Facts and Myths of Suicide in Canada and the U.S. (Article Critique)

People have been committing suicide since the beginning of time. Suicide is defined as the death of a person, caused by self-directed injurious behavior, with any intent to die as a result of that behavior. A suicide attempt, is a non-fatal, self directed, potentially harmful behavior, with any intent to die as a result.. A suicide attempt may or may not result in personal or physical harm. Suicidal ideation is an individual having ideas and considering or planning to end his or her life. Suicide is usually carried out as a result of ultimate despair due to certain mental disorders such as severe depression, schizophrenia, borderline and bipolar personality disorders, alcoholism and or drug abuse. High stress levels and anxiety due to financial difficulties and personal relationships can also be contributing factors of suicide. According to The National Institute of Mental Health, research has shown that the majority of victims of deaths by suicide had been diagnosed with some type of depressive mental illness. Suicide and suicide attempts have a dramatic impact and take an enormous toll on society. According to recent studies by the CDC, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among Americans. CDC reports state that last year alone, there are more than 38,000 people who have committed suicide, over one million people have been reported of making a suicide attempts, and two million people have been reported of thinking

| The majority of persons who attempt suicide have given overt or covert indications of their intentions to others.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has published a fact sheet of statistics on suicide in the United States. In 2007, it is reported that suicide was the tenth leading cause of death. Furthermore, for every suicide committed, eleven were attempted. A total of 34,598 deaths occurred from suicide with an overall rate of 11.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. (NIMH, 2010). Risk factors were also noted on this report and listed “depression and other mental disorders, or a substance abuse disorder (often in combination with other mental disorders). More than ninety percent of people who die by suicide have these risk factors (NIMH, 2010).”

When a person decides to commit suicide, it is at times seen to be very selfish and cowardly. It is considered the easy way out. Whether it is running from punishment, leaving loved ones behind, or tearing a family apart, suicide is not the answer.

On average, every day, 121 people die from suicide, which means 44,193 deaths each year just in the United States. On the other hand, for every one suicide, there are at least 25 attempts. Every attempt that “failed” is just another chance to save a life. An unknown source once quoted “Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better.” There are multiple methods a person can choose from to commit suicide, but this essay will be discussing two specific methods: jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge and physician-assisted suicide.

Canada's grief stricken Pimicikamak Cree Nation has declared a state of emergency: six suicides in two months, 140 suicide attempts in two weeks, 6,000 attempts in three months and 150 students (of 1,200) on a suicide-watch list. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-community-seeks-answers-as-youth-suicides-soar/article29199297

Suicides are one of the most prevalent deaths that occur across the world. Suicidal cases have been examined by philosophers, scholars and researchers since decades (Bertolote, 2000). Majority of the suicidal cases reflect stress, fear of losing reputation and disbelief and anger as reasons. As hard it is to counsel the patients with suicidal tendencies, it is equally hard to prevent them (Bertolote, 2000). It is recorded that suicides are the tenth major causes for death in United States and it increased to 12% from the period 2000-2009 (Schmitz, et al., 2012). The biggest irony in the case of suicides is the people who save our lives i.e. doctors are more prone to suicides. Amongst the doctors who commit suicides, Dentists

A death that is caused by self-inflicted injurious behavior, with the intent to die, is known as suicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). Whereas, a suicide attempt is a non-fatal, self-inflicted, and potentially injurious behavior, with the intent to die. Suicide ideation is the considering, thinking about, or the planning of suicide (CDC, 2015).

A suicide attempt is when an individual takes an action or behavior with the intentional result of death, but is unsuccessful. When an individual takes an action with the intention result of suicide is suicide (CDC, 2016).

At the basic level, suicide is the act intentionally and voluntarily killing one self. The word suicide is composed of two Latin words, sui meaning “self” and caedere meaning “to kill.” Though the definition and act of suicide may appear to be quite simple, the circumstances, the causes, and the aftermath make the subject matter much more complicated than it is (Stewart, 1998). Though everyone’s situation may be different, those who commit suicide tend to have an overwhelming feeling of hopeless, helplessness, and emotional pain, and therefore see suicide as an escape (Stewart, 1998).

Suicide attempters are ambiguous in their intent and less explicit in communicating their suicidal feelings. They seem to be seeking help, but either cannot communicate their message or others do not take it seriously because of its vagueness, which leads to more dramatic and dangerous methods to express their appeal for help. They use methods such as wrist cutting, but only 5 to 10 percent of attempters eventually kill themselves.

Suicide is the wilful taking of one’s own life. Suicide is prevalent and affects people of all ages and cultures. In the UK male population suicide is now the biggest killer of middle-aged males overtaking diseases such as cancer and heart disease. A major predictor of engaging in suicidal behaviour is depression. Furthermore, it was found that 15% of clinically depressed patients would take their own lives. (HOLT). Those are only statistics but they can in no way describe the misery in which people find themselves. There are many differing factors that contribute to a person engaging in suicidal behaviour such as loss, history of mental disorder and environmental factors. There are also many theories of suicide that integrate these established risk factors such as the interpersonal theory of suicide.

Earlier efforts to quantify the lethality of suicide focused primarily on intent, self-injury, and the probability of death. Some researchers proposed that lethality was a function of a risk/rescue ratio such that higher risk of self-harm

2008). According to most of the researchers who studied suicide, the assumption is totally wrong or unacceptable. Even though, the suicidal person might have own reasons to end their life, it is still unacceptable. Suicide is not acceptable because it is not the answer for all our problems. It is true that we live in a high pressure world, which sometimes forces us over the edge. Problems and sufferings are something common in our lives. All of us will face a difficult situation in our lives. In those situations, if everyone started to attempt suicide then there will be no one left in this word. Suicide is a tragic experience, not just for the victims, but for those they leave behind struggling to understand what went wrong and what they could have done to prevent it. As Edwin Shneidman points out in his Ten Commonalities of suicide, “The common purpose of suicide is to seek a solution”. Thus, we should view problems as something can be solved. Moreover, through suicide we can’t actually solve a problem. We can just release our self or escape from the problem, but our loved will suffer later. Therefore, suicide is just a stupid decision that people make in their

Emile Durkheim once stated that suicide is, “all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result” (Jones, 1986). However, suicidal ideation is considered when an individual has thoughts or feelings of suicide, but does not attempt or complete suicide. Suicidal gesture, is when the individual has attempted the act of ending their life, if they were to be accidentally successful, then the suicide is completed (Leming & Dickson, 2016). A completed suicide is when an individual has successfully ended their life by their own actions.