Suicide In Idaho

Of all the common sources of injury and death that Idahoans face – heart disease, cancer, cardiovascular illness or failing kidneys – none stand out in terms of both prevalence and preventability as suicide. Traffic and industrial accidents aside, more residents of Idaho, especially those between 15 to 34, die by their own hands than nearly all those other causes plus homicide combined.
Overall, Idaho’s suicide rate stands one-third above the national average. But for adolescents and young adults, we are the state with the second highest per capita rate of self-inflicted death. On average, it’s the equivalent of one full Boeing 707 passenger airliner crashing out of the sky each and every year. And each death directly affects another twenty people we call “survivors.”
People often ask why someone would kill themselves. After nearly 30 years’ worth of experience in the field, I can tell you there’s no 100% sure way to predict or explain why any one person chooses to end their life at any given point in time. All we can do is look at overall risk factors and plan prevention strategies around them.
First off, geography. Even Ada and Canyon counties are still rural in many aspects, and these areas traditionally suffer from the highest rates of suicide. People who live in frontier areas tend to be socially isolated, lack direct access to mental health resources, and tend to be the kind of rugged individuals too proud to ask for help with issues such as depression and substance abuse.
Age, ethnicity and gender. Despite misplaced media attention, suicide in Idaho is primarily a problem for white males, ages 65 and older; their rate has doubled in the last ten years. Even more troubling is the fact that the fastest age demographic for suicide is under 15. When older people kill themselves it tends to be out of a sense of uselessness, having out-lived one’s time, and in order to relieve the family of a burden. When young people kill themselves, it’s often a question of physical and sexual abuse.
Socioeconomic status. People often terminate their lives when they lose their livelihoods, and the West has a long history of boom-and-bust economies. Strange to say, but we also see suicide rates trend upward when people come into sudden wealth, as in lottery winnings or large inheritances. Overall though, rich, poor and middle class are all equally at risk.
Religion. No one religious group can claim to exempt their members from suicide more than any other, and no one can point to another religion to blame them for the state’s high suicide rate. Regular participation in religious events of almost any sort does seem protective but interestingly, atheists have the lowest rate while agnostics suffer from the highest.
Mental illness. It’s estimated that as many as 20% of all adults, and 33% of all young people, suffer from some sort of diagnosable mental illness, the most common being depression. Left untreated, depression can become a killer. Fortunately, we can now identify genetic elements in depression and treat it with diet, exercise and, for some people, medications.
Substance abuse. No question about it, this is probably the single most important contributor to lethality since 89% of people in Idaho complete suicide under the influence of alcohol and/or some other drug, with alcohol being, by far, the most commonly abused drug. Alcohol especially lowers inhibitions, clouds judgment and makes people far more impulsive. It’s legal, widely distributed, relatively cheap, socially sanctioned and easily accessed. People often drink or ingest for comfort and pleasure, but after acting as a stimulant alcohol and other drugs quickly become depressants.
Social factors. Idaho’s divorce rate is 55%, compatible with the national average. Its population is highly mobile, changing neighborhoods about eight times over a lifetime, and jobs up to six times over. With such instability, combined with rapid growth, people often don’t know who to trust and what resources to use when they find themselves in trouble.
Culture. A tradition of self-reliant and rugged individualism, taboos against talking about depression and suicide, negative media stereotypes of mental illness, images of solving problems through violence and a ‘blame the victim’ mentality, all inhibit people asking for help, and informs governmental decisions about mental health resources.
Faced with these factors, it’s clear that much can still be done within families, schools, the workplace and society at large, to address this most easily preventable cause of injury and death. Suicide prevention experts agree – the key to minimizing the dangers of suicide lies in the simple act of listening. Not advising, not trying to sell someone on the idea of living, not telling them how you or other people solved their problems. Just being there, offering your presence for however long it takes, and allowing a person to talk to you, in their own words and at their own pace, about their feelings. Often times, these may involve difficult ones such as shame, embarrassment, humiliation, jealousy or rage.
Good listening skills involve the ability to hear and accept those emotions as just that – emotions that will come and go, and don’t necessarily define a person or dictate their behaviors. And you’d be surprised at how, given time and encouragement, people can talk themselves through their own problems and find solutions for themselves.
At the next level, we need education. Most Idahoans who have graduated from junior high or middle school can identify the signs of a heart attack, and provide emergency CPR until the paramedics arrive. Suicide is a far more common event than coronary thrombosis in this state, so we need to educate everyone on its warning signs, first line intervention techniques and where to get immediate professional help.
Those emergency steps are pretty simple. Take the signs seriously. Ask the person if there’s immediate danger from consumption of alcohol and/or drugs. Call either 911 for medical help or the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-564-2120.
And, as with someone suffering from a heart attack, don’t bother asking “Why are you thinking of killing yourself?” That’s not important. The fact that they are – just stay focused on that.
It’s also a smart idea for schools, religious congregations and workplaces to get training on suicide prevention and intervention. Indeed, it may become a legal requirement in some cases. Check with your supervisor or human resources department to see how far along they’ve gotten in developing and distributing this kind of training.
We can also act as citizens and consumers of media entertainment. As voters, we can hold our local, state and federal officials responsible for funding research, education and training on suicide prevention. As people who read, watch and listen to mass media, we can let advertisers and producers know when their portrayals of depression and suicide are unfunny, misleading and prejudicial.
Twenty or thirty years ago, few people in America felt comfortable talking openly about cancer. Today many of us participate in celebrations such as the Race for the Cure. Cancer “victims” are now respected as “survivors.”
The more we learn about suicide, the more we recognize that it also fits into a disease model of diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The major cure is to restore hope to people who have temporarily lost theirs. Suicide is widespread enough in this state to represent a problem for every Idahoan. The good news is that everyone living here also has something to contribute to its solution.