Canada: Suicide is based on sense of hopelessness

This report is out of Canada about what families go through after losing someone they love to suicide.

Durham families haunted by the ‘why’ of suicide
Inside Halton.com
January 5, 2015

Protective factors

• Feeling like you belong • Spending time with people you enjoy • Having good physical health • Feeling in control of your life • Being able to solve problems • Having your basic needs met (e.g. safe housing, stable income)

Risk factors

• Childhood trauma • Traumatic life experience • Being isolated and or feeling alone • Having alcohol, drug and/or gambling problems • Having a parent with a mental health problem or illness Source: Durham Region health department

“I felt that deep sense of responsibility had slipped through my hands. That was unbearable. We were supposed to be there for each other ... why did I not see it, why? The word ‘why’ has a lot of counterparts to it.”

And as much as the “why” haunts suicide survivor families, there are no simple answers.

According to the World Health Organization, someone takes their own life every 40 seconds, and for every one of them, there are many more people who attempt suicide. 

Let that sink in for a minute.  

Long enough.

Add in that almost every hour a US veteran has taken his/her own life. 

Families get the added misery of trying to figure out how they made it through combat, but not able to make it back home where they were loved.