R I S E S

August 16, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s a tarry black uckiness
Called DARK
and every Soul knows
IT intimately
Every Foot has traveled
Its unmapped Valley
IT not only covers
but smothers completely
And when it descends
with the heaviness of a
Mud-coated itchy wool blanket
IT sucks even the last
desperate breath
no ventilator could salvage
IT HAPPENS
first at a distance
that no horizon can hold
and then even more resounding
than an amplified heart beat
using your ribs as a xylophone
L I G H T
IT rises
with a newness
The Lazarus
of a new day
And it doesn’t hold you
IT FREES YOU
to unimaginable beginnings
G R E A T
is what RISES
THAT never sets
(and is noticed)

Say WHAT?

August 14, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Swearing More is a Sign of Healthy Verbal Ability, Study Suggests

She was an 87 year old patient, who, when I first met her told me she had been waiting for my visit because she had a really important question to ask me.

My mind went to the usual things like:
“WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?”
“IS THERE A HEAVEN AND HOW DO I KNOW I’LL GET THERE?”
“WHAT IF I HAVEN’T BEEN GOOD ENOUGH; GIVEN ENOUGH?”
“WHAT ABOUT FORGIVENESS?”

BUT
N O. . .

“IS IT BAD IF I SWEAR, I MEAN A LOT AND I REALLY LIKE IT; IT REALLY FEELS GOOD?“

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:

We often link the use of slurs and profanities to people who’re rude and ignorant and we view them as impolite and unacceptable in everyday speech. But, even though the use of profanities is still frowned upon, the people who use them may not be as ignorant as we previously believed. According to the 2014 study, conducted by Kristin Joy and Timothy Jay, psychologists, the use of swear words may be a sign of a better vocabulary.

Language Sciences published one part of the study in 2014 which involved 43 subjects who were in their late teens to their early 20ties and had their knowledge of profanities compared to their general vocabulary knowledge. The subjects were first tested with COWAT (the controlled oral word association test) in order to determine the subjects’ ability to list words on command. They were asked to write down as many animals and curse words they could think of starting with a given letter in a minute or so. Next, the participants were asked to list as many animals and curse words they knew in general, also in under a minute. The use of animal names was supposed to be an indication of the subjects’ overall vocabulary and general interest in language. Their results were then compared and analyzed.

The researchers were able to conclude that the ability to produce profanities and curse words is not a sign of overall limited vocabulary. On the contrary, they discovered that fluency in curse words is positively linked to verbal fluency. A rich curse words vocabulary may be a sign of healthy vocabulary rather than a cover for vocabular deficiencies.

If you were curious, the top 3 curse words that appeared most frequently in the test were ‘f*ck’, ‘bi*ch’ and ‘sh*t’, as you may have assumed. There were more than 400 swear words generated in total and only some of them were so creative to be encountered just once. The researchers were surprised to discover that people frequently use creative compositions like ‘cockass’ and ‘ass pirate’.

In conclusion, we must point out that the most important finding in this small sized study only confirmed the hypothesis fluency is fluency. According to the hypothesis, word proficiency is more or less universal, regardless of context. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you swear more often you have a richer vocabulary. Moreover, the study doesn’t suggest that fluency is the same as frequency, meaning that it wasn’t able to determine whether swear words are spoken more frequently by people with limited vocabulary or lower IQ or not.

The sample size for the study we refer to is rather small and until a larger scale study is conducted we can only speculate and wait for
confirmation. . .and I’m fairly sure it didn’t include 87 year old hospice patients.

Again:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Most of the time when a patient asks me any question I usually answer with a question:
“WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

She didn’t pause much before answering:
“I really think it’s alright. I mean the only thing I was really worried about was that it’s not just swearing, it’s REALLY SWEARING. And my favorite go to word when I’m really upset or mad is f*ck; when I shout THAT word, I almost always feel better. . .”

“I think you might have answered your own question, what do you think?”

Again, very little pause before answering, “It’s not like I’m using the Lord’s name in vain, I mean always thought it wasn’t so much what I said as the way I acted or treated someone else. I’ve never called anyone THAT, I just love saying, f*ck when I’m the most upset–it seems to cover what I can’t say or explain. . .”

I asked: “Do you think God knows how we feel without ever saying it or explaining or even praying?”

“Yeah,” she said almost in a sigh. “Yeah I think he knows,” and then almost as if she clicked on some inner light, she beamed, “And who gets me more than God; he made me this way.”

A Third,
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

“Hey, you’re going to come back and see me again, aren’t you?”

“I was hoping you would be thinking that’s ok.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “You give great advice.”

A Fourth
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Maybe it was something I didn’t say?

The EMERGING Department

August 2, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Everyone feels like a shadow of themselves
when they’re not themselves
when your sick
m i s e r a b l e. . .

I hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom all night
I tried everything:
Walking
Jumping
Taking a Shower
Taking a Bath
Drinking Water
Taking an additional pill that had been prescribed
Laying down
Reclining
Standing
Leaning forward
NOTHING
Not a DROP
. . .and what made it worse was I had a huge event day; a funeral I was conducting of a friend of Thirty plus years on behalf of her family and an afternoon wedding for a young couple who already couldn’t get the first two ministers they asked to marry them because both were out of town;

I COULDN’T BE SICK

I called my family doctor and he urged me to go to the Emergency Department and when I told him of my time schedule he said I had no choice.

I arrived at the hospital and immediately began singing my song of woe and how I literally needed to be treated and released within an hour so I could make it to the funeral and they assured me that I would be able to make that commitment.

When I was back in the room a nurse came in and began taking my information and asked me what I did for a living.
When I told here that I was a hospice chaplain, she asked me if it was for Hospice of the Western Reserve and when I confirmed that, without looking at me, still typing in information she said, “My daughter just died with Hospice of the Western Reserve a couple of months ago.

She went and got a catheter kit to relieve the “URINARY RETENTION” problem, I readied myself for the procedure and she began asking me about the team members that took care of her daughter and I realized at that very moment, I was no longer a patient and she was no longer a nurse, she was a grieving mother who was re-telling the story of her daughter and I was her chaplain, her counselor. I don’t remember the procedure, as quick as it was because of our conversation.

She stated that we were done as if the instant relief I felt of not being able to go to the bathroom for nearly 10 hours didn’t let me know WE ARE DONE. She told me she would be back with instructions and my discharge papers and I was dressed in my suit/tie and ready to go when she came back to go over instructions and to have me sign my discharge papers. Before she reached the curtain to leave, she turned around and told me that this was her first day back following her daughter’s death and that I was her first patient. She asked me, with welled tears in her eyes:

“HOW DID YOU KNOW TO COME IN THIS MORNING?”

I wanted to say, truthfully, “I HAD TO PEE!”

It was a much deeper question with an even deeper answer:

“BECAUSE WE NEEDED EACH OTHER”

We gave each other a hug
and now, even a couple of weeks later,
it’s so much more than a memory
and certainly a blog post. . .

When I was taking a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) class in Seminary over 40 years ago, I remember our instructor once telling us that we need to remember, often when one that we serve goes into the Emergency Department it signifies an event that has been EMERGING.

Doing hospice work for 25 years now and hospital chaplaincy for thirty-two years I’ve been enlightened to KNOW that there are no accidents. No chance meetings. No coincidences.

If you dare yourself to believe we all are actually connected and that one’s pain is another’s and one’s happiness is as well. . .

WHAT IS EMERGING FROM YOU. . .
WHAT IS IT YOU CAN GIVE WHEN YOU CAME TO GET. . .
WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO ANOTHER PLACE THAN THE ONE YOU THOUGHT YOU ARRIVED. . .
?

Why would WE ever not
reach out
connect
or more. . .
HOLD ON?

IT MAKES ME WONDER

Can it be that when you are truly
HOLDING SPACE
for one
YOU too,
Are having that very sacred
S P A C E
being HELD for YOU as well. . .

IT MAKES ME WONDER
(maybe that’s the
g l o r i o u s
E M E R G I N G
in us)

Buccatini With Lamb Sausage

July 26, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

I wish I could say that Frank Ostaseski is a personal friend of mine. . .
and I’m not so sure that I could even call him a casual acquaintance;
well I did share the stage with him once in Denver, Colorado at a National Hospice and Palliative Care Conference and there was those two times I heard him speak after that. . .and he has responded to a few of my The Caring Catalyst blog posts but friends–no not friends–kindred spirits, well yes. A couple of years ago Frank wrote a book which has quickly become a standard in the field of end-of-life care

B U T
Frank, like you and me
is first and foremost,
H U M A N
with a pulse that beats
blood that flows
lungs that breathe
a brain that thinks
and a heart that’ll one day stop. . .

Frank’s almost did a couple of weeks ago when he suffered a Stroke.
He’s responded well and in fact one week from the time he suffered his stroke he returned back to his houseboat

During his days in the hospital, his wife, Vanda, set up an account on CARINGBRIDGE so she could let one and all know how he was doing by sending out messages that went viral. I particularly like her last post which just appeared a few days ago:

July 20, 2019

Journal entry by vanda marlow — BUCCATINI WITH LAMB SAUSAGE

Sometimes, being home is as simple as that- Frank’s favorite pasta dish from our local Italian, drenched in Parmesan, with his almost-4 year old Granddaughter holding his hand and leading the Meal Blessing. He had been craving this pasta in the hospital….along with movie watching and cosy blankie afternoons. Hopefully we can do the latter tomorrow, as somehow time accelerates AND stretches like taffy, and we found ourselves reaching the end of the day, both exhausted, in different ways.

Some truly sweet and connected moments, which I hope I won’t forget; eating Mimi’s farm strawberries and him sharing dreams he’d had in the night. His consciousness is so bright and alive. And then there can be the tired-ness of Little Mind, with its pushy efforts to order time and experience, efforts that make our world hang together here in Consensus Reality. But I am seeing in him the vast freedom of living in Infinite Time rather than Tick Tock time. The shining great heart of compassion that runs very clear in him……Oh and then there was the 90 minute unannounced visit from a Kaiser Home Help Nurse, which was one of the hell realms. It made buying a train ticket in India look simple by comparison.

And so another day ends. Marking one week since the stroke, and as we took an evening stroll down the dock, I felt re-arranged inside. Sitting on a bench, to provide ear rubs to a ginger cat, I realised that the future holds these small precious moments now that all the big plans have blown away.

Thank you for all the love that continues to pour towards us both. It is very humbling. I have begun to read these comments to him, and he gets very quiet and settled – your love is Cranial Sacral for the Soul.

Deep Bows
Vanda

No more words. . .
LOTS OF FEELINGS
and a sudden urge to have an endless plate of
BUCCATINI WITH LAMB SAUCE
. . .if you have any kind of appetite for living,
REALLY
DEEPLY
PASSIONATELY
s i m p l y
l i v i n g––
join me

Let’s eat and have our fill

Out of this World

July 24, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Many celebrations will take place this week commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. We’re focusing on Georgia connections to this amazing historical feat, along with the future of space exploration.

Tiffany Davis is an aerospace engineer. You may have seen her on your timeline with the hashtag, #YesIAmARocketScientist. That hashtag went viral in 2016 after Davis posted it on her Instagram page, announcing her graduation from the Georgia Institute of Technology

Among her more earthbound accomplishments: her plea to make college more affordable caught the attention of then-President Barack Obama. Since then, Davis has interned and been hired at Boeing’s mission operations and engineering group in Washington, D.C.

On Second Thought host Virginia Prescott spoke with Davis and asked her what a rocket scientist looks like.

Interview highlights

On what advice she would give to any young minorities interested in STEM

It takes … a type of ambition and determination to know that you’re going into a field where there’s not a lot of people that look like you, and some people will doubt that you belong there because there’s not that representation of you already in that field. So [there] will be times where you feel like you have to prove yourself, or you may not belong, but just understand that you have a purpose, and you have an intention, and practice makes perfect. Once you put in that work, and once you put in that effort, know that you do belong there, that you do deserve to be there, and you’re gonna crush it.

On her advice to girls who worry STEM is not a ‘feminine’ field.

Your life does not have to be binary. Women are not black and white. We can be many different things. I’m not one thing, I’m not just an engineer. I also was a track athlete. I was a basketball athlete. I was prom queen. I was all that in one. I didn’t have to pick and choose between what society wants me to be and what I feel like I am.

On how she knew she wanted to major in aerospace engineering

Since I was a young girl I was always interested in understanding and learning how things work. I was the type of girl that would beg my parents to go to RadioShack instead of Toys ‘R’ Us. And I was also the person that would take apart my gameboy and try to figure out if I could put it back together.

On the future of space exploration

I think [the moon landing] was just the beginning for us. I actually hope to be one of the first people that walk on the surface of Mars one day. And I think that’s exactly where we’re going with capabilities being developed at Boeing such as the SLS, which is the Space Launch System, our heavy lift rocket that’s gonna take us to the moon, and Mars, and eventually beyond that. People want to mine asteroids, people want to set up amusement parks in space.

On how space exploration benefits life on Earth

Many inventions come from space, and us going up there with limited resources, and figuring out a way to make it work, and that ends up creating some type of innovation or product that we can bring back to Earth to make other people’s life easier or more healthy. Something like osteoporosis medicine, where you’re looking at the bone decay, and how the bone acts differently in space, we were able to diagnose that and treat that by looking at how astronauts’ bones decay in space under a no-gravity environment. . .

SO WHAT?

Like most miracles
Like most vast awakenings
They’re not always
recognized/noticed/seen
Especially when they’re right in front of us. . .

What’s even more amazing to me
is advanced as we are
FIFTY YEARS LATER
or TWO-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY YEARS
from now
it’s not our scientific advances
our medical technology
our Pharmacology
our psych-social interventions
that heal us. . .

IT IS OUR RELATIONSHIPS

. . .And that’s the only thing that
HAS
DOES
WILL
be for an ever
OUT OF THIS WORLD

Your HAPPINESS Thermometer

July 17, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

HOW’S YOUR HAPPINESS THERMOMETER. . .

Is it R I S I N G

Is it F A L L I N G

Is it

S T U C K

By many accounts, Americans are living in contentious times. Yet they report being happier in 2017 than they were in 2016, according the 2017 Harris Poll Survey of American Happiness, shared exclusively with TIME MAGAZINE

That’s not to say that Americans are especially happy overall; only 33% of Americans surveyed said they were happy. In 2016, just 31% of Americans reported the same.

The Harris Poll, which has been conducting a happiness survey for the last nine years, surveyed 2,202 Americans ages 18 and older in May 2017. The survey was not designed to measure why Americans are or are not happy, but John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, has some ideas.

“It’s really interesting that Americans’ overall happiness went up from last year—a year of alt-facts, mean tweets and robots coming for our jobs,” Gerzema says. “Either people are becoming immune to the news, or there’s a promise of change for so many Americans that felt alienated.”

The people who reported being the happiest were men and women in high-income households and those with a high school diploma or less. Republicans and Democrats experienced similar increases in happiness levels (but Republicans tend to report higher happiness levels overall, Gerzema says).

Overall, men reported a greater increase in happiness levels compared to women, though they were more likely to say they were frustrated at work. Millennials were the most likely to say they were optimistic about their future: 79% said they were. However, 77% said they worried about finances, and slightly more than half said they were frustrated with their career. Despite the back and forth over health care changes, 53% of Americans surveyed said they rarely worry about their health, up from 48% in 2016.

Some of the biggest changes were in how people felt about their spiritual lives. In the survey, 71% of Americans said their spiritual beliefs were a positive guiding force to them, compared to 66% in 2016. Americans also say they feel close to their relatives; 86% said they have positive relationships with their family members. “One hypothesis is that we are trying to control what we can,” says Gerzema. “Maybe we are turning off cable news and turning back into our families and communities and faith.”

Americans have never been the happiest bunch, Gerzema says. In the nine-year history of the happiness poll, the highest happiness index was 35% in 2008 and 2009.

Distraction and a lack of control may be part of the reason why only about a third of Americans say they are happy, Gerzema says. Close to 40% of Americans said in 2017 that they rarely engage in hobbies and pastimes they enjoy, and 75% said that “my voice is not heard in national decisions that affect me.”

“To me, it feels like a cultural lack of presence,” says Gerzema. “We are so caught up in our texting, multitasking, jobs and commutes that we seem to have less and less free time. Older people age 65+ are the happiest.”

Despite the happiness gap, the majority of Americans remain hopeful, and 72% say they feel optimistic about the future. “We are not that happy, but perhaps that’s ok,” says Gerzema. “Optimism, but not necessarily happiness, seems to be part of the American psyche. Perhaps we wear it like a coat of arms.”

S O. . .

ARE YOU H A P P Y

Are you happy?

If you were to fit into a survey right now

would you be on the upside of being happy

or on the low side of being happy?

What’s

YOUR HAPPINESS THERMOMETER READING

Are you happy with your life

Are you happy with your job

Are you happy with your family

Are you happy with your self

There will always be questions when we talk about happiness

because by the way that the world takes look at us we’re not all that happy

or does the world actually have it wrong. . .

Right now

at this very moment what makes you the happiest in your life. . .

not what do you dream of that would make you happy

W H A T

ARE YOU

Happiest with right now in your life. . .

Could that get better

Could that get worse

Could that actually be shared. . .

Are you responsible just for your own happiness

Of the happiness of others

ARE YOU RIGHT NOW

H A P P Y

with this machine gun kind of questioning. . .

Well something tells me

it won’t be a pill

intervention

therapy

voodoo

or a particular kind of psychic surgery. . .

It certainly won’t be prime time days

it’ll be something in yourself

from yourself

maybe a recognition

maybe a throwing away

of all that could lead to your happiness

and ultimately

the happiness of those around you. . .

O R N O T. . .

YOU TELL ME!

The Mercifulness of a Caring Catalyst

July 15, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Are you Selfish?

Not many admit that they are. . .

and the folks who actually do
confess just how selfish they are. . .

usually are the folks who are the least self-serving

S T I L L

The most
s e l f i s h
you can ever be

is when you’re

f o r g i v i n g

Funny, huh?

We mostly think that
Forgiveness
is something we do;

something we provide for another person

for a horrid aggression done against us. . .

w r o n g

Forgiveness
isn’t ignoring you were hurt. . .

Forgiveness
isn’t about setting yourself up to be hurt again. . .

Forgiveness
isn’t about letting someone getting away with something. . .

Forgiveness
isn’t about reconciliation. . .

Forgiveness
isn’t something we do to make better another’s life. . .

Forgiveness
i s
a pretty selfish thing to do.

We’ve all heard it said,

“RESENTMENT IS A POISON ONE TAKES HOPING TO HARM ANOTHER”

S O . . .

Is Forgiveness a Selfish Act

or a

C A R I N G O N E ?

In fact,

the most

c a r i n g

thing you can do for another

is the most compassionate thing you can do for yourself

f o r g i v e

Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssst of the Day:

ACCEPT

THE APOLOGY

YOU NEVER

R E C E I V E D

o f t e n

Become more of a Caring Catalyst.

Her SAD

July 12, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Without a doubt sometimes the greatest sermons anymore
the greatest blog posts
can be found in the most unusual
and yes
most usual places;
our biggest problem
is we just don’t notice. . .
that’s always been our biggest problem:
THAT WE FAIL TO RECOGNIZE WHAT WE NOTICE. . .
So here I am in a Giant Eagle Grocery Store,
Early Sunday Morning,
trying to find something for a Junior Sermon
I’m going to do for the kids at Church
and I hear the
W A I L
of a small child crying

Not and not an infant
but a small toddler
and another little girl comes up the aisle
right past me
and then she sees the kid crying. . .
she tells her mother the baby is sad,
and the mother said,
“Yes, she’s very sad. . .”
And then this child sat back in the shopping cart and almost starting to cry herself. . .
She then said a most beautifully innocent thing:
“Her sad makes me sad.”

I love what the mom asked her next,
“Do you think there’s anything we can do to make her a little happier and less sad. . .”
And without pause the little girl said,
“Give her a cookie. . .
She was already eating one from the clear little box they had obviously just gotten from the Bakery Section. . .
So they walked down the aisle
the other child and her mother were walking;
still crying
still sad
and after asking permission from her mother
gave her a cookie. . .

In that single moment
the Grocery Store Aisle seemed to
literally turn upside down

The little girl was
sad
no more. . .
Not only how innocent–
how simple. . .
I mean a little child gets it. .
She knew in an instant,
IF HER SAD MAKES ME SAD
could it possibly be that
MY HAPPY COULD MAKE HER HAPPY. . . !

This little Caring Catalyst
challenges us to find out what she found out:
OUT OF ALL THE THINGS DOWN OUR AISLES THAT MAKE US SAD
THERE ARE JUST AS MANY THINGS UP THOSE AISLES
THAT CAN MAKE US HAPPY. . .
and if
T H E I R
S A D
has the potential to make us Sad
OUR HAPPY
HAS THE POWER TO THEM HAPPY. . .
Let’s have the guts
to find out what came easy for her—-
DARE TO FIND OUT
You just never know
what you’ll find down
THAT AISLE
(nor will they)

FOURTH Better or Worse

July 5, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It was a wedding
T H A T
W A S N ‘ T

T H E Y
called me less than two weeks ago’s
after he asked his Father,
his hero
Suffering from ALS,
If he would like to see him and his fiancé
get married;
His dad agreed
and the first hurdle was
W H O
neither of his Hospice Spiritual Care Coordinators
were able to conduct the Wedding
SO
a Hospice Social Worker
remembered a boast of mine from years earlier:
“I’D MARRY ANYONE, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!”
When she called and asked
I was in. . .
When she told me it was going to be on the Fourth of July
I was even more in. . .

There were other hurdles:
Caterer’s, Photographers, Family schedules, Cake Decorators, Alterations, Florists, Table Settings and a host of behind-the-scenes details. . .

3:00 p.m. on the Fourth of July finally came
and with candles burning and
canned music playing
SHE
WALKED DOWN THE Make Shift Aisle in his parents living room
They faced one another and held hands;
Teared-up
Repeated Vows
Exchanged Rings
Mixed two Different Colors of Sand in a Vase
k i s s e d
Walked away with a series of flashed bulbs capturing the moments. . .

It was the wedding that WASN’T. . .
They lived in Pennsylvania
and had no wedding license
but plenty of witnesses
IT DIDN’T COUNT–
not legally. . .
B U T
when Love is the Law
it also becomes
G O S P E L
and their act of Love
wasn’t holding each other’s hands
and vowing their love;
but making sure
no hand wasn’t un-held;
that
LOVE
WAS THEIR CIRCLE
that excluded
NO ONE;
ALL FAMILY MEMBERS
Were Included
. . .and the best thing of all
for this humble
Caring Catalyst:
THEY INCLUDED ME

It made the FOURTH
far BETTER
than WORSE

It made
for a
FOURTH AN EVER

FEELING A PULSE

June 26, 2019 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

U.S. Suicide Rates Are the Highest They’ve Been Since World War II

JAMIE DUCHARME reported in the TIME MAGAZINE JUNE 20, 2019 edition news that we might really be able to do something about that’s merely at the end of our our own hands and beats regularly, steadily in our own hearts. . .

U.S. suicide rates are at their highest since World War II, according to federal data—and the opioid crisis, widespread social media use and high rates of stress may be among the myriad contributing factors.

In 2017, 14 out of every 100,000 Americans died by suicide, according to a new analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. That’s a 33% increase since 1999, and the highest age-adjusted suicide rate recorded in the U.S. since 1942. (Rates were even higher during the Great Depression, hitting a century peak of 21.9 in 1932.)

“I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits all reason” since there’s almost never a single cause of suicide, says Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a nonprofit that supports suicide prevention research, education and policy. “I don’t think there’s something you can pinpoint, but I do think a period of increased stress and a lack of a sense of security may be contributing.”

It’s even more difficult to assign causes to the uptick, Harkavy-Friedman says, because it’s happening across diverse demographic groups. Men have historically died by suicide more frequently than women, and that’s still true: As of 2017, the male suicide rate was more than three times higher than the female rate. But female suicide rates are rising more quickly—by 53% since 1999, compared to 26% for men—and the gap is narrowing. For both genders, suicide rates are highest among American Indians and Alaska natives, compared to other ethnicities, and when the data are broken down by age group, the most suicide deaths are reported among people ages 45 to 64—but nearly every ethnic and age group saw an increase of some size from 1999 to 2017.

Youth suicide is becoming an especially pressing problem, with rates rising more rapidly among boys and girls ages 10 to 14 than in any other age group. A separate research letter published June 18 in JAMA found that youth suicide rates are at their highest point since at least 2000.

The JAMA letter doesn’t identify causes of the youth uptick, but first author Oren Miron, a research associate in biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School, has two theories.

Opioid use, he says, has been shown to drive suicidal behavior among drug users and their children and families, and so recenthigh rates of drug abuse and overdose may be tied to rising suicide rates. The opioid epidemic may harm entire communities’ mental health, Miron says. “The entire community is bleeding. Kids see less of a future, they see more of their friends dying,” Miron says. “This might give us just one more reason to crack down on” substance misuse.

His second theory is that social media may be contributing to rising suicide rates, particularly for young people. “We know that now it’s used in younger ages and more intensively, and we also see some new apps that allow more anonymity, which in turn allows more bullying and more kids talking about suicide without their parents knowing,” he says. Heavy social media use may also lead to fewer meaningful in-person interactions—which can protect against mental health issues and suicidal behavior—and encourage unhealthy comparison with others.

One other possibility, says Harkavy-Friedman, is that suicide may be better reported and identified today than in years past, as people pay closer attention to mental health issues.

Though suicide is always complicated at both the individual and national levels, help is available. Experts encourage those struggling with suicidal thoughts to confide in a trusted friend or family member, speak with a health care provider, or seek care at an emergency room in cases of immediate danger.

The very first step in saving a Pulse
IS
FEELING
ONE
Reach OUT
Let your hand be the one
that’s FOUND by ONE
Who’s reaching out blindly
to grasp a lifeline
Let them know
when they can’t feel
THERE’S A TOUCH
(Y O U R ‘ S)

If you or someone you know may be contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. In emergencies, call 911, or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider.

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