EDITORIAL: Time to rid ourselve of stigma of suicide

Nov. 22--No one is served when we are indirect in talking about suicide. Yet, that's what we do.

We don't mention it in obituaries. Seldom do we mention it in newspaper articles, unless it happened in a very public setting. And too many of us allow ourselves to be stuck in the misguided belief that people who take their lives are selfish and cowardly?

The shame of it is that experts say suicide is almost 100 percent preventable, noting the vast majority of people who die by suicide suffer from a treatable mental illness, most often depression.

That was just one of the eye-raising findings by the Columbus Dispatch after it spent nine months examining Gov. John Kasich decision to invest $2 million into suicide prevention. Some of the other facts are even more startling:

-- Suicide kills as many people as breast cancer nationally.

-- In Ohio, one person dies from suicide every seven hours.

-- More than 80 percent of Ohioans who took their own lives are middle-age men, ages of 45 to 64.

-- Since 2000, more than 20,000 people have died by suicide in Ohio -- nearly triple the number of homicide victims. The youngest (there were three) were just 8 years old.

Amazingly, outside the circle of mental health professionals and those touched by suicide, few of us knew about the gravity of Ohio's problem until the Dispatch story was picked up by newspapers across the state, including the front page of The Lima News.

Why don't we talk about suicide?

It's OK to have a broken arm; it's OK to have cancer, but it's not OK to have a mental-health issue?

Mental illness is real and shouldn't be ignored any longer.

Fifty years ago people didn't talk about cancer, leading to millions of deaths. Today the awareness and discussion of cancer is top of mind. Not coincidentally, strides have been made in its treatment.

It is time we start paying attention to suicide. It's time we educate ourselves about the many misconceptions and stigmas that have prevented communication about this leading cause of death.

We owe it to those who have died.

We owe it to their friends and family.

Most of all, we owe it to ourselves.

As a community and as individuals, we cannot allow this illness to go unchecked.

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