Don’t allow suicide to continue to become too painful to talk about in our society

Few of us give much thought to the uncertainties of fate.
A syndicated columnist who recently informed his readers he was dying wrote years ago of a baseball pitching phenom who suffered an emotional breakdown.
His words then to describe fate — “the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a single false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter” — out of context might appear to refer to the physical hazards of life.
Yet, his reference was to the mental perils in life — psychiatric disorders, conditions and emergencies.
This despite Charles Krauthammer being confined to a wheelchair nearly a half century ago after severing his spine in a diving accident.
In Krauthammer’s estimation, “What distinguishes us is whether — and how — we ever come back.”
Last week, two celebrities, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, whose lives from the outside were the envy of many, hanged themselves.
Truly, we have a tougher time understanding why the famous take their own lives than the faceless among us.
Yet, suicide is a question mark where the answers are black and white in only rare instances.
Given treatment and medication, we like to think the conditions that drive people to such despair disappear.
However, there are sometimes holes in people’s soul that nothing in life can fill, not even for the rich and famous.
Most of us are consumed with paying our bills, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over our heads.
But suicide and severe mental disorders prove there is something more to the struggles in life.
In a nation like ours, the most abundant, the best sheltered and safest in history, one would think suicide rates would be marginal.
Yet, in 2016, more than 45,000 people killed themselves. Rates of suicide have jumped by 30 percent since 1999.
It’s not as if we don’t know something is wrong. Listening to the police scanner in our newsroom, it’s real clear something is wrong. Psychiatric emergencies often seem almost as common as drug overdoses and motor vehicle accidents.
There are plenty of ideas why this is happening so frequently, but few ideas how to fix it.
Clearly, a wide approach to suicide prevention must start with identifying and supporting people — young and middle-aged — at risk for suicide.
Another fundamental to stemming this scourge is supporting family and friends after a suicide or an attempt to take one’s life.
Needless to say, boosting state and federal funding for mental health programs is also critical.
Like so many other social issues, we cannot continue to conveniently just sweep this one under the rug.
Families often come together at funerals and during crises in an inspiring example to all of us.
Why can’t we do that just as well while we are living?