CAMPUS
University Daily Kansan, August 22, 1984
Page 10
Rising suicide rates mean pain, devastation for families
By ROY KELLER Staff Reporter
T two people committed and four attempted suicide in the Lawrence area within less than a year.
a week earlier last month.
One of the two suicides was a 21-year-old sophomore at the University of Kansas.
The causes of this unhappy phenomenon are varied, but the one trait nearly all people who commit suicide share is anguish. And they cause a great deal of pain to those they leave behind.
Bonnie Brickhouse, a Topea woman whose 17-year-old daughter committed suicide Dec. 15, 1981, said that the suffering would never stop for her.
"It was so selfish of Tenille to do it, because it's not over for us on." Brickhouse said "Every month on the 15th. I think about it a lot, and I'm blue all day."
"IT'S ESPECIALLY hard for a mother," Brickhouse said. "Every time I go to the grocery store, when I come to the pears, I get sad because I used to get them for Tenille.
"So many things remind me of Tenille. I saw a girl that looked like her from behind one day, and I drove
around the block just to see her face. The pain keeps coming back," Brickhouse said.
Brickhouse school
Brickhouse's feelings reflect the fact that those who are left behind - mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, grandparents and friends - also suffer.
KU, area suicide
Sydney Schroeder, who retired last year as head of the mental health clinic at Watkins Hospital, said, "I was at the clinic for 20 years, and there were about 40 student suicides in that time, or an average of about two per year."
RUTH MIKKELSON, associate director of residential programs, said. "There have been no completed suicides of students while living in University residence halls during the past seven years."
"However, we know that at least one student with whom we worked did complete suicide later," Mikkelson said.
"This past year, I counted 17 suicide attempts," Mikkelson said. "This figure is higher than in the past. It could be because of more attempts or it could be increased awareness on the part of our staff. We can't be sure."
"We have a really good intervention program," Mikelson said. "Our RA's (resident assistants) are trained to recognize symptoms of suicide and make appropriate referrals."
In Douglas County, there is no agency that keeps statistics identifying off-campus KU students who attempt suicide. On campus, the KU Police Department handles suicide but lists them only as accidents.
Problems with attempted suicide do occur in residence halls at KU.
Carol Moddrell, Douglas County deputy coroner, has done research showing that there were 29 suicides in Douglas County between 1979 and 1981. All victims were between 18 and 40 years old.
Inadequate statistics
NO ONE knows for sure how many people commit suicide or attempt it each year in the United States, because for various reasons suicide is not always cited as the true cause of death or injury.
Official figures range from 30,000 to 60,000 suicides per year, but John H. Hewlett, in the 1980 book "After Suicide," said, "As many as 90,000 to 100,000 persons probably complete suicide each year in this country."
College students contribute more than their share to these figures.
A June 1984 "Ladies" Home Journal article cited a study saying that "there are more suicides among college students than among the rest." And these suicides at prestigious colleges than at the run-of-the-mill variety."
THE AMERICAN Association of
Sucidology in Denver said that between 1960 and 1980, the rate of suicides among young people 15 to 24 years old had more than doubled.
These figures indicate that suicide, especially among young people, is a problem of significant magnitude, both on a national and a local level.
Hewett pointed out in his book that there were 150,000 to 500,000 "suicide survivors" every year. He arrived at that range by assuming an average of five immediate family members for each suicidal death.
Survivors suffer also
And many of these "survivors" say they are ultimately the ones who suffer most.
"I tried to drink myself to death for two months," said a Topaek housewife, whose 25-year-old son killed himself. "I thought I could get up the nerve to do something if I drank enough."
THIS MOTHER, WHO asked not to be identified by name, said that she had recovered so that her own life was no longer in danger. But she still remembers.
"You never know what's going to trigger the memory and the sadness," she said. "The Fourth of July — my son loved fireworks — picnics, family parties."
"There is often a misconception in the minds of suicidal people," she said. "They feel like they will be killed, or have been loved ones, rolleying them of a burden.
relieving them of a burden.
"But they have no idea of the devastation they leave behind," she said.
A young Lawrence professional
man, who also did not want his name to be used, lost his father to suicide nearly five years ago.
"I still have strong feelings of regret that I wasn't closer to my father," he said. "I would have made more of an effort to know him better if I could have foreseen what happened.
"Sometimes I dwell on it and I'm overwhelmed with regret and sadness."
He said that his father had become a "non-person" as a result of his training.
"PEOPLE I BECOME acquainted with don't ask about my father," he said. "They've been clued in."
"For a long time, I didn't mention him either, because I worried that I would make others uncomfortable or ruin a conversation."
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"Now," he said, "I'm trying to bring my father back as a person. I occasionally tell an anecdote about him."
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Because many survivors never can completely erase their memories, a support group for survivors has formed in Topeka.
Called Survivors of Suicide, the group is sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Shawnee County. The number to call for
"When you lose someone to suicide," Dankert kink, "you have normal grief, plus you have experienced the ultimate in rejection.
"Nothing they could be protecting their loved ones from could be as devastating as what the suicide leaves them with." Dankert said.
information is (913) 273-6370.
Dankert also said that some people who commit suicide believed they were doing survivors a favor.
MARY CLINTON, Topeka, is a member of Survivors of Suicide. Her sister, Kathy, committed suicide in 1976.
"There's a great deal of anger in some. Others are overwhelmed by guilt. They need to talk it out," she said.
IDELL DANKERT, STAFF person in charge of the support group, said, "We have had a nucleus of 12 to 15 survivors at every meeting. In all, 35 different people have attended since March.
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Clinton said she thought she had adjusted to the loss until this April when she was shocked to find all the details of her sister's suicide in an obituary file in the Topeka Public Library.
The release gained from talking to the group is powerful, she said, but the hurt never goes away entirely.
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