More Zonkyness

If you are personally interested in suicide as a solution, please contact the Samaritans who can help. This article is not a suicide prevention guide nor is it written by someone qualified in this area.

I have become interested in suicide recently – no, not in that way! In suicide statistics, and the reasons for suicide.

In the UK, in 2014, there were 22 suicides per 100,000 people in the UK (all statistics are taken from the Samaritans suicide report for 2016). It gets rather more interesting when you examine the differences in population groups – for instance, the overall suicide rate for men in the UK is 16.8 suicides per 100,000 men whereas the overall rate for women is 5.2 per 100,000 women. In other words for every woman who commits suicide, there are more than 3 men who commit suicide.

There are regional variations as well of course, but none of those variations are anywhere near as dramatic.

Another significant variation contained within the Samaritans report is the difference in suicide rates at different ages. For instance, the biggest risk group for suicide is between 45-59 where the overall suicide rate is 31 per 100,000 compared with the lowest rate age group of 10-29 years where the overall rate is 13.1. Interesting the comparison between the genders is almost identical here – the rate for women more than doubles, and the rate for men more than doubles.

So if you’re male you are more likely to commit suicide, and if you are middle-aged you are more likely to commit suicide.

One possible explanation for the gender difference is contained within the Samaritans report in that men supposedly choose to opt for more effective suicide methods than women. Perhaps, but this is a rather difficult to test, and there are plenty of other possible reasons why the rate for men is so high. But let’s not dwell on this …

But what else?

There are all sorts of factors that contribute to an increased risk of suicide, including but not limited to :-

1. Certain professions such as doctors, etc.
2. Many diseases or health conditions (excluding mental illness) cause an increased risk of suicide – such as psoriasis, or more fatal conditions such as cancer.
3. Bullying, prejudice (esp. against young LGBT people), racism, etc. Basically anything where one person can be made miserable by nasty people.
4. Mental illness of course.
5. Stress.

And there are probably many more reasons.

But the real rant here is about those who say that suicide is no solution; it shouldn’t be a viable solution because nobody should be reduced to the point where they see it as a solution. But to simply say “suicide is no solution” distracts from the real problems – that other factors cause some people to feel it is a solution.

And it is those problems that need solving.