Posted on 02/02/2005 5:59:35 AM PST by Theodore R.
State tops suicide list
By Becky Orr rep6@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Wyoming's suicide rate now is the highest in the United States.
Statistics from the American Association of Suicidology show that in 2002, 105 people in Wyoming took their own lives. The state has a rate of 21 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people.
The 2002 data is the most recent available.
"We need to do something about that," Dave Smith of Laramie said. "We don't want to be Number 1."
Smith and about 150 others gathered in Cheyenne on Tuesday to help prevent suicide.
They attended a gatekeepers training conference. Gatekeepers are trained to recognize people at risk for suicide and intervene to get them professional help.
Those who become gatekeepers include mental health professionals and people from all walks of life.
The gatekeepers program is part of an effort by the Wyoming Suicide Prevention Coalition, and locally, the Laramie County Suicide Prevention Coalition is a part.
Carol Day, chairwoman of the state coalition, said Tuesday during an interview that she's not surprised by Wyoming's rate. She said she hopes the statistics will help people understand that Wyoming has a suicide problem.
In Laramie County, six people from the ages of 21 to 74 committed suicide in January, County Coroner Bill Ryan said. That's nearly half of the entire number from 2004, when 15 people from the county killed themselves.
Tuesday's training program divided suicide prevention efforts into different age groups: for teens, adults and senior citizens.
Smith, his daughter, Mandy Smith, and Janice Triplett, a psychologist at Peak Wellness Center in Cheyenne, led the gatekeeper training that focused on suicide prevention for adolescents. All training sessions must include a mental health professional.
Smith is a sergeant with the Laramie Police Department. He said suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24 in Wyoming.
About half of the young people who attempt suicide and survive will try it again.
"That is your biggest indicator of what everything is showing us now," Smith said.
People who commit suicide often give clues or warnings before they take action. But for some reason, anywhere from 5 to 50 percent of the school-aged youth who die by suicide do not give those warning signals, Smith said.
People don't like to talk about suicide, even though it causes more deaths in the United States than murders, Smith said.
Smith said suicide is preventable. "In my mind the stigma has to go away before we're going to be able to deal with it."
The three debunked some myths about suicide. One of those is that more people kill themselves around Christmas.
"They're going to try to make it through," Smith said, and see if things get better during the holidays.
Talking about suicide does not make people more apt to go out and do it, either, he said.
Alcohol abuse is a contributing cause of adolescent suicide, they said. Wyoming's first lady, Nancy Freudenthal, brought the message during her presentation about underage drinking given at the start of the conference.
She called alcohol abuse "suicide on the installment plan."
About 90 percent of people who kill themselves have a mental illness, Triplett said. Depression is one of the most common forms.
Signs of depression include withdrawal, a change in a young person's friends, lack of enthusiasm, loss of interest in their activities, and giving away their possessions.
People need to listen to those who mention ideas about suicide and take them seriously.
"Something as simple as being there to talk to the person will make an impact," Mandy Smith, a senior at Laramie High said.
Those who listen should not swear to keep secret if someone tells them they feel like killing themselves.
"That could be one of the worst things you could do," Mandy Smith said. "It's crucial they get help."
Gatekeepers can let a person who is at risk know they care and ask them directly if they've had thoughts of suicide.
A person who is trying to help can contact a family member or a close friend and make sure the person gets help, even it means taking them to the hospital or a counselor.
Tuesday's program also included a panel made up of a psychologist, counselor, Ryan, a minister and a mental health therapist.
When asked what people could do to help prevent suicides, Ryan said: "Exactly what we're doing today, learning what to do about it, and then getting our tails out and doing something about it."
John Sanford, a psychology instructor at Laramie County Community College, said every student 10 years old and older should have prevention education like the one provided at the conference. "We're not doing that yet," he said, referring to schools nationwide.
I was wondering the same thing. The state's statistics may be skewed by the small population, plus the proportion of Native American tribes in comparison to the overall population.
"We need to do something about that," Dave Smith of Laramie said. "We don't want to be Number 1."
Then get out of Wyoming NOW!
It's Cheney's/Halliburton's fault./ sarc
Studies like this make me want to kill myself.
Can it have to do wtih the numbers of Hollywood liberals who've moved there?
F.E. Warren AFB was my last USAF duty station, and although I never contemplated suicide, Wyoming is boring as hell (at least in the Cheyenne area). We always joked that the only thing to do in Cheyenne was to leave. Needless to say, I spent many weekends in Denver.
Wyoming, except for the western third of the state is high plains which, for the most part, are featureless. The winter months are bleak and cold on the plains with wind being a constant factor. Probably explains to some extent the disproportionate number of suicides in Wyoming.
Really, I'm not trying to diss Wyoming, but it's not exactly the land of opportunity or entertainment. The BIG city in Wyoming is somewhere around 50,000, and most places are just little bergs you miss if you blink. Mind numbing boredom is the enemy in Wyoming.
It's the vogue on Free Republic to diss places like New York and California (even though FR is based in CA), but the truth is that these places are populated because people like living in CA and NY. There are people, relationships, resteraunts, theaters, and probably most importantly a wealth of jobs with real career paths in metro areas. Something which Wyoming completely lacks.
This will come to a shock to more than a couple of freepers who think living in rural America is just short of living in heaven itself, but the suicide rates in rural America far outstrips that of urban America. It's no coincidence that the suicide rates in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho that top the list are each 3 fold that of California, New York, or Massachusetts, which are near the bottom. Even within those states, the suicide rates are the highest in the more rural areas.
On a personal level, in 1994, I moved from a large city in Colorado with a population well into the 6 figures, to a small town in East Texas with a population less than 1,000. A few years later, I moved to a larger town in East Texas with a population well under 10,000. I lasted until 2003 when I moved to Dallas. It was like a weight had been lifted from shoulders. I had no idea how depressed I'd become until I was happy again. Now it's almost like 10 years of my life were just cut out, gone, history. I've probably repressed a great deal of memory, because in truth, I can remember very little about those years. It was that bad.
But you know you are going get flamed big-time for putting that post on FR. ;)
People in Wyoming often attribute the suicide rate to the "Wind". It blows seemingly for weeks on end sometimes. And it blows hard. I worked up there in my younger days around Gillette. The wind damn near drove me nuts.
Interesting
I've often said that the best places to visit are often the worst places to live. And that includes places at both ends of the spectrum, in my opinion -- with New York City at one end and Longview, Alberta at the other.
And Calgary is legendary for the wind -- "where every day is a 'bad hair day'."
Dorothy Scarborogh wrote a book about the phenomenon that you describe. She called the book "The Wind."
It should be "Scarborough."
It must be the Peyote. Let one's guard down for a minute and Satan is out to getcha!
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