Understanding Suicide
Suicide occurs when a person deliberately ends their life. It is complex, and can vary in terms of severity and nature.
People with a history of mental illnesses like depression are likely to experience suicidal ideation.
Suicide ideation refers to the thoughts someone is having about ending their life. They can vary from fleeting thoughts (e.g. life is not worth living) to very concrete thoughts including well thought out plans for killing themselves.
Facts about Suicide
- Close to 800,000 lives are lost each year, which is one person every 40 seconds (WHO Organisation)
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 15-29 (WHO Organisation)
- A person that has had the initial attempt of suicide has a higher likelihood of attempting again (WHO Organisation)
- The data on suicide is poor and is often underreported by 20-30% (ConNetica)