"Mental Illness, suicide and guns" presentation at the Berks Peace Movement, April 23, 2014
1. Richard Gardner Mental Illness notes April 23, 2014
What I am talking about tonight is a tremendous gift, with an equally tremendous price, Mental Illness.
I AM BIPOLAR
Suicide in bipolars:
1 in 2 attempt
1 in 4 succeed
1 in 8 use a gun
Suicide among schizophrenics is considerably lower than bipolars.
Suicide among both groups is a way of bringing relief from the chaos which is often in our minds. It can often
become a compulsion or addiction, at least among bipolars.
Females attempt suicide more often. Males are better at it because they tend to use guns.
In 2013, the total number of suicide deaths was 38,364, greater than traffic fatalities. Males complete suicide
almost 4x’s more than females. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States
Gun deaths in the US in 2011: 32,163, of this number, gun suicides were 19,766 or 61%.
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
We are @ 5% of the population and up to 50% of the leaders in some fields.
We crave stability and usually function best in stable environments with planned days and events. An
unstable environment can send us into either a manic or depressed episode.
I am Bipolar 2 with ultra-rapid cycles and mixed episodes – manic and depressed at the same time – very
dangerous situation for ourselves, often leads to suicide, with obsessive compulsive syndrome (an incredible
gift in itself when it functions in the right way as it allows us to accomplish much, disastrous when it inhibits
daily functioning and interpersonal relationships).
It is inherited – several family members from both sides of my family have symptoms as do at least 2 of
my children.
Symptoms:
Suicide - Hemingway
Sex drive – Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Casanova, Hemingway
Often broadly creative – Franklin and Jefferson were two of our greatest scientists, Hemingway
Addictions,which bring relief to the noise in our heads and personalities – sex, substances, gambling
- Hemingway with ethanol and sex, numerous authors, artists, actors/actresses
Usually broadly intelligent – Renaissance people/polymaths
Spending binges – Jefferson, Hemingway
Often very intuitive – an important part or source of the creativity.
The other part of the creativity may be that our emotions run stronger and deeper than many other people.
Recently, I was called a Renaissance person –someone who is gifted across many disciplines. I am as equally
comfortable with the sciences as with the humanities and the arts. (Yet I still have huge holes in what I can
do.)This is common among us and may be one of the keys to recognizing a bipolar.
We often have horrible interpersonal relationships – marry or befriend us with care.
2. We are most dangerous to others when in the manic state as we take large risks with ourselves and
other people, but almost never malicious.
We are most dangerous to ourselves when going from manic to depressed and when depressed.
Hypomanic – not full manic, but a very energetic and creative time which many of us crave.It can be induced
with caffeine or similar stimulants. For me it is scary because of the amount of emotional/physical energy it
requires and it has a bad down afterward.
The hypomanic/manic moods are often followed by the depression. The depression can be as deep as the
moods were high.
Comorbidity – often other mental health issues at the same time such as ADD, drug/ethanol addiction or … .
Mental illness -almost always not just one level, but has many levels to it:
Axis 1 – genetic inheritance
Axis 2 – heredity affected by environment, social inheritance
Axis 3 … - different aspects of health and social fitness
DSM 5 is a very good reference (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition)
Medications are a mixed answer:
can relieve a manic or depressed episode
can cause suicide
can severely alter the personality
can hurt the IQ
The best answers are:
self-knowledge
knowledge of the disease
supportive environment of family and friends
stable emotional environment, even though we try hard to destabilize it
stable physical environment
stable routines
healthy eating
regular exercise
physical contact with other people – hug us a lot!
Bright rooms help us a lot as do yellow kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms and wherever we spend much
of our time as the brightness helps us through the depression and gives us energy. (We have a “sun”
in our kitchen, 5 bright light bulbs of differing wave lengths.)
Remove all firearms from anywhere the person can get them (and acetaminophen along with other
medications which can be deliberately overdosed).
Guns are fatal 90% of the time, drugs much less.
Notify all the local gun stores that this person is not to buy a gun!
Listen to them.
Help them to regain emotional and environmental stability. Help them, but do not do it for them.
Hug us a lot!
REMEMBER IT IS A GIFT, BUT THAT GIFT HAS A HIGH PRICE !!!
3. Quick references
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-ownership-and-use/
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923
‘ “The higher risk of suicide in homes with firearms applies not only to the gun owner but also to the gun owner's spouse
and children. The presence of a gun in the home, no matter how the gun is stored, is a risk factor for completed suicide.
And there is a hierarchy of suicide risk consistent with a dose–response relationship. How household guns are stored
matters especially for young people — for example, one study found that adolescent suicide was four times as likely in
homes with a loaded, unlocked firearm as in homes where guns were stored unloaded and locked.”
“There was no association between firearm-ownership rates and nonfirearm suicides.”
“Too many seem to believe that anyone who is serious enough about suicide to use a gun would find an equally effective
means if a gun were not available. This belief is invalid.” ’
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0805923
“Even if you don't consider gun control to be a healthcare issue, suicide certainly is, and statistics show that the two are
intertwined.” http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/guns-far-more-likely-to-be-used-in-suicide-than-in-
killing-bad-guys/284537/
“Using a variety of techniques and data we estimate that a 1% increase in the household gun ownership rate leads to a
.5 to .9% increase in suicides.* (n.b. slight change in language from earlier version for clarity.)
Even if one thinks that suicides don’t cause gun ownership one might imagine that they are correlated due say to a third
factor such as social anomie. We have an interesting test of this in the paper. If suicides and gun ownership were being
driven by a third factor we would expect gun ownership to be correlated with all suicides not just gun-suicide. What we
find, however, is that an increase in gun ownership decrease non-gun suicide. From an economics perspective this
makes perfect sense. As gun ownership increases, the cost of gun-suicide falls because guns are easier to access and as
the cost of gun-suicide falls there is substitution away from non-gun suicide.
Put differently, when gun ownership decreases other methods of suicide increase. Substitution among methods is not
perfect, however, so when gun ownership decreases we see a big decrease in gun-suicide and a substantial but less than
fully compensating increase in non-gun suicide so a net decrease in the number of suicides.
Our econometric results are consistent with the literature on suicide which finds that suicide is often a rash and
impulsive decision–most people who try but fail to commit suicide do not recommit at a later date–as a result, small
increases in the cost of suicide can dissuade people long enough so that they never do commit suicide.”
http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/18/on-suicide-and-guns/
This will be posted to:
http://www.slideshare.net/rtgardner3/
https://www.facebook.com/tom.gardner.737
