Medpage Today – Why Can't We Say 'Suicide'?— Ignoring This Illness Is Not Sustainable
By Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA May 3, 2022
Iconic singer Naomi Judd died at age 76, one day before she was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, shared a statement confirming her death: "Today [April 30, 2022] we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness."
An exact cause of death was not disclosed, and no additional information was forthcoming. However, the late Grammy-winning legend had been open about her mental health struggles and descent into debilitating depression and suicidal ideation. It was the focus of her 2016 autobiography, River of Time.
Why are we afraid to say the word "suicide?" Usually, it is for the benefit of the family, out of respect for their privacy. But the real reason is that mental disorders remain the most stigmatized of all illnesses, and suicide encapsulates mental aberrations to the extreme. I never considered my specialty (psychiatry) to have a mortality rate until one of my supervisors reminded me that our patients die by suicide and sometimes kill others by homicide, acts which can be prevented more often than not.