By: Alejandra Zacapala Martinez
Suicide has become very common nowadays, more than 800,000 people worldwide commit suicide each year, and more than 39,000 each year in the United States. Some describe Suicide as “the only option left” but others proclaim it is “cowardice”. For better understanding of either stance click ‘Read More’.
The World Health Organisation (aka WHO) estimates that each year approximately 1 million die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of 16 per 100,000 or 1 death every 40 seconds. They estimate by 2 years from now, the death rate will increase to, 1 death every 20 seconds. ‘WHO’ suggests that the condition and characteristics of suicide actions vary widely between different communities. Suicide is a huge complex issue and it’s about time to find out the reason why people do it. There are some risk factors that have been recognize, mainly through relationships.
Suicide in the 2nd leading cause of death in the world for those aged 15-24 years old. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In 2016, the highest suicide rate was 19.72% and it was among adults between 45 and 54 years old. The 2nd highest rate was 18.98% and it was among 85 years or older adults. Teens have had consistently lower suicide rates than middle-aged and older adults. In 2016, teen and pre adults aged 15 to 24 had a suicide rate of 13.15%.
Suicide is very different between gender and ethnicity believe it or not. Suicide among males is 4 times higher than females, male deaths represents 79% of all US suicides. Firearms are the most common way males commit suicide (51%). The highest increase in suicide is in male 50 and up (30 per 100,000). The highest rate in suicide among males is those aged 75 and up (36 per 100,000). On the other hand, females experience depression 2 times more than the males. Females attempt suicide 3 times more than males and poisoning is the most common way of commiting suicide among females. It is also known that females are more likely to have suicidal thoughts than males. The highest suicide rate among females is those aged 45-54 (9 per 100,000).
People with different sexual orientation (bisexual, lesbian, gay) are 3 times more likely to take their own life away than straight kids. Kids with different sexual orientation who come out to their families that don’t accept them are at a 8 times more risk to commit suicide. The more the LGBTQ get physical or verbal harassed/ abused they become 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide. African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American that are lesbian, gay, or bisexual try to take their own life at very high rates. 41% of transsexual or transgender adults said they’ve attempted to take their own life away. In one study, doctors found that 61% of transsexual or transgender adult that had experienced physical assault tried to take their own life.
A lot of people around the world have died by taking their own life. It doesn’t matter who we are, our skin color or our sexual orientation, we all have problems. So, next time you see someone hurting or trying to take their own life, do something to prevent it because EVERYONE’S LIFE MATTERS!
Resources- https://save.org/about-suicide/suicide-facts/, https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1128121/how-to-describe-suicide, and https://www.befrienders.org/suicide-statistics
Everyone is unique nobody should feel the need to take their life away because of others opinions
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