Some 49,500 people committed suicide last year in the United States. This is the highest number for self-inflicted deaths ever recorded in the country.1 The phenomenon has been attributed to increasing rates of depression, limited access to mental health services and increasing gun sales that saw suicide by gun reach an all-time high last year.2
The suicide rate dropped in 2019 and 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but then rose by four percent in 2021.3 Last year saw a 3.8 percent increase in suicides for women and a 2.3 percent increase in men.4 However, 80 percent of suicides are committed by men.5
The older segment of the population faced the steepest jump in suicides, with a seven percent increase in those aged 45-64 and an eight percent increase in those over the age of 65.6 The highest rates were seen in older white males.7 The one percent increase in suicides in ages 25 to 44 makes it the second leading cause of death in that age group.8
More Americans Died from Suicide Last Year Than in Korean War
Americans living in rural areas have been hit the hardest and accounted for between 19.2 and 21.7 per 100,000 suicides. Men who work in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction had the greatest number of suicides at 54.2 percent per 100,000 men, while construction workers accounted for 45.3 per 100,000 suicides. U.S. military veterans commit suicide at a rate 57.3 times higher than the average person in the U.S.9
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) chief medical officer, Debra Houry, MD, MPH, said:
The troubling increase in suicides requires immediate action across our society to address the staggering loss of life from tragedies that are preventable. Everyone can play a role in efforts to save lives and reverse the rise in suicide deaths.10
More Americans died from suicide last year than died in the entire Korean War (1950-1953).11 Since 2021, suicide has been the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.12 According to a recent KFF/CNN survey, 90 percent of adults in America believe there is a mental health crisis in this country. In 2023, 50 percent of young adults aged 18-24 years old reported symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to 36 percent of women and 28 percent of men.13
COVID Lockdowns Played a Role in the Declining Mental Health of Americans
The role the COVID pandemic and resulting lockdowns played on Americans declining mental health status cannot be underestimated. The pandemic led to greater incidences of isolation, loneliness, illness, grief, job loss and financial troubles. During the pandemic, one in three adults reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Deaths from drug overdoses and suicide increased during this time.14
In March 2020, the American Institute for Economic Research published an article warning of the catastrophic effects of shutting down society to try to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections, including an increase in the suicide, drugs and crime rates. A few months later, in May, doctors in northern California confirmed that they saw more deaths from suicide than from COVID. In fact, Michael deBoisblanc, MD of the John Muir Medical Center in California said that from the end of April through the end of May, he observed “years’ worth of suicides.”
Kacey Hanson is a a 30-year veteran trauma center nurse at the John Muir Medical Center. She said, “What I have seen recently, I have never seen before. I have never seen so much intentional injury.”15 16 17
A March 2023 study by the National Institutes of Mental Health looking at suicide rates in youths 5-24 years old found there were 5,568 suicide deaths during the first 10 months of the pandemic—much higher than had been expected.18
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Click here to view References:1 New York Post. US suicides hit an all-time high last year. Aug 11, 2023.
2 Ibid.
3 McCarthy D. With record suicides, America is killing its own. New York Post Aug 21, 2023.
4 Faguy A. Suicide Rate Reaches All-Time High In 2022, CDC Data Suggests. Forbes Aug. 10, 2023.
5 McCarthy D. With record suicides, America is killing its own. New York Post Aug 21, 2023.
6 New York Post. US suicides hit an all-time high last year. Aug 11, 2023.
7 McCarthy D. With record suicides, America is killing its own. New York Post Aug 21, 2023.
8 New York Post. US suicides hit an all-time high last year. Aug 11, 2023.
9 McCarthy D. With record suicides, America is killing its own. New York Post Aug 21, 2023.
10 Kekatos M. Nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2022, a record-high number: CDC. ABC News Aug. 10, 2023.
11 McCarthy D. With record suicides, America is killing its own. New York Post Aug 21, 2023.
12 McPhillips D. Suicide deaths reached a record high in the US in 2022, provisional data shows. CNN Aug. 10, 2023.
13 Panchel N, Saunders H, Rudowitz R et al. The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use. KFF Mar. 20, 2023.
14 Ibid.
15 Tucker J. Lockdown Suicide Data Reveal Predictable Tragedy. American institute for Economic Research May, 22, 2020.
16 Hendler C. Dramatic ISchnitzer PG, Dykstra H. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Youth Suicide: 2020-2021. Pediatrics 2023; 151(3).ncrease in Suicide Attempts Among Adolescents During COVID-19 Lockdown Isolation. The Vaccine Reaction Mar. 28, 2022.
17 Schnitzer PG, Dykstra H. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Youth Suicide: 2020-2021. Pediatrics 2023; 151(3).
18 National Institute of Mental Health. Youth Suicide Rates Increased During the COVID-19 Pandemic. May 22, 2023.
12 Responses
Drug companies, CDC, etc. do not want us to know how many of these suicides are by someone on or withdrawing from antidepressants. These mass shootings are also related to these. All the antidepressants are associated with increased risk of suicide and homicide. Most are related to mental health patients on these meds.
I could not agree more.
The pharmaceutical industry is just a legal drug cartel.
They do not care how many people’s lives are ruined or how many die. And the agencies supposedly protecting us are protecting them.
So-called antidepressants are KILLERS, at least for some of us. I specifically told my doctor I would not “fix” my grief that way. He appeared supportive but 11 months later when I fractured a vertebrae he prescribed flexeril for the pain. That drug threw me into suicidal ideation again and, months after I stopped taking it, I’m still struggling to get out of the hole it put me in.
Question; A very important piece of data to consider in relation to these figures is missing from this article; Of those among any given group whom committed suicide, how many were on some form of ‘anti depressant’ pharmasuetical? Undoubtedly, there will be a strong corelation to the drugs and the behavior. One ponders how many of them would be alive today, had they not received ‘care’ from the medical industrial complex.
If you feel bad, change something in your life. If you feel helpless, empower yourself instead. If you feel hopeless, reach deep and find that hope from within and without. Take the time to wait out your own feelings, life returns and time heals all. If you’re simply so frustrated you can’t go on, have nicotine and spirits to calm yourself, then live to fight another day.
Having talked to several people whom would otherwise have committed such acts of self harm, I can tell you that getting someone into a different mindset can be as simple as just standard pick me up routines and classic conversational points. It’s these ‘help centers’ whom are overly soft and in the business of monetizing depression which is a substantial portion of the problem. They arguably often make matters worse because what may have been better for individuals is for someone to look them in the eye, tell them they’re better than that, and to pick their feelings up off of the floor and quit laying them out there for the world to see, toughen up immediately and get back with the regular program. To stop accepting all the pharmaceuticals because those just mess up their minds even worse.
You write “The phenomenon has been attributed to increasing rates of depression, limited access to mental health services and increasing gun sales that saw suicide by gun reach an all-time high last year.2”
The first two reasons sound reasonable. Blaming suicides on increased gun sales is questionable. Gun sales have been soaring because the current administration continues to be obsessed with destroying the 2nd Amendment. Owning a gun does not cause suicide. Yes, it can be a method of suicide but it does not drive people to depression. Guns are inanimate objects with no brain or hands to influence the owner’s mental state.
A gun is a tool. Hammers are tools. Automobiles are tools. Pencils are tools. All of these tools can be used correctly. All can be used to cause harm. Not one of these tools will do anything without human intervention.
They always want to blame guns for everything. The lockdown isolated people, the shots injured people and the wacked out so called mental health care leaves a lot to be desired. The entire stage has been set by our (loving government) who is supposed to represent the people not destroy the people.
Naturally “They always want to blame guns ….”
Their plan is to disarm Americans. They want obedient slaves.
“They” have obedient slaves right now. Guns don’t help you do anything.
It’s all that and It’s the FOOD! Wheat is a depressant and there is so much garbage in the supposed food. Read “Brain Energy” by Dr. Chris Palmer or at least watch videos of him on the internet. They are poisoning us with the food and it is making us sick, fat and depressed!
You are absolutely correct. The food is being destroyed which in turn is destroying us.
There is another thing that started in 2021 and that was vast amount of injury from the covid shots. Most of the adverse effects were never reported to VAERS and the big media made people feel as if covid shot injuries almost never occur. But cardiovascular issues resulted from the jabs, neurological issues also, and many people were not functioning normally after getting the “safe” covid shots. Depression and suicide are not likely to be reported as adverse events in the VAERS reporting system and the person who has committed suicide can’t be expected to file a VAERS report about it. …I would also add to the list of factors the rapid buildout of 5G poles in major cities, in addition to cell antennas and the fixation on screens from smart phones and Wi-Fi, all of which can embody an unhealthy addiction. So, yes, the confluence of covid shots, toxic EMFs, toxins in dentistry and in food can do very strange things to people’s health and their minds and push them off the deep end.
Our bodies are designed to be holy temples created to house our godly spirits. The word of God teaches this. We ought to embrace this truth and spend our lives tuning ourselves to higher spiritual laws and attitudes by aiming ourselves, by each days activity, each subject studied, each bite of natures nourishment, to treat our bodies, minds and spirits as holy temples in which Gods spirit may dwell in a clean and pure tabernacle. For hope and direction study Gods word, apply it faithfully to your life, and request the Holy Spirit to abide in you. Then live in a manner worthy of that spirit. Illness, depression, fatigue will all give way to the spiritually reborn you, literally a child of God. Now you walk with Gods power within you.