It's Time to Stop Normalizing Suicide

Suicides in the United States have been rising for a long time — and, according to provisional numbers released by the CDC earlier this week, 2022 was no different. The suicide rate crept up yet again, totaling 49,449 according to the data obtained by the National Center for Health Statistics, and is now the highest it has been since 1941— the year the U.S. declared war on Japan during World War II. The problem is not just a U.S. issue. Globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults and it accounts for 57 percent of all violent deaths.
As in previous years, white males continue to be the most vulnerable demographic — committing 23.1 suicides per 100,000 people in the U.S. (as compared to women who are more than three times less likely to commit suicide). Those kinds of statistics seem cold until they are made tragic by the stories of men like Gregory Beckett, a 46-year-old who committed suicide in January 2023 while at work at his Wells Fargo office in Wilmington, DE.
Beckett never exhibited serious signs of depression, and his death came as a shock to his family and girlfriend, the Wall Street Journal reported — and it's not an anomaly. Men are far less likely to be diagnosed with depression than women.
Some try to blame the rise of suicide around the world on a lack of mental health care — but that argument ignores the fact that therapy has never been more available or had less stigma than in the modern age. Some 23 percent of U.S. adults visited a mental health professional in 2022 — a number that has risen 13 percent since 2004, according to Axios.
The answer to the rising rates isn't more therapy: Society needs to stop normalizing suicide.
Watch the video for more!