Suicide rates in the US have gone up by 25% from 1996 to 2016. Contrary to common misconceptions, a lot of them cannot be attributed to Mental Health Problems. NY has long abandoned its old Mental Health Institutions and come to a more modern solution to the problem. The recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, have brought these suicides to our world’s attention. Our public has to suddenly look beyond the public persona of famous people, to their personal persona. What we are forced to see is that even in publicly successful people, there is a strange loss of soul. Even at the pinnacle of public admiration, one can still falter and fall very deeply, into the very depths of human despair. This is not a subject I would bring up at a jolly dinner table, but it is something that each one of us has to acknowledge, as something that needs to be discussed.

Our new media society is very successful in connecting us digitally day and night. Now one is always connected and social media and other makeups of our digital signature, builds a new world only for each one of us. We can be whatever we want to be, on our World Wide Web. It is just a matter of putting out the right ideas out there, which connect more people. Popularity numbers are suddenly very high, with millions of followers for some social celebrities. Success now is almost instantaneous for some people, but to sustain it over a period of time, means the person is personally gifted. Very few people have the charisma or the opportunity to present themselves uniquely and with their full life force, to our world. They open new horizons for us, through their ideas and actions. They expand our way of thinking and in the end ourselves as a race. We have to just do a better way to resolve issues that arise, out of our modern digital always on life, a little better.

We can use our social and digital media to bring peace and closure to such issues. We can use our community to make an effort, to address the root cause of some of these problems.  We need to do a better job in tackling substance abuse and physical health problems.  We have other societal needs like the war against poverty. Approximately 1-in-5 children in the U.S. are living in poverty today(1) , and even though this represents one of the highest childhood poverty rates among developed nations worldwide, almost half of Americans (49 percent of those surveyed) are unaware of the prevalence of childhood poverty in the U.S., based on a new national survey from Walgreens. It is a combination of social and economic causes that lead to suicide and until we get a better understanding of the cause, we cannot find a solution to the rising rates. Our compassion has to go towards building a society where people want to live and prosper.

It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone. -Marilyn Monroe, actress (1 Jun 1926-1962)