The sad reality of suicide is a decision, once made and successful, that becomes irreversible. Once final, there is no second guessing, no second chances and no last saves. It is a terrible, heart-wrenching experience for the survivors compounding the already painful experience of loss, separation and grief. Even worse, suicide seems to be growing in the United States.
While suicide rates had fallen from 1990-2003, the next year experienced a spike of 76 percent for preteen and young teen girls, a 32 percent increase for older teen girls, ages 15-19 with a 9 percent rise for young men in that same age category. This increase accounted for suicide as the third leading cause of death among youths and young adults aged 10–24 years in the United States, in 2004 accounting for 4,599 deaths.
This desperate phenomenon is not limited to young persons. The recent issue of Newsweek believes the profession with the highest rate of suicide is none other than doctors, accounting for 300-400 deaths a year, prompting a documentary airing next month on PBS entitled, “Suffering in Silence.” Jim Evans, a Baptist minister in Alabama has written convincingly how the stigma of mental illness casts a shameful shadow over the necessity of seeking help, especially for those in the “healing profession.”
Yet, even more disturbing and alarming, are the reports of suicide from returning veterans after combat service in Iraq or Afghanistan. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington State) is questioning the Veterans Administration’s official assessment and possible cover-up of the wide-spread pervasiveness of this problem, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year while the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800. If this job was not dangerous enough, it seems those suffering with physical or mental illnesses from post-combat trauma are the most at risk.
It’s hard to imagine the utter sense of surrender that would prompt someone to take their own life. While the mental illness component is staggering and significant, all suicides are not limited to a classic case of “being depressed.” Coping with tremendous loss, enduring chronic pain, dealing with substance abuse and suffering with emotionally unstable personality disorders are other factors. The remedy is not just helping others “feel better,” but addressing the conditions of desperation, hopelessness and resignation that are larger than any one single person.
The church should be a safe place for addressing these ills. We affirm our weaknesses in the light of God’s greater love and grace. We teach about the frailty of our existence and the necessary dependence we all have upon God. We are called to be compassionate in word and in deed. We are to pray for one another and to bear one another’s burdens.
But I fear too many, far too many are suffering in silence. May our awareness be heightened, our hearts be enlarged and our ears be ready to listen – to the cries of our neighbors, our families, our youth, our returning soldiers and yes, even our own physicians.
