-Source-USA Today-
How can it be that people as accomplished, famous, wealthy, and popular as Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade would take their own lives? This was the question on many minds as the country was rocked by the two celebrity suicides and a devastating report by the Centers for Disease Control that suicide rates are up yet again.
Some of the puzzlement has to do with a misunderstanding about what leads to suicide. Most people think of suicide as a catastrophic reaction to a stressful event. Whether it is a marital, financial, legal or academic problem, the lore goes, the person cannot deal with it and takes their own life.
But that is far from accurate. After all, most of us are beset by stressors. Often. And while suicide rates continue to climb at an alarming pace, the vast majority of people do not turn to suicide when faced with a problem, no matter how devastating or overwhelming.
Our research, and that of others, clearly shows that the effects of external stressors are dwarfed by the effects of psychiatric conditions. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol or drug misuse, psychosis — all of these greatly increase risk.
Suicide is the result of abnormalities in the brain. It manifests in the context of other psychiatric brain disorders about 90% of the time. Like many medical conditions, suicide does not discriminate. It does not matter whether the individual is dazzlingly successful, charming, admired. That will not protect them. What will protect them are interventions to address the suicide risk and the psychiatric illness. Read more
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