Suicide rates differ among gender and age group. To under stand a suicidal victim one must understand what causes a person to become suicidal. .
There is a direct link to depression illness and suicide. The number one cause of suicide is untreated depression. Depression occurs when a chemical in a persons brain get out of balance. A person who suffers from depression does not think like a typical person who's in a good mood. They are consumed with emotions and many times physical pain that becomes unbearable. They don't want to die but it's the only way they feel their pain would end. Depression is treatable. A person can learn to feel good about their self. .
Suicide victims are increasing here in the U.S. In the year 2000 suicide took the lives of 29,350 Americans. More people died from suicide then from homicides. In 2000 there were seventeen times more suicides then there were homicides. Over all suicide is the 11th leading cause of death for all Americans and is the 3rd leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24. Suicide victim numbers change according to gender and age.
People under the age 25 accounted for 15% of all suicides in 2000. From 1952-1995 the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled. From 1980-1997 the rate of suicide among people aged 15-19 years increased by 11% and among people aged 10-14 years by 109%. In 1999 more young people died from suicide then from cancer, heart disease, aids, birth defects, strokes, and chronic lung disease. Although suicide rate among young children is a rare event, the dramatic increases in the rate among people aged 10-14 years concludes the urgent need for increasing efforts to prevent suicide among people in this age group.
Suicide rates increase with age and are highest among people aged 65 years and older. The ten year period 1980-1990, was the first decade since the 1940's that the suicide rate for elderly rose instead of declined.
