Editor, Gazette-Journal:
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. People are coming together all over the country to share their heartfelt stories to shine a light on preventing suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide was responsible for 48,183 deaths in 2021—about one death every 11 minutes. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2021, an estimated 12.3 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt and 1. 7 million attempted suicide. In 2021, suicide was among the top nine leading causes of death for people ages 10-64. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 20-34.
According to information provided by the VDH, 14 men and one woman died of suicide on the Middle Peninsula in 2022. On the Northern Neck, six men and one woman died as a result of suicide, bringing those numbers to 20 men and two women throughout th...