Douglas Boch, Mad in America - Recently, USA Today continued it’s remarkable series on America’s mental health crisis with an October 9, 2014 article, 40,000 Suicides Annually, Yet America Still Shrugs. It is a powerful piece. The article points out that although suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in America and the second leading cause of death in young people ages 15-34, funding for suicide research and prevention is pitifully low compared to the money spent on diseases such as prostrate cancer and HIV, which kill far less people.
But nowhere is the discrepancy greater than when comparing the money spent on suicide prevention with that spent on breast cancer. Breast cancer and suicide each kill about 40,000 people a year. Here in Portland, Oregon the Susan B. Komen walk for the cure attracts 40,000 walkers each September; yet the Out of Darkness suicide prevention walk, held three weeks later, attracts only 500 people. That means that eighty times more people publicly show their support for breast cancer research than for suicide prevention.
What is the cause of this disparity? I think it can be stated in one word — stigma. While positive publicity is given to women struggling with breast cancer, and rightfully so, suicide remains a taboo subject. I remember a member of my healing from depression support group who suffered from a serious depression and worked in the health care profession. One day, she came to group in a much better mood. When I asked her why she was feeling better, she smiled and told the group that she had just been diagnosed with cancer. Seeing the disbelieving looks of the group members, she explained that when she told her co-workers that she had cancer, people gave her lots of love and support. Yet for years she had not talked about her depression and despair for fear that people wouldn’t understand, or that her job would be in jeopardy.
2 comments:
I learned early that you don't talk about chronic depression, it is considered to be a weakness of character or malingering.
I ended up become very successful in my career. Had I accomplished it despite having muscular dystrophy or another problem people would be astonished. However, I have to keep it a secret that I accomplished it despite battling depression and sometimes crushing depression.
I feel for all those who struggle in silence, like I did.
Less suicides in my view could only be obtained in a society in which money was not what it currently is: constante debt. Those who finance breast cáncer treatment and earn heaps from doing so do not want to have to give up their empire which is built on lies and theft without end.
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