The recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain have renewed a national conversation about suicide and its causes. As a homicide detective, I saw an increase in our local suicide rate first-hand over a fifteen year period, and a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms nationally what I observed locally: suicide rates in the United States have risen nearly 30% since 1999.

While many researchers have studied the connection between mental illness and suicide, it’s important to note that more than half the people who commit suicide are not identified as mentally ill. So, what else might be contributing to the rise we are observing?

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