Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here just a heads up. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: a heavy one. We speak frankly about mental health in
Speaker 1: general and suicide prevention in particular. If that's not something
Speaker 1: you're up for today, go ahead and skip this one.
Speaker 1: And hey, take care of yourself. Okay, okay. Americans have
Speaker 1: come grimly to abide, if not necessarily, accept the fact
Speaker 1: that suicide is a societal problem. We understand that it's
Speaker 1: a national issue, a dangerous and growing one. We whisper
Speaker 1: about it, we grieve when it affects us, and often
Speaker 1: we just try to move on. To be sure, there
Speaker 1: are many who spend their lives trying to help those
Speaker 1: who struggle with mental health. For the rest of us, though,
Speaker 1: it is probably well passed time to recognize that the
Speaker 1: increasing issue of suicide and America is both serious and solvable. So,
Speaker 1: to borrow a phrase from the harm reduction community, let's
Speaker 1: talk about it. For the article. This episode is based
Speaker 1: on How Stuff Works. Spoke by email with Deb Stone,
Speaker 1: a behavioral scientist in these Centers for Disease Control and
Speaker 1: Preventions Division of Violence Prevention. She said Suicide prevention requires
Speaker 1: a comprehensive approach that addresses risk and protective factors at
Speaker 1: multiple levels, including societal, community relationship, and individual levels. There's
Speaker 1: a role for everyone in the community. The CDC's latest
Speaker 1: findings on that illuminates the scope of the suicide issue
Speaker 1: in the US. Among those facts, the American suicide rate
Speaker 1: increased thirty six percent between the year two thousand and
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty two, forty nine thousand,
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy six Americans died by suicide, which
Speaker 1: is about one death every eleven minutes. That's about twice
Speaker 1: as many homicides as we had that year. Another one
Speaker 1: point six million Americans attempted suicide. It is the ninth
Speaker 1: leading cause of death in the US for people ages
Speaker 1: ten to sixty four years of age, and the second
Speaker 1: leading cause of death for people ages ten to fourteen
Speaker 1: and twenty five to thirty four. Mental health experts have
Speaker 1: asked the media to avoid using sensationalistic wording like skyrocketing
Speaker 1: or epidemic to characterize the rise in suicides. Still, suicide
Speaker 1: is a clear and increasing public health issue facing that
Speaker 1: might be the first step in combating it, but facing
Speaker 1: it means acknowledging something else too. A researchers found that
Speaker 1: more than half of those who die by suicide don't
Speaker 1: have a diagnosed mental health condition. Of course, having a
Speaker 1: diagnosis of a chronic condition is not the only factor here,
Speaker 1: but it's an important one that needs to be addressed.
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works also spoke back in twenty eighteen with
Speaker 1: Jennifer Pain, the director of the Women's Mood Disorder Center
Speaker 1: and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. As she said, there's a
Speaker 1: stigma associated with psychiatric illness that really needs to go away.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most common illnesses that people have.
Speaker 1: People are reluctant to get treatment and seek out care
Speaker 1: partially because of that stigma. If we got rid of
Speaker 1: the stigma associated with psychiatric illness, then I think that
Speaker 1: would result in people getting better mental health treatment and
Speaker 1: hopefully a lowering of the suicide rate. However, our overall
Speaker 1: mental health is made up of a lot of factors,
Speaker 1: and there are lots of stressors that are associated with suicide,
Speaker 1: like relationship problems, the loss of a loved one substance misuse,
Speaker 1: physical health problems, barriers to health care access, financial woes, employment, stress, discrimination, bullying,
Speaker 1: and experiences of violence, especially during childhood. Access to deadly
Speaker 1: means such as opioids and firearms is another risk factor,
Speaker 1: as these make it less likely to recover from a
Speaker 1: suicide attempt. On a macro level, slowing the braid of
Speaker 1: suicides falls largely on public health agencies, but they can't
Speaker 1: turn the tide alone. A stone with the CDC was
Speaker 1: the lead author of a twenty seventeen report called Preventing
Speaker 1: Suicide a Technical Package of policy, programs and practices. In it,
Speaker 1: the authors wrote sectors vital to implementing this package include,
Speaker 1: but are not limited to, education, government, local, state, and
Speaker 1: federal social services, health services, business, labor, justice, housing, media,
Speaker 1: and organizations that comprise the civil society sector, such as
Speaker 1: faith based organizations, youth serving organizations, foundations, and other non
Speaker 1: governmental organizations. Collectively, these sectors can make a difference in
Speaker 1: preventing suicide by impacting the various contexts and underlying risks
Speaker 1: that contribute to suicide. So that's a lot. On a
Speaker 1: micro level, we can all try to be kind to
Speaker 1: ourselves and others in this fractured world and look out
Speaker 1: for each other. Warning signs that a person might be
Speaker 1: contemplating suicide include, perhaps obviously, things like talking about wanting
Speaker 1: to die or about having no reason to live, or
Speaker 1: looking for a way to kill themselves, such as searching
Speaker 1: online or buying a gun. Butt signs also include talking
Speaker 1: about feeling hopeless or trapped or in unbearable pain, or
Speaker 1: being a burden to others, increasing the use of alcohol
Speaker 1: or other drugs, acting anxious or agitated, having recklessly extreme
Speaker 1: mood swings, sleeping too little or too much, withdrawing or
Speaker 1: isolating themselves, showing rage, or talking about seeking revenge. If
Speaker 1: a loved one is exhibiting any of those signs, experts
Speaker 1: say that it's best to approach the situation head on
Speaker 1: the stone said. One of the simplest ways to determine
Speaker 1: this is to ask directly, are you thinking about suicide?
Speaker 1: But asking the question won't put the thought in someone's
Speaker 1: head who wasn't previously thinking about suicide, and it can
Speaker 1: be a relief for the person to open up about
Speaker 1: their struggles. Asking is the first of five steps that
Speaker 1: the Suicide Prevention Lifeline suggests anyone trying to help should
Speaker 1: know the other four are be there, keep them safe,
Speaker 1: help them connect, and follow up. Paine said, what you
Speaker 1: don't want to do is play the don't ask, don't
Speaker 1: tell game. You're not going to regret getting someone the
Speaker 1: appropriate care. I think that if you really care about
Speaker 1: someone and you're really concerned, then you do everything that
Speaker 1: you can to get them to treatment, including insisting on it.
Speaker 1: Speaking personally, as someone who's been on both sides of
Speaker 1: conversations like these, I can tell you that it can
Speaker 1: be awkward. But the worst case scenario is that someone
Speaker 1: knows you're thinking about them and hopes you're okay, and
Speaker 1: that if you're not, that there is hope that you
Speaker 1: will feel better, and that there are ways to achieve that.
Speaker 1: The CDC Understone's Technical Package, has instituted a seven step
Speaker 1: strategy to help different sectors build programs to prevent suicides.
Speaker 1: These include strengthening economic supports, strengthening access to and delivery
Speaker 1: of suicide care, the creation of protective environments, promotion of connectedness, teaching,
Speaker 1: coping and problem solving skills, identifying and supporting people at
Speaker 1: risk and lessening harms and preventing future risk in the end.
Speaker 1: Solving such a complex public health issue will demand a
Speaker 1: lot of work from a lot of people, and all
Speaker 1: of them will have to be stubbornly unwilling to simply
Speaker 1: move on. If you or someone you know is having
Speaker 1: thoughts about suicide, google Suicide Prevention for resources in your area,
Speaker 1: from phone to text, to chat, to fact sheets with
Speaker 1: conversation points to organizations near you, and if you're in
Speaker 1: the US, you can dial or text the number nine
Speaker 1: eight eight and again take care of yourself. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article the US needs to have
Speaker 1: an Ongoing Conversation about suicide on HowStuffWorks dot com, written
Speaker 1: by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how sstuffworks dot com and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts for wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. HMM