing is that the U.S. suicide rate has climbed a staggering 35% since 1990.
“I was 100% unsurprised,” remarked American Association of Suicidology board member April Foreman. “That’s not acceptable. We need to start treating these deaths seriously and respecting these survivors by upping our game in public health.”
Suicide ranks as the country’s 10th-leading cause of death, with a rate of 12.2 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.
While thousands actually succeed in ending their lives, millions more mull suicide, according to research.
In 2017, a whopping 10.6 million American adults seriously contemplated suicide, with 1.4 million attempting it.
Funding for suicide research woefully trails behind other leading killers.
The National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest public backer of biomedical research, doled out $103 million for suicide and suicide prevention in 2017, but spent more than six times that amount in breast cancer studies.
With suicide often shrouded in secrecy and shame, addressing the issue is a bitter challenge for scientists.
“We’ve tried a lot of things, including telling everybody to just magically know the signs and care more. I don’t think that’s going to work,” lamented Foreman. “We haven’t tried … spending at the scale of the problem, and since we have tried it with other diseases and it’s worked, there’s no reason to not try it.”
A study published earlier this month in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found that increasing the hourly minimum wage by as little as $1 might reduce the suicide rate among employees who possess nothing more than a high school diploma, especially when unemployment rates are higher.
Being jobless or living in poverty can increase the risk of suicide, according to the CDC.