Photo: Courtesy Naomi Judd
In the letter, the “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer, 72, and physician Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D. discuss how “suicide is actually one of the leading causes of preventable death among these mental illnesses.”
In June, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released data showing that veteran suicide numbers are significantly higher than non-veterans and are not declining. These reports have set off alarms on social media, with numerous blogs and Facebook testimonials highlighting people’s struggles with depression, and others sharing the loss of family members and friends.
As a singer who chronicled a lifetime battle with mental illness in the bookRiver of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, and a physician who has spent decades researching cures for mental disorders, we find these statistics devastating. And the recent deaths of chefAnthony Bourdainand designerKate Spademake clear that no amount of fame or fortune can protect people from the despair than can lead some of us to take our own lives.
The statistics in America are shocking. TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) reports that the suicide rate increased to 13.7 per 100,000 people age 10 and older, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) newest numbers find that veterans aged 18-34 have a suicide rate more than twice as high as non-veterans, meaning that every day 20 veterans choose to end their own lives. With 45,000 Americans deciding to end their lives every year, suicide is now the 10th leading causes of all deaths in the United States, and the CDC considers it a leading public health threat.
To understand this issue better, we have to bring the study of suicide into mainstream neuroscience and treat the condition like every other brain disorder. People who commit suicide are experiencing problems with mood, impulse control and aggression, all of which involve discrete circuits in the brain that regulate these aspects of human experience, but we still don’t understand how these circuits go haywire in the brains of suicide victims.
Most likely the propensity for specific malfunctions in the relevant brain circuitry began to form early in development, perhaps even inside the womb. With other brain disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, we have an increasingly rich landscape of research delving into the biology and genetics of these diseases, but nothing yet at this level for suicide. We do know, for example, that lithium seems to reduce the likelihood of suicide attempts, but we do not understand the biological mechanism for why this is so.
It’s about time we do better.
In 2016, Juddrevealed her life-long battle with mental illnessin her memoirRiver of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, in which she tells about her struggles and her road to “radical acceptance.”
Courtesy Hachette Book Group
“Nobody can understand it unless you’ve been there,” the singer, one half of Grammy-winning mother-daughter duo The Judds, previously told PEOPLE. “Think of your very worst day of your whole life – someone passed away, you lost your job, you found out you were being betrayed, that your child had a rare disease – you can take all of those at once and put them together and that’s what depression feels like.”
During her depression, “I literally couldn’t leave the house for weeks. I was completely immobilized and every single second was like a day,” said Judd, who had to install an elevator in her home because her legs became so weak from lack of exercise. “It’s so beyond making sense but I thought, ‘Surely my family will know that I was in so much pain and I thought they would have wanted me to end that pain [through suicide].'”
“I’m still recovering myself,” said Judd. “I’m still trying desperately trying to help myself. There’s never going to be a pill for it all. I read up on all the scientific literature, I go to courses. I try so hard to stay up on everything that I possibly can to get rid of this horrible curse.”
“Those thoughts of suicide don’t come anymore. But I’m vulnerable. I know I can backslide,” she added.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “help” to theCrisis Text Lineat 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
