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This blog was originally posted on Ten Percent Happier on April 22, 2022 and is reprinted here with permission

Death by suicide is a major public health problem that profoundly impacts families in a way few other things do. Every year, many people at risk of suicide seek and get help, potentially saving themselves and their loved ones untold grief.

As a clinical psychologist, I probably think about suicide more often and in different ways than most. I’ve read the research. I’ve been trained to ask the hard questions. I am all too familiar with the frustrating gaps in our knowledge base: what causes it, who is at risk, how do we prevent it?

Suicide rates in teens have been steadily on the rise over the past two decades, and data from the 2021 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that approximately 22% of teens reported suicidal thoughts and 10% of teens reported doing something to try to end their life in the past 12 months.

My friend’s phone call left me stunned and shaken. She had just been released from the hospital, where she had been admitted for suicidal ideation. “Suicidal ideation” was an unfamiliar term to me, but I could easily figure what it meant.

The loss of a loved one to suicide is a far too common tragedy. In 2017 alone, 47,173 people in the United States died by suicide [1] and it is estimated that an average of 135 people are exposed to each suicide death [2].