(HealthNewsDigest.com) – NEW YORK CITY (March 21, 2019)—At last, Spring is here! But counter-intuitively, the arrival of Spring marks a staggering rise in suicide rates.
Contrary to the popular belief that suicides are most prevalent in the cold winter months and around the holidays, they’re actually lowest in winter and highest in spring and summer.
Psychiatrists have been trying to understand the data for years, but many questions remain.
Overall, suicide rates have risen in the US by 24 percent between 1999 and 2014.
In the weeks leading up to springtime, a few tragic high-profile suicides were in the news, and at face value, they make no sense.
Olympic cycling medalist, Kelly Catlin, 23, took her life following a failed attempt in January, and after writing an ominous note in February: “The greatest strength you will ever develop is the ability to recognize your own weaknesses, and to learn to ask for help when you need it.” According to those who knew her best, Catlin was exceptional in multiple areas of her life. She was fluent in Chinese, was a mathematician and an accomplished musician. She wanted to inspire the women of the world. However, injuries sustained late last year, including a broken arm and then a concussion, were factors that likely contributed to her depression and desire to end her life. She confided in her parents that she hated failing in the first suicide attempt. The entire cycling community is devastated.
George Foreman’s daughter Freeda, 42, also recently committed suicide. A multi-talented athlete with a 5-1 record in a boxing career that spanned 17 months from 2000 to 2001, Freeda’s choice to end her life also makes little sense. She was a mother of two, earned a college degree before becoming a boxer, and seemed to have nothing but accolades in her future as a boxing promoter.
According to Edy Nathan, MA, LCSWR, it’s a paradox when someone contemplates the end of their life just at a time when they’re moving into a next great phase of accomplishment and fame. “We all need to be aware of the signs that could signal someone contemplating suicide, and not procrastinate when we have a hunch.”
Nathan says that people who turn to suicide often have been thinking about it for a long time. “They may not share it with family or friends. They may not even look sad, depressed, filled with malaise, but it does take a certain kind of person to say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to walk with this internal pain, I don’t want to live with my internal secrets anymore.’”
With athletes, the truth is that they may not have a well-rounded life. They may even be socially awkward, because all they’ve done is push to be recognized. “They push and train and their lives are school and training and training and school and those parties that they wanted to attend, but don’t attend. Being a normal kid never really happens for them. Then, what happens when all of a sudden they’re literally at the top of their game and they don’t know what to do with themselves or where they belong? They may even wonder why they pushed so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve the dream?”
“In some cases, they may even realize that the dream was never really their dream at all, but the dream of others that they were trying to fulfill with every ounce of life force.”
Edy Nathan, MA, LCSWR is the author of the critically acclaimed book It’s Grief: The Dance of Self-Discovery Through Trauma and Loss, and a nationally recognized keynote speaker. She is a licensed therapist, an AASECT certified sex therapist, hypnotherapist and certified EMDR practitioner with more than 20 years of experience. She has degrees from New York University and Fordham University, with post-graduate training at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy. For two seasons in 2010, she was the psychotherapist on the A&E series Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal. Find her on the web at https://edynathan.com.
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