Some 15 percent of people who attempt suicide eventually die from it, according to Bongar. While depression is treatable with a variety of new medications on the market, they can take a few weeks to kick in. During that time a suicidal person is at high risk. Once they feel better, many patients stop taking their medication, usually because of side effects such as drowsiness and weight gain. They relapse back into depression, creating a vicious cycle that seems unendurable and unescapable.
Depression is the mental equivalent of pain.
Railroad retiree Harold Wetzel of Clearwater felt the double whammy of extreme physical and emotional pain in the months before he died on Dec. 11. Depressed by partial paralysis after two strokes and plagued by arthritis, Harold walked into his bedroom on the morning of Aug. 4 and shot a load of birdshot into the roof of his mouth. There was blood everywhere coming from his mouth. Harold's dentures prevented the birdshot from piercing his brain, but his sinuses and upper palate were destroyed. He spent two weeks in intensive care before transferring to a nursing home and contracting a series of infections that killed him four months after he shot himself.