Each year some three quarters of a million people will say no to life by electing a permanent solution to a temporary problem. One-third of these people have tried killing themselves before. Many who have committed suicide have talked about it before. In the United States, whites are twice as likely as blacks to kill themselves. Suicide rates are much higher among the rich , the nonreligious, and those who are single, widowed, and divorced.
Women are much more likely to attempt suicide.
People commit suicide when energy and initiative are lacking, but not when they begin to rebound and become capable of following through. Teenage suicides follow a traumatic event such as romantic break up or guilt provoking anti-social act. Alcoholics are one hundred times more likely to commit suicide. Among the elderly suicide is often the alternative to future suffering. For all people, suicide is not necessarily an act of hostility or revenge, but may be a way of switching off unendurable pain.