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UK Suicides 2012 - TOTAL - 5,981 - Male - 4,590 - Female - 1391. For a variety of reasons these figures are very under-reported.The highest number of suicides per 100,000 by age is 45 - 49 years overall.
in males is 40 - 44.
in females is 50 - 54.
These statistics seem to back up the idea of a "mid life crisis" in both women and men.
I don't know what it must be like to try to commit suicide. It isn't difficult to envisage that one would have to be in a very low or desperate state to actually do it. I can remember thinking about just not turning the wheel to navigate a bend & crashing the car at one point when I was very depressed. I'm glad I didn't do it, things do get better, there is "light at the end of the tunnel", (what an apt metaphor), there is a life to be lived.
"Life is a bitch and then you die!" For most of us this is true in part at least. If we are honest, I think we mostly get by, with periods of actually enjoying our lives & unless we are very lucky some times which are fairly awful. It's important to know what gives you pleasure, but equally important to stop doing things which cause you pain - whether physical or emotional. It's good to learn to say "no" - in the nicest possible way of course.
The thing with suicide is the tsunami wave of devastation it leaves behind for friends & family. So many questions unanswered. So much guilt and blame. So much anguish & pain. "What did / didn't I do?" "Was it my / your fault?" So much anger - it is the cruellest way of losing someone you love or are close to.
I'm not someone who thinks that people who commit suicide are selfish & self absorbed. I don't believe many people would do this unless they were in unbearable pain, physical or mental. That pain must overwhelm the capacity to really think about others, especially the people who discover the body.
Attempted suicide can be a cry for help or an ending for one person. But it really isn't an ending for those left behind to pick up the pieces.
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