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Depression is a never ending battle.
A struggle at one point in time, we all fight. All of us have bad days. Days that seem to never end, days that you get so
angry and upset at the world it feels as though every wall is crashing down. But luckily... at the end of the day, most
of us somehow find hope and security and love from people around us or through the confidence in ourselves to overcome that
depression and anxiety. Yet there are 18.8 million American adults and 4.9% of American teens diagnosed with a severe
form of depression. (www.upliftprogram.com) Getting out of bed and fighting bad days for some people becomes
not just a struggle but a war, that some loose the strength to fight and some end their life to end their suffering.
I was diagnosed with bipolar as a child and have spent my life breathing, eating, thinking, and making decisions
based on this crippling disease. I have gotten passed the point of suicidal thoughts and learned to manage, and
still learning to manage this disease. There is a fact everyone needs to be aware of, bipolar or any case of diagnosed depression
can not be deleted by psychotherapy, cut out by surgery, killed off by meds. It is a forever changing, forever "real" sickness.
That does not mean, therapy can’t decrease the pain, or meds can't numb the loneliness, because it can, and every year
more people are accepting the fact they can't fight this battle on their own and realize that it’s OK to get help. This
website is to educate and test your knowledge on this "silent, but deadly" disease that takes the life of a human being every
5 seconds. My goal with this information is such a small goal, but a huge goal to who it could affect. Maybe, just maybe,
by letting my friends and others know what depression and depression leading to suicide is really about, I could save one
person from taking that knife to their wrists, or that gun to their head. Or maybe even a simpler goal, to let someone know,
they don’t have to fight this alone.
U.S. Suicide Statistics from 2001:
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Suicide took the lives of 30,622 Americans in 2001
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In 2002, 132,353 individuals were hospitalized following
suicide attempts
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In 2001, 55% of suicides were committed with a firearm
(men)
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Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for
all U.S. men
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Males are four times more likely to die from suicide
than females
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Of the 24,672 suicide deaths reported among men in
2001, 60% involved the use of a firearm
(woman)
(youth)
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Suicide is the third leading cause of death among
young people ages 15 to 24. In 2001, 3,971 suicides were reported in this group
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In 2001, firearms were used in 54% of youth suicides
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In 2001 14% of suicides completed were by young
woman (n=562)
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In 2001 86% of suicides completed were by young males
(n= 3,409)
(elderly)
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In 2001, 5,393 Americans over age 65 committed suicide.
Of those, 85% (n=4,589) were men and 15% (n=804) were women
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Firearms were used in 73% of suicides committed by
adults over the age of 65 in 2001
Info from:http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm
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