People with depression need a strong support group to help them step away from suicide

[TexasTowelie]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report that is the closest thing we have to the quantification of despair. Between 1999 and 2017, suicide rates in America rose to their highest level since World War II. The increase can be found among women and men, and in every racial and ethnic group. But the spike among people between the ages of 15 and 34 is particularly disturbing. Hopelessness among the young seems a more direct assault on hope itself.

Researchers posit that the opioid epidemic may be partly to blame. Just as a family can be decimated by an overdose, a sense of general despair may take root in communities where overdose deaths are common and visible.

Another proposed explanation is social media, which may expose younger people to bullying while constricting meaningful human interactions — increasing the need for emotional support while narrowing the sources of emotional support. Even worse, emotionally fragile people can find perverse forms of online communities that echo and encourage their despair.

Weighing and testing such explanations are important to understanding the sociology of suicide. But for people who contemplate or attempt suicide, the struggle is more personal and philosophic.

Read more: https://tucson.com/opinion/national/national-opinion-people-with-depression-need-a-strong-support-group/article_d62c2663-4be8-5020-8305-c600dc6f9a2d.html