A Growing Number

Suicide, we all hear about it, we all know about it. But do we really understand it? Today there is one suicide every seventeen minutes, and almost eighty-four per day.

So in an average of thirty days or one month, there are over three-hundred suicides. For every suicide there are also at least six suicide survivors. Now I don’t know about you, but this information to me, was mind blowing.

The number of suicides of people in the ages of fifteen through twenty four is around three thousand, nine hundred and seventy-one. With an estimated eleven suicides a day. So on average a person between these ages commits suicide every two hours and twelve minutes. It is the third leading cause of death of young people in this age group. It is the fifth leading cause of death for children aged five through fourteen.

Five year olds? Suicide? Yes. Even though the number is very low, children as young as five can too, in fact die by suicide.

These numbers also can vary between race, gender, and sexuality. Most suicides are males with a number of twenty-four-thousand, six-hundred, seventy-two, while females are only five-thousand, nine-hundred and fifty. Over eighty percent of these numbers are White. This leaves about ten percent Black and Hispanic, and the rest of this is all other races.

Have you ever known someone who was gay, bi, or lesbian that came out of the closet, and got bashed for it? Well there has to be a pretty big number there too. Being unaccepted by society and sometimes your family can be pretty harsh, some people can’t take it. A close friend of mine told his parents he was gay, and his dad hated him for it. Then when the word got out in school he got beaten up. Three months after he came out, he killed himself.

Is this really what all of this is coming to? Losing your grip on control and taking the worst path? That path meaning suicide. Not all people can just blow it off like nothing. It’s pretty hard to ignore these numbers, it’s like a car crash, you don’t want to look anymore but you can’t help it. I myself find these numbers mind blowing and kind of scary. What about you?

If you are or you know anyone who is thinking of or talking about committing suicide, tell someone immediately. You might just save them, or yourself.

1-800-SUICIDE 1-800-273-TALK or SuicideHotlines.com.