What Every Man, and Women Who Love Them, Should Know About Suicide

By Jed Diamond, PhD, LCSW

Most of us don’t want to think about suicide, but it is part of the human condition. When people reach such a point of despair that they attempt to take their own lives, everyone they know is impacted, including family, friends, and colleagues. I know. I am still living with the effect of my father’s attempted suicide when I was 5 years old.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide is a major public health problem in high-income countries and is an emerging problem in low and middle-income countries. Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries in both developed and developing countries.

Here are some facts everyone should know:

*Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world, especially among young people.

*Nearly one million people worldwide die by suicide each year. This corresponds to one death by suicide every 40 seconds.

*The number of lives lost each year through suicide exceeds the number of deaths due to homicide and war combined.

*Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group.

*These staggering figures do not include nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur much more frequently than deaths by suicide.

*For each person who takes his or her own life, 20 will attempt suicide.

Mental disorders (particularly depression and alcohol use disorders) are a major risk factor for suicide in Europe and North America; however, in Asian countries impulsiveness plays an important role. Suicide is complex with psychological, social, biological, cultural, and environmental factors involved.

Worldwide, the prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to a lack of awareness of suicide as a major problem and the taboo in many societies to discuss the topic openly. In fact, only a few countries have included prevention of suicide among their priorities.

World Suicide Prevention Day

The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) co-sponsored World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th 2013. The theme of this 11th anniversary event was “Stigma: A Major Barrier for Suicide Prevention.”

My father was one of the millions of people who suffer from mental illness. In his case, depression was a contributing factor to his inability to cope with the stresses of life. Now, as then, there is a lot of misinformation and stigma attached to mental illness. For men, many see it as particularly “unmanly” not to be able to handle problems ourselves.

Recent estimates suggest that the disease burden caused by mental illnesses will account for 25% of the total disease burden in the world in the next two decades, making it the most important category of ill-health (more important than cancer or heart diseases). Yet a significant number of those with mental illnesses who die by suicide do not contact health or social services near the time of their death. In many instances there are insufficient services available to assist those in need at times of crisis.

This lack of access to appropriate care is one of the many factors that magnify the stigma associated with mental illness and with suicidal ideation and behavior. But everyone knows someone who needs support to deal with the emotional stresses of life. There are things you can do. The first is to become informed. One simple way to do that is to learn about the activities that took place on World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th , 2013. You can get more information here: http://www.iasp.info/wspd/.

Jed Diamond, PhD, MCSW, is the Founder and Director of the MenAlive, a health program that helps men live long and well. Though focused on men’s health, MenAliveis also for women who care about the health of the men in their lives. Diamond’s book, MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing Tools, brings together the wisdom accumulated in 40 years helping more than 20,000 men, women, and children.