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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here just a heads up. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: a heavy one. We speak frankly about mental health in

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Speaker 1: general and suicide prevention in particular. If that's not something

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Speaker 1: you're up for today, go ahead and skip this one.

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Speaker 1: And hey, take care of yourself. Okay, okay. Americans have

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Speaker 1: come grimly to abide, if not necessarily, accept the fact

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Speaker 1: that suicide is a societal problem. We understand that it's

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Speaker 1: a national issue, a dangerous and growing one. We whisper

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Speaker 1: about it, we grieve when it affects us, and often

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Speaker 1: we just try to move on. To be sure, there

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Speaker 1: are many who spend their lives trying to help those

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Speaker 1: who struggle with mental health. For the rest of us, though,

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Speaker 1: it is probably well passed time to recognize that the

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Speaker 1: increasing issue of suicide and America is both serious and solvable. So,

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Speaker 1: to borrow a phrase from the harm reduction community, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about it. For the article. This episode is based

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Speaker 1: on How Stuff Works. Spoke by email with Deb Stone,

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Speaker 1: a behavioral scientist in these Centers for Disease Control and

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Speaker 1: Preventions Division of Violence Prevention. She said Suicide prevention requires

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Speaker 1: a comprehensive approach that addresses risk and protective factors at

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Speaker 1: multiple levels, including societal, community relationship, and individual levels. There's

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Speaker 1: a role for everyone in the community. The CDC's latest

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Speaker 1: findings on that illuminates the scope of the suicide issue

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Speaker 1: in the US. Among those facts, the American suicide rate

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Speaker 1: increased thirty six percent between the year two thousand and

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty two, forty nine thousand,

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Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy six Americans died by suicide, which

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Speaker 1: is about one death every eleven minutes. That's about twice

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Speaker 1: as many homicides as we had that year. Another one

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Speaker 1: point six million Americans attempted suicide. It is the ninth

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Speaker 1: leading cause of death in the US for people ages

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Speaker 1: ten to sixty four years of age, and the second

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Speaker 1: leading cause of death for people ages ten to fourteen

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Speaker 1: and twenty five to thirty four. Mental health experts have

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Speaker 1: asked the media to avoid using sensationalistic wording like skyrocketing

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Speaker 1: or epidemic to characterize the rise in suicides. Still, suicide

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Speaker 1: is a clear and increasing public health issue facing that

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Speaker 1: might be the first step in combating it, but facing

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Speaker 1: it means acknowledging something else too. A researchers found that

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Speaker 1: more than half of those who die by suicide don't

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Speaker 1: have a diagnosed mental health condition. Of course, having a

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Speaker 1: diagnosis of a chronic condition is not the only factor here,

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Speaker 1: but it's an important one that needs to be addressed.

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works also spoke back in twenty eighteen with

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Speaker 1: Jennifer Pain, the director of the Women's Mood Disorder Center

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Speaker 1: and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at

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Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. As she said, there's a

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Speaker 1: stigma associated with psychiatric illness that really needs to go away.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the most common illnesses that people have.

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Speaker 1: People are reluctant to get treatment and seek out care

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Speaker 1: partially because of that stigma. If we got rid of

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Speaker 1: the stigma associated with psychiatric illness, then I think that

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Speaker 1: would result in people getting better mental health treatment and

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Speaker 1: hopefully a lowering of the suicide rate. However, our overall

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Speaker 1: mental health is made up of a lot of factors,

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Speaker 1: and there are lots of stressors that are associated with suicide,

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Speaker 1: like relationship problems, the loss of a loved one substance misuse,

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Speaker 1: physical health problems, barriers to health care access, financial woes, employment, stress, discrimination, bullying,

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Speaker 1: and experiences of violence, especially during childhood. Access to deadly

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Speaker 1: means such as opioids and firearms is another risk factor,

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Speaker 1: as these make it less likely to recover from a

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Speaker 1: suicide attempt. On a macro level, slowing the braid of

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Speaker 1: suicides falls largely on public health agencies, but they can't

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Speaker 1: turn the tide alone. A stone with the CDC was

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Speaker 1: the lead author of a twenty seventeen report called Preventing

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Speaker 1: Suicide a Technical Package of policy, programs and practices. In it,

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Speaker 1: the authors wrote sectors vital to implementing this package include,

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Speaker 1: but are not limited to, education, government, local, state, and

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Speaker 1: federal social services, health services, business, labor, justice, housing, media,

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Speaker 1: and organizations that comprise the civil society sector, such as

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Speaker 1: faith based organizations, youth serving organizations, foundations, and other non

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Speaker 1: governmental organizations. Collectively, these sectors can make a difference in

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Speaker 1: preventing suicide by impacting the various contexts and underlying risks

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Speaker 1: that contribute to suicide. So that's a lot. On a

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Speaker 1: micro level, we can all try to be kind to

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Speaker 1: ourselves and others in this fractured world and look out

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Speaker 1: for each other. Warning signs that a person might be

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Speaker 1: contemplating suicide include, perhaps obviously, things like talking about wanting

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Speaker 1: to die or about having no reason to live, or

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Speaker 1: looking for a way to kill themselves, such as searching

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Speaker 1: online or buying a gun. Butt signs also include talking

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Speaker 1: about feeling hopeless or trapped or in unbearable pain, or

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Speaker 1: being a burden to others, increasing the use of alcohol

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Speaker 1: or other drugs, acting anxious or agitated, having recklessly extreme

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Speaker 1: mood swings, sleeping too little or too much, withdrawing or

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Speaker 1: isolating themselves, showing rage, or talking about seeking revenge. If

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Speaker 1: a loved one is exhibiting any of those signs, experts

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Speaker 1: say that it's best to approach the situation head on

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Speaker 1: the stone said. One of the simplest ways to determine

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Speaker 1: this is to ask directly, are you thinking about suicide?

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Speaker 1: But asking the question won't put the thought in someone's

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Speaker 1: head who wasn't previously thinking about suicide, and it can

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Speaker 1: be a relief for the person to open up about

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Speaker 1: their struggles. Asking is the first of five steps that

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Speaker 1: the Suicide Prevention Lifeline suggests anyone trying to help should

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Speaker 1: know the other four are be there, keep them safe,

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Speaker 1: help them connect, and follow up. Paine said, what you

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Speaker 1: don't want to do is play the don't ask, don't

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Speaker 1: tell game. You're not going to regret getting someone the

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Speaker 1: appropriate care. I think that if you really care about

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Speaker 1: someone and you're really concerned, then you do everything that

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Speaker 1: you can to get them to treatment, including insisting on it.

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Speaker 1: Speaking personally, as someone who's been on both sides of

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Speaker 1: conversations like these, I can tell you that it can

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Speaker 1: be awkward. But the worst case scenario is that someone

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Speaker 1: knows you're thinking about them and hopes you're okay, and

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Speaker 1: that if you're not, that there is hope that you

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Speaker 1: will feel better, and that there are ways to achieve that.

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Speaker 1: The CDC Understone's Technical Package, has instituted a seven step

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Speaker 1: strategy to help different sectors build programs to prevent suicides.

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Speaker 1: These include strengthening economic supports, strengthening access to and delivery

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Speaker 1: of suicide care, the creation of protective environments, promotion of connectedness, teaching,

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Speaker 1: coping and problem solving skills, identifying and supporting people at

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Speaker 1: risk and lessening harms and preventing future risk in the end.

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Speaker 1: Solving such a complex public health issue will demand a

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Speaker 1: lot of work from a lot of people, and all

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Speaker 1: of them will have to be stubbornly unwilling to simply

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Speaker 1: move on. If you or someone you know is having

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Speaker 1: thoughts about suicide, google Suicide Prevention for resources in your area,

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Speaker 1: from phone to text, to chat, to fact sheets with

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Speaker 1: conversation points to organizations near you, and if you're in

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Speaker 1: the US, you can dial or text the number nine

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Speaker 1: eight eight and again take care of yourself. Today's episode

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Speaker 1: is based on the article the US needs to have

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Speaker 1: an Ongoing Conversation about suicide on HowStuffWorks dot com, written

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Speaker 1: by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how sstuffworks dot com and is produced

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Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts for wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. HMM