What is the average number of suicides that touches a person?

There have been 2 that I know of in my lifetime. I was only close to one, but that’s more than enough.

According to the NIMH, in 2004, there were 10.9 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. That’s approximately .01% of people. Proportionally, this means that if you knew 40,000 people, and all 40,000 were as equally likely to commit suicide as the general population, you would know 4 people who died by suicide. If you know less than 40,000 people (which I assume is likely), then, according to these statistics, you know a disproportionately high number of people who have taken their lives.

In my 54 years, I have seen one loved one commit suicide and that was just a few years ago. Drug abuse was a significant factor in that loss.

@girlofscience: thanks for the info. I thought it was high. I dont know 40,000 people. I

Starting with a classmate when I was 14 and including a best friend of 20 years, and excluding family of friends, and excluding accidental drug overdoses, I’ve known 8 people who’ve deliberately killed themselves.

What makes this even stranger, they were all from the same group of friends. My college ” family”. There were maybe 30 of us total. Just scarry to worry who is next?

@tupara: my condolences.

Suicide is particularly hard to deal with because you can’t help feeling that there might have been something you could have done to save them.

I’m 30 and I have only known one person that has committed suicide. It is thought that my aunt did but it was never confirmed. She was found in a swimming pool and it was known that she didn’t know how to swim. Nobody really knows what happened. She had been drinking that night.

So maybe two people.

This is tough. Thanks for the information.

When I was in my twenties, the younger brother of a friend shot himself. When I was in my thirties, one of my students locked himself in a car with the exhaust running; when I was in my forties, my father shot himself; when I was in my fifties, my aunt took an overdose of sleeping pills; when I was in my sixties, my daughter’s mother-in law took an overdose.

First two – depression
My father – Parkinson’s and depression
My aunt – intractable pain
My daughter’s m-o-l; intractable pain.

a few years ago i was friends with a kid who killed himself, he hung himself in his sisters house. I have a cousin whos bilogical father killed himself when my cousin was a toddler, but i never knew his real dad so i dont think that really counts. I also have a step grandma whos father killed himself because he missed his wife who had died a few years before him. I had met him a couple times but i dont even remember what his name was.

I’m 20 and I’ve known two people that have committed suicide. One family member, one friend. I have another friend who, after she moved away, slipped into depression and tried to commit suicide.

I feel for everyone out there who has dealt with this.