September is Suicide Prevention Month. In my community, September is a month of mental health awareness and suicide prevention initiatives ranging from a candlelight vigil to remember individuals who have died by suicide to a conference on suicide prevention. Beyond dates and events, the reason for these gatherings is heavy.

Each life lost to suicide represents a galaxy of possibilities for the future that have vanished for that person and those around them. Every story and the events/experiences of a person's life until the death and what led up to the death by suicide are unique.

The painful reality is that all available data suggests that suicide rates have only increased in the last several years (Martinez-Ales et al., 2024). Most concerning of all, adolescent suicide is on the rise, with suicide being the third leading cause of death for youth worldwide (Glenn et al., 2020).

Of course, there is no simple explanation. We know that hopelessness is perhaps the best predictor of suicide (Sun et al., 2022). Hope is a variable construct. When we are suffering, whether that suffering feels meaningful or not makes a significant difference to its tolerability. Is there an end to the suffering? Can we imagine a future that is more worthwhile than today?

Isolation is also a major contributing factor (Motillon-Toudic et al., 2022). Relationships are frequently what individuals find most central in their lives. When we believe that we are alone in our troubles, it becomes all the more unbearable. If we feel not only alone but also as a burden to those around us, suicide can feel like a solution. This is reflected by the interpersonal theory of suicide, which relates thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and capability as three factors of........

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