According to a March 4, 2012 article published on PsyWeb.com, the number of suicides in the United States is on the rise. The year 2009 saw 36,909 official suicide deaths, a 2.4% increase from 2008. During 2009, 8.3 million adults struggled with suicidal thoughts and over a million actually made a suicide attempt.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that about 13% of the 2009 suicides could be traced back to economic issues such as job loss or overwhelming debt.
Although official statistics for more recent years have not been released, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline reported a 14% increase in the number of calls it received between 2010 and 2012.
These numbers come at a hard time for Americans, since cuts to federal and state budgets have defunded many mental health centers geared towards helping lower income clients and forced others to significantly cut back on the services they offer.