By Deena Sherman –
Some news reports have called suicide a national health crisis after many recent deaths that include high-profile individuals such as Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Many want to take comfort that it is solely about an illness that overtakes some, and nothing more. I don’t believe it is true. There are three facets to it: Chemical imbalance, immediate circumstances, and a deeper hopelessness.
It is not surprising that younger individuals commit suicide. They don’t have the long-term perspective to know how life goes on and changes. Those who have lived enough years know that there are bad times and good. If we can just grit our teeth and make it through the bad days, better ones eventually will come.
What should rattle us to the core is that it is older individuals who are committing suicide in large numbers. We have the perspective to know that week to week, year to year, things do change. Unfortunately, what we recognize is that some things really don’t change. Too many humans are motivated primarily by greed. They accumulate enough power and wealth to create systems where good individuals are crushed, multitudes work long hours for little money, and all too often justice is not served. We have seen that when true public servants arise to lead us, they are often murdered, as with the late John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr..
As we begin to trade the past’s triumphal propaganda and progress for the truth that this country was built on an attempted genocide of native peoples and generations of injustice toward blacks, there is a backlash. We elected a president who emboldens white supremacists and lies with impunity.
So when we combine this moment in history of personal challenges with money, career, relationships, or some combination, plus chemical issues such as depression, puberty, menopause, anxiety, or some combination of those, it is not surprising that we have an epidemic of suicide.
When individuals decide to take their own lives, it is likely after thousands of unkind words, and unkind actions over thousands of days that have worn a person down to the point that they can no longer hear the encouragement others may offer or feel the hope that something better might be just around the corner.
So those who think comedy at the expense of others, such as Roseanne Barr’s recent tweet about Valerie Jarrett is funny, let me assure you it is not. Cruel statements about another person’s appearance, religion, sexual orientation, or race, are evil. They bring some individuals closer to despair and speak volumes about those who find them humorous. These are usually the loudest voices which say there was “nothing anyone could do” to prevent the suicide.
How do I know so much about this situation? A close friend of mine committed suicide a few years ago. Through hundreds of hours of in-depth conversations over many years, I watched him come to the conclusion, through the dark glasses of his body chemistry, that the deck was stacked against him in too many ways to overcome. And on the days when I begin to feel the same, it is his voice that calls me back to a world that I still hope to change.