As we continue to look for a silver in Robin Williams’ tragic suicide, another little glimpse of potential good has come through in the attention his death is bringing to suicide facts and depression information. This piece from Bloomberg View points out that although there is not a great statistical difference between men and women in terms of depression or suicidal thoughts, men’s expression of depression can appear angry or aggressive, versus sad, and that men tend to use suicide methods that guarantee death. Please read this excerpt from the article and click through to the full text using the link below, and if you recognize yourself or someone you know, please seek help.
Robin Williams’s death has brought welcome attention to the very real problem of suicide in the U.S. From 2000 to 2011, suicides increased to 12.3 per 100,000 people from 10.4. Deaths by suicide now exceed those from motor-vehicle accidents.
This is not, as you might think, a problem occurring disproportionately among teenagers or the very old. The people most prone to taking their own lives are those 45 to 59 years old (Robin Williams was 63). Suicides among those in their 50s have been rising especially fast: In 1999, the rate for people in that decade was 13 per 100,000 people; by 2010, it had risen almost by half, to 20 per 100,000.
What puzzles researchers even more is that men commit suicide more often than women do — about four times as often — even though most studies find that women are twice as likely to be depressed and also more likely to have suicidal thoughts. This discrepancy suggests an eightfold difference between the chances that a depressed man and a depressed woman will succeed in committing suicide.