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Some people no states work with suicide.They let what people call assisted suicide happen. If a person matches certain criteria they can pay for assisted suicide. Assisted Suicide is when a doctor is allowed to give the person fatal medicine.This shouldn't happen and isn't right in my opinion.

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California’s Right-To-Die Law Is Working

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It makes sense to study how the new law is working and to make changes if needed. But be prepared: Assisted suicide is a contentious, ethically complicated issue, and any attempt to expand it will engender fierce debate. That's fine-any law that broaches such sensitive life-and-death matters ought to be vigorously discussed.

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This article firsts starts by summarizing what suicide is. Then it gives you tests to help find warnings for suicide. It then explains some risks factors. After risks factors it explains ways to stop it.Lastly it gives some websites that have researched suicide.

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MedlinePlus links to health information from the National Institutes of Health and other federal government agencies. MedlinePlus also links to health information from non-government Web sites. See our disclaimer about external links and our quality guidelines.

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MedlinePlus links to health information from the National Institutes of Health and other federal government agencies. MedlinePlus also links to health information from non-government Web sites. See our disclaimer about external links and our quality guidelines.

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The article first explains on what suicide is.The article then starts explaining the risks factors. It tells how and what plays the most important role in the risks factors. After risks factors it explains on how to prevent suicide. They wrap it all up with giving the suicide hotline number if people need it.

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Psycom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1996

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Suicide Background

Suicide is defined as intentionally taking one's own life and comes from the Latin suicidium, which literally means "to kill oneself." It tends to carry different traits depending on the culture. Historically, and still today in some locations, suicide is considered a criminal offense, a religious taboo, and, in some cases, an act of honor (e.g., kamikaze and suicide bombings).

Literally speaking, suicide or completed suicide is the successful act of intentionally causing one's own death. Attempted suicide is an attempt to take one's life that does not end in death, rather self-injury. Assisted suicide, a controversial topic in the medical field, is defined as an individual helping another individual in bringing about their own death by providing them with the means to carry it out or by providing advice on how to do it.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide ¹ and rates of completed suicide are higher in men than women-with men up to four times more likely to kill themselves than women. According to the CDC, male deaths represent 79% of all US suicides. ² However, the rates for non-fatal attempted suicide are four times more likely in women than men and are more common in young adults/adolescents. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 15 to 34 and in 2017, 47,000 lives were lost to suicide-that's one death every 11 minutes. ³

Suicide Risk Factors

The most cited risk factors for suicide include psychiatric disorders, genetics, substance abuse, and family and social situations. Oftentimes, psychiatric factors and substance abuse co-exist. Access to weapons and other methods of suicide also increase risk. For example, rates of suicide in homes with guns are greater than in homes without them.

Mental disorders play an overwhelming role in the increased risk of suicide-with estimates suggesting up to 90% of individuals who take their own life suffer from some type of psychiatric disorder. Risk of suicide for individuals suffering from mental disorders drastically decreases once admitted to treatment. The mental disorders with the greatest prevalence of suicide risk associated with them include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders. Individuals suffering from major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder are at the highest risk of suicide-with risk of suicide increasing 20-fold.

Behind major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, substance abuse ranks as the second-highest risk factor for suicide. Statistics indicate that alcoholism is present at the time of death in up to 61% of completed suicide cases. Heroin and cocaine use is also a common risk factor for suicide, with heroin users having a 14-fold greater risk of suicide and cocaine users having a higher risk of suicide during withdrawal drug use. Cannabis use has not been found to increase suicide risk among users.

Genetics is thought to play a role in risk of suicide-such that a family history of suicide tends to indicate an increased risk of suicide among other family members-accounting for up to 55% of suicidal behaviors. Family history of mental disorders and substance abuse is also a risk factor for suicide. In a similar respect, exposure to suicide (e.g., watching a family member commit suicide or finding their body) is also indicative of an increased risk of suicidal behavior.

Family and socio-economic problems are also contributing factors to suicide risk. Unemployment, homelessness, poverty, childhood sexual abuse, social isolation, loss of a loved one, and other life stresses can all increase the likelihood of suicide. Sexual abuse alone is thought to contribute to 20% of the overall risk of suicide.

Epidemiology

According to the CDC, general statistics on suicide include the following:

Every day, approximately 105 Americans die due to suicide

Overall suicide rates increased 28% from 2000 to 2015²

One person dies by suicide every 12.3 minutes in the United States

There is one completed suicide for every 25 attempted suicide attempts

In the elderly, there is one suicide for every 4 attempted suicide attempts

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States across all ages

In the United States, rates of suicide are highest among Whites, American Indians, and Alaska Natives

Gender Differences

Males are four times more likely than females to commit suicide

Females are more likely to have thoughts of suicide

Females are four times more likely than men to attempt suicide

Males are most likely to use firearms to commit suicide

Females are most likely to use poisoning to commit suicide

Age Differences

1 in 100,000 children ages 10 to 14 die by suicide each year

7 in 100,000 adolescents ages 15 to 19 die by suicide each year

12.7 in 100,000 young adults ages 20 to 24 die by suicide each year

Suicide Prevention

Suicide prevention methods and treatment are based on patient risk factors. Treatments are prescribed in light of underlying conditions in addition to prevention of suicidal thoughts and acts. If you are suffering from a mental disorder, a treatment plan to treat this condition is implemented first. One of the most common suicide prevention techniques is psychotherapy- also known as talk therapy -in the form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a common treatment option for individuals suffering from a variety of mental disorders. In this method of psychotherapy, you are taught new ways of dealing with stress and stressful life experiences. In this manner, when thoughts of suicide arise, you can redirect those thoughts and cope with them in a different way than attempting to take your own life.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is used to help an individual recognize disruptive or unhealthy feelings or actions. In relation, this therapy method then introduces techniques on how to deal with difficult or troubling situations. More research is needed on psychotherapy related to suicide prevention though, as DBT, in particular, has been shown to decrease the prevalence of attempted suicide but has shown no effect on completed suicides.

Medications can also be prescribed as a prevention method to suicide; however, controversy exists in this method, as many medications used in the treatment of mental disorders include increased risk of suicide as a side effect. Antidepressants especially carry a risk of a potential increase in suicidal thoughts and behavior-but this risk might be dependent on age. Clinical research has shown that young adults increase their risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts when taking antidepressants, but in older individuals, this side effect diminishes.

Increased awareness among doctors is also a prevention technique. Research indicates that many individuals who have completed suicide or attempted suicide did seek medical attention in the year prior; however, warning signs may have been missed. Increased education and awareness among medical professionals might decrease suicide rates in the future.

Popular "crisis hotlines" have not received solid data indications in the research that suggest their use is effective or not. Though, one positive side effect of these hotlines is that they are generally well-known which increases the general population's awareness of suicide. In an additional effort to bring awareness to suicide and risk factors associated with suicide, September 10 has been observed as World Suicide Prevention Day in partnership with the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization.

If You Need Help

If you are suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anyone can call toll free and all calls are confidential.

If you know of someone who is suicidal, do not leave the person alone. Attempt to get them immediate help from their medical provider, hospital, or call 911. Remove access to dangerous items, such as firearms, medications, or other potential risks.

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Suicide and Suicide Prevention: Risk Factors and Treatment

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Suicide is defined as intentionally taking one's own life and comes from the Latin suicidium, which literally means "to kill oneself." It tends to carry different traits depending on the culture. Historically, and still today in some locations, suicide is considered a criminal offense, a religious taboo, and, in some cases, an act of honor (e.g., kamikaze and suicide bombings).

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This article explains the risks factors for teens. This explains why these risks factors are actual things teens need to be careful.It also explains how others cause it.THis also explains important ways for teens to stay safe.It explains why these are important ways to stay safe.

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Lo sentimos, la página que usted busca no se ha podido encontrar. Puede intentar su búsqueda de nuevo o visitar la lista de temas populares.

Teen Suicides: What Are the Risk Factors?

Temperament, family and community all play a role

Nadine Kaslow, PhD

One of the myths about suicidal talk, and actual suicide attempts, in young people is that they are just a bid for attention or "a cry for help." Kids who talk or write about killing themselves are dismissed as overly dramatic-obviously they don't mean it! But a threat of suicide should never be dismissed, even from a kid who cries "Wolf!" so many times it's tempting to stop taking her seriously. It's important to respond to threats and other warning signs in a serious and thoughtful manner. They don't automatically mean that a child is going to attempt suicide. But it's a chance you can't take.

When thinking about this, it helps to understand what factors make a young person more or less likely to consider or attempt suicide. What do we know about young people who try to kill themselves, or who actually die by suicide? Let's take a look at both the risk factors-things that increase the likelihood that a child will engage in suicidal behavior-and the protective factors, or things that reduce the risk.

If a child has a lot of risk factors and hardly any protective factors you need to be extremely concerned about him. On the other hand, if he has a fair number of risk factors but a lot of protective factors you may be somewhat less concerned, although you still, of course, need to be concerned.

Here are some key suicide risk factors:

A recent or serious loss. This might include the death of a family member, a friend or a pet. The separation or a divorce of parents, or a breakup with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, can also be felt as a profound loss, along with a parent losing a job, or the family losing their home.

A psychiatric disorder, particularly a mood disorder like depression, or a trauma- and stress-related disorder.

Prior suicide attempts increase risk for another suicide attempt.

Alcohol and other substance use disorders, as well as getting into a lot of trouble, having disciplinary problems, engaging in a lot of high-risk behaviors.

Struggling with sexual orientation in an environment that is not respectful or accepting of that orientation. The issue is not whether a child is gay or lesbian, but whether he or she is struggling to come out in an unsupportive environment.

A family history of suicide is something that can be really significant and concerning, as is a history of domestic violence, child abuse or neglect.

Lack of social support. A child who doesn't feel support from significant adults in her life, as well as her friends, can become so isolated that suicide seems to present the only way out of her problems.

Bullying. We know that being a victim of bullying is a risk factor, but there's also some evidence that kids who are bullies may be at increased risk for suicidal behavior.

Access to lethal means, like firearms and pills.

Stigma associated with asking for help. One of the things we know is that the more hopeless and helpless people feel, the more likely they are to choose to hurt themselves or end their life. Similarly, if they feel a lot of guilt or shame, or if they feel worthless or have low self-esteem.

Barriers to accessing services: Difficulties in getting much-needed services include lack of bilingual service providers, unreliable transportation, and the financial cost of services.

Cultural and religious beliefs that suicide is a noble way to resolve a personal dilemma.

But what about protective factors, things that can mitigate the risk of engaging in suicidal behavior?

Here are some key protective factors:

Good problem-solving abilities. Kids who are able to see a problem and figure out effective ways to manage it, to resolve conflicts in non-violent ways, are at lower risk.

Strong connections. The stronger the connections kids have to their families, to their friends, and to people in the community, the less likely they are to harm themselves. Partly, that's because they feel loved and supported, and partly because they have people to turn to when they're struggling and feel really challenged.

Restricted access to highly lethal means of suicide.

Cultural and religious beliefs that discourage suicide and that support self-preservation.

Relatively easy access to appropriate clinical intervention, whether that be psychotherapy, individual, group, family therapy, or medication if indicated.

Effective care for mental, physical, and substance use disorders. Good medical and mental health care involves ongoing relationships, making kids feel connected to professionals who take care of them and are available to them.

So what do you do if your child fits the profile of someone at risk for youth suicide? Warning signs of suicide to be alert to include changes in personality or behavior that might not be obviously related to suicide. When a teenager becomes sad, more withdrawn, more irritable, anxious, tired, or apathetic-things that used to be fun aren't fun anymore-you should be concerned. Changes in sleep patterns or eating habits can also be red flags.

Acting erratically, or recklessly is also a warning sign. If a teen starts making really poor judgments, or he starts doing things that are harmful to himself or other people, like bullying or fighting, it can be a sign that he is spinning out of control.

And, finally, if a child is talking about dying, you should always pay attention. "I wish I was dead." "I just want to disappear." "Maybe I should jump off that building." "Maybe I should shoot myself." "You'd all be better off if I wasn't around." When you hear this kind of talk, it's important to take it seriously-even if you can't imagine your child meaning it seriously.

What to do? The first thing to do is talk.
For more information and resources on suicide, see the APA's suicide help page.

Nadine Kaslow, PhD, is a psychologist who was the 2014 President of the American Psychological Association. She is the Vice ... Read Bio

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Teen Suicides: What Are the Risk Factors? - Child Mind Institute

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Lo sentimos, la página que usted busca no se ha podido encontrar. Puede intentar su búsqueda de nuevo o visitar la lista de temas populares. Temperament, family and community all play a role Nadine Kaslow, PhD One of the myths about suicidal talk, and actual suicide attempts, in young people is that they are just a bid for attention or "a cry for help."

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10 things people should understand.

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Like most secular people, and many religious ones, for most of my life I believed the dominant cultural idea about suicide: that it was everyone's private choice. That it was morally neutral. And that since we cannot presume to comprehend the pain that concludes in such an act, we should drop the subject. I no longer think any of that is true.

What caused me to change my mind? I lost two friends to suicide, within about a year and a half of each other. I, too, couldn't help but think about suicide sometimes. I'm a poet and a historian, and I've written a lot about the history of secular ideas, so I thought hard about what I was going through. I noticed it was strange that we all feel so alone in our suicidal suffering and yet how keenly we feel connection when someone we know dies by suicide. I started to think of the positive side of what that pain tells us. We are not as alone as we think, and we can make a huge contribution to society just by staying alive. I had often read that one suicide can lead to more suicides. That means even if you believe that are a terrible burden right now, your suicide would be a much bigger burden.

I came to these conclusions by writing first a poem, and then a blog post about suicide. Responses were moving and made me feel that I had to learn and write more. Thus began a period of deep research on suicide throughout history and today.

We are not as alone as we think, and we can make a huge contribution to society just by staying alive

What I learned is that, compared to ours, most societies have had stronger messages about rejecting suicide, because of what we mean to each other and because of what we owe to our future self. Socrates is often remembered as a suicide. But in the jail cell where he took the hemlock, Socrates told his students and friends that they must not kill themselves, unless they too are condemned to it in court; and Aristotle also spoke of suicide as wrong because "the just and the unjust always involve more than one person." We moderns have lost contact with this and other crucial ideas because of a turf war between religion and secularism. It was time to rethink the secular stance on suicide on its own terms. This research became my book, Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against It.

Let me clarify that I am not talking about end-of-life care, which I believe should include the right to die, especially in an age when people are medically kept alive for so long. I sometimes say that I am addressing "despair suicide." Loosely, I am talking about a person whose loved ones, or medical caretakers, would think needs to keep living.

After several years of thinking and writing, I've boiled down ten ideas for how we can think differently about suicide.

1) We don't have the right to suicide

Suicide hurts other people terribly. For some it is fatal: Throughout history people have noted that one suicide can lead to more suicides, in all sorts of groups. After the publication of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, some young men across Europe killed themselves dressed as Werther, or holding the book, and by many accounts there was a rise in suicide in countries where the book was available.

Now modern statistical studies repeatedly demonstrate the existence of suicide clusters, each representing a real rise in the suicide rate in certain high schools, colleges, regiments, and towns, age groups, and professions. You may remember headlines, over the past few decades, about suicides among farmers, policemen, among teens in the eighties; at certain colleges, or in a particular college dorm. Recently there have been major headlines about a shocking rise in suicide rates among baby boomers, military personnel, and Native Americans (especially the young).

There are a variety of indications of the significance of influence. In the 1970s researcher David Philips, now a sociology professor at University of California San Diego, followed the rise in suicides after the death of Marylyn Monroe and other celebrities and called it the Werther Effect. The rise is strongest for those of the same age and gender as the celebrity. Beyond celebrities, studies show a robust correlation between media reports about suicide and an increase in actual suicide in the area that hears about it, again especially among people of the same age and gender. Media influence on suicide seems especially potent with adolescents and young adults. There is even a dose response, such that more exposure to such news leads to more suicidal behavior.

Victor Hugo rejected suicide because, "As soon as it touches your neighbors, suicide is murder." And Jean Jacques Rousseau had a wise character tell a younger, suicidal friend that suicide must be rejected for many reasons, including that it might cause more suicide. Suicide is too harmful to be a right.

2) Staying alive is a life-saving social contribution

Because of the power of suicidal influence, staying alive through your dark night keeps other people alive. In a very careful and large study out of Johns Hopkins in 2010, researchers found that the suicide of a parent of a child under 18 triples the children's suicide rate, with different patterns of hospitalization and death depending on the child's age at the time of parent's suicide. A 2014 study shows that a parent's suicide attempt increases the likelihood that the child will make a suicide attempt fivefold, "even after adjusting for the familial transmission of mood disorder."

That means that if you don't kill yourself, your daughter is less likely to kill herself; and if you make it through, maybe she does too. An ex-Army Ranger quoted this idea from Stay in a personal essay on suicide for the Daily Beast and added: "If you want your Ranger buddy to survive, you have to accept help and fight through your own battles." I don't know why we cannot always see our own value, but when people realize that getting help and surviving will keep others alive, they feel less self-indulgent when they take steps to make it through the crisis. We save each other's lives when we look after ourselves. Society should express gratitude to those who stay alive for others, and I'm happy to start. Thank you. We are often telling people to get help, but we don't tell them why.

3) We need to consider the rights of our future selves

Albert Camus, famous for announcing that we must all confront the question of suicide, is less famous for his powerful conclusion that we must reject suicide. He argued that more life is always better, even if it is not happy. Camus says that what you will learn from experience is unknowable until you get there, and very much worth the wait and struggle.

Just as our culture minimizes the interconnected nature of our selves, it also sees the self as an unchanging agent. We forget that we will change and grow in ways we cannot now imagine. Who are we going to become? We should make an effort to have respect for that person.

Many figures through history have reminded us that even when all seems lost, circumstances sometimes change abruptly. The Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne offered many tales of suicides completed just before everything changed for the better, and other tales of the rejection of suicide leading to a wonderful and storied life. For we moderns, there might also be a new drug or other intervention, if we can wait for it.

There are certain people who need to give the "future self" idea particular thought. Up until age 25, the brain's prefrontal cortex isn't finished growing. Until then, you do not know how you will experience the world in a few years. The prefrontal cortex is the location of executive function: planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. You are about to get much better at getting what you want to get. For now, find a way to wait. For we who are older, if you are going through a period of life that is infamously taxing, remember that things may get better for you too, if you can trust your future self to know things you do not yet know.

4) Suicide is among the top ten killers of Americans

When people try to kill themselves and survive, they overwhelmingly report being glad they lived

5) Suicide is often impulsive, such that if the impulse is thwarted, the person lives

Whenpeople try to kill themselves and survive, they overwhelmingly report being glad they lived, according to studies and observations by suicidologists. A follow-up on 25 years of people who tried to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge showed 96 percent alive or having died of other causes. We often think of suicide as the unavoidable end point of a life-long battle with agonizing depression, but it often isn't that, or isn't only that. Recent humiliation or loss is very often a determinant.

6) Physical barriers to suicide have been shown to work and so can conceptual ones

In the 1990s the United Kingdom was seeing a lot of suicide by acetaminophen overdose, so they legislated that the drug had to be sold in smaller quantities. Deaths by acetaminophen overdose fell significantly. The number of overdoses stayed constant, but far fewer were fatal. People survived because the act is so impulsive that they only ingest what is in the house, so smaller bottles save lives.

In the US over half the gun deaths are suicides and over half the suicides involve guns. Having immediate means is bad. If you are looking after yourself, see that it would at least take you a few hours and a bit of effort and human interaction. I have heard from several men and women who store their guns in someone else's home for this reason.

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said suicide is always a rushing of one's defenses, and added that there is nothing worse than rushing your defenses. Wittgenstein felt suicidal off-and-on his whole life and three of his four brothers committed suicide, but he had worked out reasons suicide was wrong and he didn't do it. As a rule, we cannot usefully tell ourselves not to be depressed, but it seems that we can usefully tell ourselves not to commit suicide.

7) We can't always trust our moods, so we should train ourselves to override suicidal impulses

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Our moods do not believe in each other." Of the roughly 40,000 people who commit suicide a year in the US, surely some would not have predicted such a death for themselves. Some just got caught in a bad moment, with lethal means, and no solid ideas about not doing it. There is a part of many suicidal people that fiercely does not want to die; the part of us that calls hotlines, for instance. That part of us needs encouragement.

There are people reading this who do not see themselves as at risk for suicide but who will die that way, unless they take some mental action now. Inoculate yourself, as much as you can, by thinking some of this over in this new context. Don't let yourself be killed by the classic blind forgetfulness of misery. Practice remembering that depression casts an illusion of constancy whenever it arrives.

There is a part of many suicidal people that fiercely does not want to die. That part needs encouragement.

I received a letter from one man, a lawyer, who told me that my presentation of the numbers regarding the suicide of parents with children under 18 had settled the matter for him after decades of painful vacillation. It was a relief. He also gave me a great insight: he writes a note to himself when he is happy, because when he feels bad only his own handwriting can show that he ever felt happiness, or ever would again. Decide now not to let your worst mood kill off all the others.

8) If individuals knew how common suicidal thoughts are, they would be less frightened of their own

A lot of people think about suicide - my educated guess is well over half the population. A 2006 study of 26,000 college students (undergraduate and graduate) showed that over half had considered suicide at some point. Eighteen percent of undergraduates had thought seriously about it. Anecdotally, when I speak to adults, most of them confess to sometimes wanting to die. Thinking about it is not an indication that you should do it, or will do it. Take the thoughts seriously as an indication that all is not well, and find someone to talk to. But the thoughts are too common to be terrifying. If we all knew how many of us sometimes think about it, we would be less inclined to be pushed around by our ideation.

9) Our increasing suicide rate is a trend, and trends can be slowed or reversed

The suicide rate goes up and down. The mechanism that makes sense to me is that people copy each other's behavior ever more, until they reach a saturation point and begin to see that behavior as old-fashioned. When that feeling is forgotten, the cycle starts again.

Human societies have stopped trends in the past, even with very addictive drugs. There are social trends that were endemic for centuries, like foot binding, dueling, and the Atlantic slave trade, that were stopped by a re-examination of what is good and a rejection of something that is causing suffering and waste. Perhaps we can change this, too.

I am sure the conditions of one's life matter tremendously to people's moods, but whether or not suicide is on the table as a response to that pain is often based on things that trend, like how many suicides you have heard of, by people similar to you. We can make a point of not dying by trend. Of course, the part of our suicidal thoughts that come from trauma, neglect, and bad chemistry needs to be taken care of, and the part of our suicidal ideation that comes from economics, politics, war, and the loss of the natural world ought to be a spur to action. But sometimes what makes the difference is whether suicide seems like a viable response to suffering for a person like you, and we can be on guard against that.

10) If we manage to lower the suicide rate and keep it low, people in the future will look back at our age and see a massacre

What would you think if I told you about a civilization where 40,000 men, women, and children took their lives every year? How is this not a kind of blood sacrifice? Suicide notes are full of people explaining that they are a burden. How did they get that idea? Our culture told them that it is up to them to decide if life is worth living. They have been told it is up to them to weigh their contributions and deficits, joy and anguish. What a cruel and wrong-headed thing to tell people.

I believe that community and culture make meaning and it is not up to any one of us to sustain meaning all the time. Imagine that tomorrow morning you wake up alone on the planet. Would you do anything the same? We make life and meaning together, in the context of others. Can you imagine trying to know about meerkats by grabbing one specimen and looking it over in the lab? We are what we are together and we should say so. Or don't say anything about it, but stop saying it is morally neutral to kill yourself, and stop saying it is everyone's choice. If this society is in any way complicit in making us hate ourselves, I don't think we should listen to it invite the miserable to die and get out of the way. For many of us who think about suicide, part of the appeal is to shove life back in life's face. I think the better rebellion is to stay alive.

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10 things I wish people understood about suicide

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Like most secular people, and many religious ones, for most of my life I believed the dominant cultural idea about suicide: that it was everyone's private choice. That it was morally neutral. And that since we cannot presume to comprehend the pain that concludes in such an act, we should drop the subject.

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This picture show what you can do to help along with 6 questions.

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Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25-30 percent since 1999. This is particularly true for youth ages 12-24, with increases of approximately 30 percent over the same period. In Alachua County, Florida, where I teach and practice at the University of Florida, the base rate for suicides among youth ages 12-17 had been about five per 100,000 for many years, below the base national rate of 13 per 100,000. However, in the year 2017 that rate of completed suicides increased to 27 per 100,000, and for 2018 we are at a pace that will likely equal 2017.

While we mental health professionals know that depression and other mental and emotional disorders contribute to deaths by suicide and having thoughts or plans for suicide, life stressors are more often listed as causes, especially since most people do not access mental health services. These include such things as relationship problems, job and financial problems, substance abuse and life crises. Suicides also take approximately twice as many lives as homicides, which garner much more attention.

Our society is now aware that we are facing a national epidemic. The challenge is to identify and serve individuals who are at risk of attempting and completing suicide before that tragic outcome. I have been part of important work over the past few years that offers hope for early identification and prevention, including at a population level.

Curbing a heartbreaking trend

Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

Health care organizations have established a national patient safety goal of reducing suicide as part of receiving health care, particularly in hospitals, promoted by The Joint Commission, a nonprofit that certifies health care programs and professionals.

While at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, Penn. as chair of psychiatry from 2006 until 2011, I was approached by the nursing leadership about tools and processes for suicide screening for patients being admitted, consistent with that national safety goal. Searching the literature, I identified the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) as a possible tool. It had been primarily developed Dr. Kelly Posner as a tool to screen for suicidality in medication research trials. It is now mandated by the FDA for psychiatric, neurological and endocrinological trials. This came after concerns about suicidal thoughts and at-risk behaviors being associated with the use of such medications.

The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale was unique in having predictive value for future suicide attempts, but I found it was cumbersome to administer as a brief screener. Being convinced of the potential for the tool, I approached Dr. Posner about developing an abbreviated screening version. She agreed to the proposal, and my research assistant, Udema Millsaps, and I proceeded to develop a brief, six-item version. Five questions that relate to having ideas about suicide and one question on prior suicidal attempts met Dr. Posner's approval.

In 2009, we went on to implement the first screening C-SSRS, embedded in the initial nursing assessment within the electronic medical record, for all patients being admitted to Reading Hospital. We also developed a response algorithm for either referral to mental health services or urgent safety precautions and psychiatric response during the hospitalization. We also trained over 600 nurses on its administration, with the assistance of Dr. Posner. The results, including both feasibility and outcomes, were very encouraging, including reliability of administration and effective identification of patients at risk, and we presented them at national meetings.

Since that time, I similarly worked with nursing leadership at Cooper University Hospital during the years 2011-2013 in implementing systematic suicide screening using the screening C-SSRS as part of the initial nursing assessment, much as was the case with Reading Hospital. By that time, Dr. Posner had done further work on the scoring of the screening C-SSRS and had developed a new official version, which we happily adopted. Both Reading Hospital and Cooper University Hospital were early adopters of this novel approach to suicide prevention.

However, the team at Columbia has gone much further in promoting the implementation of the screening C-SSRS, now recommending it for broad use in many settings, including our military as well as by the general public. There is now a community version that is recommended to be used by concerned friends and family members if they identify someone close to them as having some risk for suicide.

The six questions

The first five questions are about a person's feelings over the past month. These questions can be asked of people ages eight and older. They need to be included within an emphathic conversation indicating concern for the person, and asked in a nonalarming, matter-of-fact manner.

1. Have you wished you were dead or wished you could go to sleep and not wake up?

2. Have you actually had any thoughts about killing yourself? If the loved one answers "yes" to question 2, ask questions 3, 4, 5 and 6. If the person answers "no" to question 2, go directly to question 6.

3. Have you thought about how you might do this?

4. Have you had any intention of acting on these thoughts of killing yourself, as opposed to you have the thoughts but you definitely would not act on them?

5. Have you started to work out or worked out the details of how to kill yourself? Do you intend to carry out this plan?

6. Always ask question 6: In the past three months, have you done anything, started to do anything, or prepared to do anything to end your life?

Examples you could mention would be: Have you collected pills; obtained a gun; given away valuables; written a will or suicide note; held a gun but changed your mind; cut yourself; tried to hang yourself.

The potential of this work has only touched the surface of this critical problem, and it has many broader applications and opportunities for implementation. These include combining the screening C-SSRS with training on risk surveillance for implementation by teachers, counselors and student organizations, ranging from middle school through the college levels. This especially includes minority and culturally diverse populations, where there have also been major increases in numbers of suicide attempts.

I am currently pursuing such opportunities to make this tool as well as awareness about suicide widely available with the ultimate goal of saving young lives.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). The website is National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

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6 questions you can ask a loved one to help screen for suicide risk

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Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25-30 percent since 1999. This is particularly true for youth ages 12-24, with increases of approximately 30 percent over the same period.

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This shows that not just family but friends can help too.

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Youth culture, young people, group of male friends, multi-ethnic..

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Picture of Youth culture, young people, group of male friends, multi-ethnic teens outdoor, teenagers together in park. Boys comforting sad friend, kids helping depressed boy. Adolescence bond, relationship stock photo, images and stock photography. Image 58642930.

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!2 ways to help someone who is depressed.

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12 Ways to Help Someone with Depression, According to Psychologists

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Just listenWhen a friend or family member is struggling, our natural instinct is to take action and give them what we consider "helpful" advice for handling the situation. But in the case of how to help someone with depression, hold off on the guidance and just listen.

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Helping a friend can help.

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"Pull yourself together." "Put a smile on your face." "Just do it!" These may be among the things you'd like to say to a friend or loved-one when it frustratingly appears they won't do anything to help pull themselves out of the emotional doldrums... but they are also some of the most useless. How, then, can you offer help to someone close who is suffering from depression?

Borrowing essential skills from the , counselling and psychology professions will give you the communication techniques you need to find out how to help a depressed person. A good place to start, then, is to understand the kinds of therapies that are proven to be effective in overcoming depression.

Today, psychologists and counsellors generally agree that a focus on why one is depressed - asking, for instance, "What went wrong in the past?" - is ineffective in treating the condition. Instead, the therapies shown to be successful focus on things like what we do, how we think about things, how we relate to others, how things are going to be better in the future, how we can get our emotional needs met in the wider world and how we can find solutions to our immediate problems.

By way of unpacking these therapies one by one, we look at some of the questions you can ask your loved-one to help him or her get a better perspective on their depression. Seemingly simple questions like...
"What do you do?"
What you're really asking here is, "What destructive behaviours are feeding your depression?" While perceptions and thought processes are vitally important in treating the condition, changing people's behaviour can have dramatic results, too. This is the basic premise of behavioural therapy - that if people feel miserable it is because of the way they behave. In the first instance, helping someone to see that their behaviours - only dragging themselves out of bed at lunchtime, isolating themselves socially, binge-eating , etc - are atypical and unhealthy, you will help them to recognise their depression, which is the first step to treating it. In the second instance, behaviour therapists assert, changing these negative behaviours - even if one has to force oneself to do so - can significantly alter one's negative frame of mind. In essence, it's a case of you are what you do.
"How do you think?"
"Do you actually or do you just think something is frightening?" Helping someone to separate feelings or emotions from thoughts can be a useful tool in unpacking their depression. Identifying and working on one's thinking styles is essential in treating the condition, say cognitive therapists, who operate off the basic idea that all emotion comes from thoughts. Cognitive therapy teaches people to learn to 'catch' their thought patterns and challenge them so that they can feel differently.
"How do you relate to others?"
"Do you wish you could just be alone? Are you afraid you won't know what to say? Are you afraid you'll say too much?" The way that people relate to others in their lives and how they communicate and express themselves is the focus of interpersonal therapy. One of the common traits of many depression sufferers is dissatisfaction in their relationships, so 're-learning' social skills, say interpersonal therapists, equips them with the techniques needed to sustain their relationships successfully. Because communication skills are 'teachable', this a worthwhile practical line of enquiry to employ alongside other counselling modalities.
"How are things going to be better in the future?"
By helping the depression sufferer identify solutions to problems, with an emphasis on future wellness rather than past hurts, you can provide to your loved-one a form of motivational counselling known as solutions-focused therapy. The emphasis here is on teaching new hope-based skills and keeping the focus on the issues at stake, with the picture of a brighter future always in mind.

Each of the therapies above can help significantly to overcome depression and good depression counselling uses all these approaches in a skilful blend . Of course, if you are interested in entering the helping professions, why not consider taking a counselling course ? SACAP offers a Bachelor of Psychology professional degree , approved by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) for the education and training of Registered Counsellors.

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"Pull yourself together." "Put a smile on your face." "Just do it!" These may be among the things you'd like to say to a friend or loved-one when it frustratingly appears they won't do anything to help pull themselves out of the emotional doldrums... but they are also some of the most useless.

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This teen talks about Suicide.

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Native Youth Speaks on Suicide Prevention

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This video gives you suggestions on how to help someone if they are suicidal.

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This article tries to relate one of the many ways suicide can be caused. They try to find a relationship between suicide and bullying. They explain the effects of effects of getting bullied. They explain the different kind of suicide. They talk about suicidal victims, suicidal bullies, and finally suicidal bully-victims.

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School Bullying Is Related to Mental Illness and Suicide

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School Safety, edited by Noah Berlatsky, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http%3A%2F%2Flink.galegroup.com%2Fapps%2Fdoc%2FEJ3010981224%2FOVIC%3Fu%3Dpl2683%26sid%3DOVIC%26xid%3De5e0057e. Accessed 6 Mar. 2019. Originally published as "The Relationship Between Bullying and Suicide: What We Know and What It Means for Schools," www.cdc.gov, Apr. 2014.

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Suicide is caused by depression. Depression can be caused in many ways. In those many ways a person can feel suicidal or commit suicide. This article explains tries to cover up why people commit suicide. They also research on how to stop it.

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The CDC and other public agencies stress that increasing awareness, destigmatizing mental health issues, and making suicide prevention and treatment programs more widely available are crucial to addressing increased suicide rates. Creating a cost-effective, accessible framework that follows this model has continued to pose many practical challenges, however.