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One out of four Americans between 18 and 24 said they had considered suicide during the pandemic, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among respondents of all ages, 40 percent reported suffering from mental or behavioral health issues related to the pandemic, including…

Chris Arnade is a self proclaimed atheist. He quit his job as a Wall Street analyst to document the stories of people he met in his New York neighborhood. He authored a book about his conversations. Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.(Sentinel 2019) Back row is Arnade’s way of describing those…

A life wracked with teenage angst and the horrors that await many in the trials of the modern American High School is the setting for the book, Thirteen Reasons Why, which has been made into a Netflix Series by the same name. Hannah Baker has done the unthinkable; she has ended her own life, rather than…

Desmond Amofah, also known as Etika, was a star on YouTube. The subject of his final video was suicide. Talking about social media he said, “It can give you an image of what you want your life to be and get blown completely out of proportion. It consumed me.” Soon thereafter police found his body in…

In June 2018, Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef, committed suicide. With his death, many other celebrities expressed their sadness and the full-range of his influence. Although the cause for his suicide is not clear, Bourdain is known to have battle many addictions, and many believed that the world…

Noa Pothoven, a 17-year-old girl from the Netherlands, was sexually assaulted at a school party when she was 11 and raped by two men at age 14. She began to struggle with anorexia and depression and was placed in a group home for mentally ill children, where her condition worsened. She stopped eating…

In March of 2017 Netflix began a series named 13 Reasons Why. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health claim that it is a show that glorifies suicide. The researchers found a 28.9 percent increase in suicide deaths among Americans ages 10-17 in the month after the debut of the show and…

In 2018, the high profile suicide of designer Kate Spade brought focused attention on the disturbing rise of suicide in our culture. The number of suicides among female teens rose 70% between 2010 and 2016 hitting a 40-year high in 2015. As we continue to look for reasons and answers, one element rises…

In 1998, Randy Howell won a fishing tournament with a first place prize of $100,000. He says that at a recognition event, he was feeling a bit prideful when a friend confided in Randy that things weren't going well in his life. Howell mentioned getting together to talk later but never followed up. Later,…

According to the Center for Disease Control, since 1999 the suicide rate increased about 1 percent each year before accelerating to 2 percent annually from 2006 to 2014. Suicide increased among all age groups. Besides economic troubles, the increased “social isolation” due to family breakdown and divorce…

The California legislature has passed, and the governor has signed an “End of life Act” legalizing assisted suicide. On the same day it was signed the Southern Medical Journal published a study connecting physician-assisted suicide with an increase in overall suicide rates. Since assisted suicide became…

When our lives drift away from a focus on God our lives pay the price by ending in a time, place and manner that we never intended. In March of 2015, a plane crashed in the German Alps. It seems that the Co-Pilot intentionally switched the autopilot on the doomed Germanwings plane to descend to 100 feet.…

“In Europe, ‘going to Switzerland’ has become a euphemism for assisted suicide.” In Switzerland, visitors have access to medically assisted suicide with the only limit being that it cannot be carried out for self gain. Independent companies in and around Zurich provide death assistance for a membership…

Andrew Lloyd-Webber was suffering intense pain in his leg. Fourteen surgical interventions left him in such agony he wanted to die. In his own words he said, “I went through a moment of deep depression—that awful moment when you think you must find a way out.” From there he descended to contemplating…

Comedian Joan Rivers thought she had nothing left to live for. Her husband had committed suicide, her talk show had been cancelled, and her daughter wasn’t talking to her. At one point, she decided to commit suicide herself. She didn’t, instead she started lecturing on suicide prevention. She tells people,…

In his book “Out of a Far Country,” Christopher Yuan tells his story of a Gay man’s journey to God. In the book he tells of his mother who after 30 years of marriage was going to leave his father. She bought a one-way Amtrak ticket to Louisville to say goodbye to Christopher and then she planned to end…

It seems as if we are always trying to find ways to answer the question: “What is permissible for me to do?” rather than asking the question, “What would be the wise thing to do?” Pushing the limits of grace may lead us to abnegating our responsibility to make good decisions- and sometimes our families…

In early 2008, Jonny Benjamin was 20 years-old and had just been diagnosed with a debilitating mental disorder. He had dropped out of school and there was little chance that he would ever be able to hold down a job or have a family. His response was to climb out on a bridge and end it all. Just as he…

Analysts say that the prolonged economic downturn is having a negative effect on the suicide rates in our country. The Centers for Disease Control announced that suicides among Americans 35 to 64 have jumped 30 percent since 1999. The biggest jump is 49 percent and affects men from 50 to 54. The figures…

In Washington State, Vermont, Oregon, and Montana it is legal to for a physician to assist a patient commit suicide. Under this law, 83 Washingtonians died in 2012. When a person despairs to the point of having no hope suicide can look like a reasonable solution. Grace calls us rely on the sufficiency…

There is a growing trend of hopelessness, especially among the Baby Boomer generation. Mental health experts say that job loss, foreclosures, and the pressures of caring for aging parents and difficult teenagers are causing an increasing number of them to commit suicide. Between 1999 and 2010 the rate…

About 37,000 Americans end their own lives each year. This is more than die each year in car crashes. Safety improvements have cut the death toll of car crashes by 25% but suicides have kept rising. No government safety program can stop the devastation of a life hungry for meaning or lost in depression…

Vangelis Kapatos, a 26 year old New York City man, decided he didn’t want to live anymore. He jumped from a ninth-story window to kill himself. It must not have been his time. He landed on his back in a pile of uncollected garbage bags. The trash bags responsible for saving his life, were piled much…

Until the time of our death, we live, sometimes even if we don’t want to. Vangelis Kapatos, a 26-year-old New York City man, decided he didn’t want to live anymore. He jumped from a ninth-story window to kill himself. It must not have been his time. He landed on his back in a pile of uncollected garbage…

A factory in southern China manufactures iPhones for Apple and PC’s for Dell has experienced a rash of suicides and attempted suicides in the last few months. In searching for an explanation the answer most often given is the poor pay. The company does not pay its workers enough for them to afford the…