10 Biggest Causes of Suicide in America: Poverty, Bullying, Mental Illness

We should all definitely know what are the biggest causes of suicide in America.

According to the suicide statistics, taken from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is actually on the 10^th place regarding the leading cause of death in the US. This foundation also provides the number of people who commit suicide annually, and the age-adjusted suicide rate is 13, 26 per 100,000 individuals. This would make 121 suicides per day, which is a horrible statistics. They also provided the data about the fact that men commit suicide 3, 5 times more than women, and that they are usually middle-aged white men, that is, 7 of 10 of them. When reading such things, it is really hard not to ask oneself; what happened with this world when so many people simply decide to finish with their lives, often brutally? Did we forget to take care of the people around us, or we simply don’t have time for that?

If you take into consideration that bullying is one of the biggest reasons among children, if not for suicide, then for depression, you will see how the suicidal notions come to existence even from the very young age and sometimes it is just impossible to deal with them. Our list of the 7 Facts About Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Suicide in the US will also bring you some details about the issue, so don’t forget to put it on your reading list. Generally, the Internet is full of the articles on such issues, and I found Live Science as one of the most useful ones. It is really important to note that there is no specific data and you cannot find the exact percentage of the causes of suicide, but there are some common indicators and features to all of the people who committed it. The website Suicide also provided some of the leading causes, and they were the starting point for making this list. I included some of the most widespread reasons for committing suicide, additionally providing the information about the numbers where applicable. This is a deep psychological issue, and the emphasis is on prevention until is late. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, it was late, being the reason we deal with the causes and statistics today.

So, no matter how hard the topic is, you should become familiar with the biggest causes of suicide in America.

10. A Terminal Illness

Although there is no official data in the case of America regarding the number of people who commit suicide when discovering they are terminally ill, or after trying to fight it unsuccessfully, it has been said that one in ten suicides committed in England is actually linked to this. This simply shows how the terminal illnesses affect people, and how they can be one of the leading causes.

9. Domestic Violence or Rape

According to the Criminal Justice website, one-quarter of female suicides is actually caused by domestic violence, and if you take into consideration that one in three women are victims of it, you will realize how serious the situation is. The rape is also often the cause of suicide, especially in the traditional surroundings, and around 17% of American women are victims of that horrible act.

8. Traumatic Experiences

People who went through certain traumatic experiences tend to have the feeling of guilt, shame, and they tend to feel like nobody understands them and nobody can help them. This is mostly emphasized with the people who suffer PTSD, especially after participating in the war, and their feeling of anxiety, depression, and helplessness often lead them to the point of committing suicide.

7. Low Self-Esteem

The lack of self-esteem is also one of the causes that are often repeated when it comes to the biggest causes of suicide in America. There are numerous reasons for this, sometimes this may be the outcome of bullying or the outcome of the unhealthy relations within the family. It may eventually result in depression and anxiety, and it can pave its way to suicide.

6. The Death of a Loved One

There are people who can hardly deal with the death of their loved ones, and especially if that person was their parent, child or a life partner. The feeling that remains after is the feeling of being alone and that no one understands your pain, which opens the doors for depression and suicidal thoughts.

5. Guilt

The feeling of guilt is probably one the leading causes of depression, and although there are some people who started having this feeling after certain events that marked them, some other people are having it quite irrationally. Feeling guilty is feeling worthless, and it is often provoked by something that happened in the past, while the person is not able to move on. It is how the suicidal thoughts start developing.

4. Drug Addiction

It is really hard to deal with the world around you when you are a drug addict without the proper care and support. There are many reasons why people start doing drugs, some are simply curious, while some try to run away from depression or anything else that bothers them, not realizing that it is not the solution. The worst thing is developing the high tolerance to any kind of drugs, which can turn out into a deep depression and eventually lead to suicide.

3. Poverty

There is one really interesting research on the connection between the poverty and suicide, published at the Psych Central, done among 34,653 people age 20 years and older, with the conclusion that “income below $20,000 per year is associated with substantial psychopathologic characteristics and there is a need for targeted interventions to treat and prevent mental illness in this low-income sector of the population”, being probably the best portrayal how poverty can be one of the leading causes of suicide.

2. Bullying

I can freely say that probably most of the people experienced bullying in their lifetime, even those who were bullies themselves, but depending on the character of the person, this does not affect everyone in the same manner. While some of the people manage to deal with bullying, some are not that capable, and bullying may lead them to depression; depression to suicidal thoughts, and eventually, they may decide to take away their own life.

1. Mental Illness

There are some notions that mental illnesses are actually the cause of the 90% of suicides, making it the most common cause. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression are just some of the mental illnesses that people may suffer, eventually not being able to deal with them, which leads to suicide. Although there are many campaigns that try to raise the awareness, mental illnesses are still one of the biggest causes of suicide in America.