Depression & Suicide in Men & Women

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Depression & Suicide in Men & Women by Karen K. Brees, PhD Share Email Print - Depression & Suicide in Men & Women Tags No tags are currently set for this article. To add a new tag Log in or register Suicidal thoughts are common with depression The risk of suicide increases with age Men are more successful at committing suicide We understand a great deal more about the brain than we used to, but there is still so much we don’t yet know about suicide. At what point does a depressed person make the decision that the pain of living is worse than the finality of death? Each person is an individual, responding to life events and physical and mental illness, including depression, on highly personal terms. It can be easy to be judgmental if you’ve never experienced the depths of despair that can lead someone to consider suicide as the only escape. If you have experienced this, however, you understand why and how this can be. There are no words that can give voice to this total and ultimate sense of hopelessness. What’s the link between depression and suicide? You can’t reason with depression. It takes over and becomes almost a living entity, wearing away at your resolve to see it through, and there can come a time when the struggle seems more than you’re capable of. That doesn’t mean that everyone who is depressed goes on to commit suicide. But thoughts of suicide are common, especially among the severely depressed. Pain hurts, and the pain of depression goes so deep that it can become too much. That is when suicide and thoughts of suicide can arise. Suicide Statistics It is difficult to compile accurate statistics on suicide, since many deaths that are actually suicides are ruled to be accidental. Working with available data, however, researchers have been able to put together an incomplete picture. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. There were 31,655 documented suicides in the United States in 2002. 80 percent of suicides are committed by men. Whites are two times as likely to commit suicide as are African Americans and Hispanics. More women than men attempt suicide, but four times more men than women complete the act. The risk of suicide increases with age. White males age eighty-five and over have a suicide rate six times the national average. For every suicide completed, there are an estimated eight to twenty-five attempts.
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by Karen K. Brees, PhD

Suicidal thoughts are common with depression
The risk of suicide increases with age
Men are more successful at committing suicide

We understand a great deal more about the brain than we used to, but there is still so much we don’t yet know about suicide. At what point does a depressed person make the decision that the pain of living is worse than the finality of death? Each person is an individual, responding to life events and physical and mental illness, including depression, on highly personal terms.

It can be easy to be judgmental if you’ve never experienced the depths of despair that can lead someone to consider suicide as the only escape. If you have experienced this, however, you understand why and how this can be. There are no words that can give voice to this total and ultimate sense of hopelessness.

What’s the link between depression and suicide? You can’t reason with depression. It takes over and becomes almost a living entity, wearing away at your resolve to see it through, and there can come a time when the struggle seems more than you’re capable of. That doesn’t mean that everyone who is depressed goes on to commit suicide. But thoughts of suicide are common, especially among the severely depressed. Pain hurts, and the pain of depression goes so deep that it can become too much. That is when suicide and thoughts of suicide can arise.

Suicide Statistics

It is difficult to compile accurate statistics on suicide, since many deaths that are actually suicides are ruled to be accidental. Working with available data, however, researchers have been able to put together an incomplete picture. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States.
There were 31,655 documented suicides in the United States in 2002.
80 percent of suicides are committed by men.
Whites are two times as likely to commit suicide as are African Americans and Hispanics.
More women than men attempt suicide, but four times more men than women complete the act.
The risk of suicide increases with age. White males age eighty-five and over have a suicide rate six times the national average.
For every suicide completed, there are an estimated eight to twenty-five attempts.