Holiday Mythbusting: Suicide
Posted by Daren Jaques on December 22, 2007
by Daren Jaques
For those few readers that have been with us since the beginning (I think October ‘06?) you’ll remember one of my old recurring themes was mythbusting. Two of my notably popular ones were the “blood is blue inside your body” myth and that “tornadoes won’t cross rivers” myth. I’ve got another one for ya, how about “this is the most popular time of year for suicides”? I heard someone at my office say that just last week, and I’ll bet you’ve heard that too.
So, is it true? The answer is no. NPR did THIS STORY on how suicides actually drop during the holiday season, by as much as 40%.
On a related note, I did a lot of research on whether it is true that dentists and lawyers are more likely to commit suicide, and I could find nothing either confirming or refuting it. So, our little depressed wanna-be dentist elf, Hermie, should be okay. Unfortunately, the only profession that I did find in a statistically higher category for suicide was a military veteran. Other than that, the statistics are pretty generalized - teenagers by far outstrip every other demographic, but the elderly come in second.
So, sorry to be a Debbie Downer here, but remember, while the “holiday blues” may be real, they just don’t lead to ten lords a leapin’ off a bridge… sorry, that’s a bad one - I just couldn’t resist…
