We’re Failing to Prevent Suicide Because We Misunderstand Why It Happens

Over the past two decades, the suicide rate in the United States has steadily increased, despite increasing efforts to reverse the trend. What are we getting wrong? Clinical psychologist and suicide researcher Craig Bryan has concluded that we’re failing to prevent suicide because we fundamentally misunderstand why suicide happens. We’re trained to think it’s the result of mental illness when most of the time it’s not. Bryan is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at The Ohio State University, and he has a new book called “Rethinking Suicide: Why Prevention Fails and How We Can Do Better.”