Page 9 - Healthcare News Jan/Feb 2023

Out of the Darkness
Talking About Suicide Is the First Step in Preventing It
BI y K A I L E Y H O U L E
n 2020, suicide took 45,979 lives in the U.S. — one death every 11 minutes, and twice the number of homicides.
Many factors enter into someone’s decision to end their life, which can often seem like the best deci-
sion to make the pain go away; these factors include, but are not limited to, mental and physical health conditions; stress from harassment, divorce, financial crisis, or other life transi- tions; loss, abuse, neglect, and/or trauma; or family history of suicide.
Even though suicide rates actually dropped 5% from 2019 to 2020, the isolation during the pandemic caused more mental-health issues; in fact, one in five adults dealt with a mental-health issue in 2020. And isolation is the number-one symptom of suicidal ideation, according to behavioral-health professionals who spoke with HCN.
“The isolation may have been comforting to people. They don’t have to leave the house. Then that may have been com- forting, not having to face different outside factors,” explained Elizabeth Therian, program director for Behavioral Health Network (BHN). “But on the flip side, the pandemic also increased a lot of the risk factors, such as domestic-violence situations, and increased anxiety for a lot of people, like this big fear of the unknown virus that there wasn’t much known about.”
Cristina Rivera, director of Outpatient Services at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center, agreed and added that increased
substance use was another factor during the
pandemic because of the lack of support for many
people. Other common symptoms include, but are not limited to:
• Talking about wanting to die, great guilt or shame, or be- ing a burden to others;
• Feeling empty, hopeless, trapped, extremely sad or anx- ious, or unbearable emotional or physical pain;
• Changed behavior, such as making a plan or researching ways to die, taking dangerous risks (including driving fast
or recklessly), displaying extreme mood swings, or eating or sleeping more or less; and
• Saying goodbye or giving away important things.
One symptom that can be overlooked is anger and agita- tion, a state often not associated with depression.
“Most people don’t really express depression or being sad in a typical way, like isolating or not talking to anybody or withdrawing themselves,” said René Piñero, vice president
of Behavioral Health and Clinical Operations at the Mental Health Assoc. (MHA). “But a lot of times, if you see somebody who is more irritated or gets angry more easily than usual, then those are typically signs that somebody might be going through something and they just haven’t talked about it with somebody.”
Mental health and suicidal ideation often causes a person to feel some sort of guilt or shame, and they repress the feelings, causing them to isolate from friends and family even more.
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