CONNECTICUT, USA — Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day, dedicated to raising awareness about what's become a public health crisis.
Suicide is currently the 11th leading-cause of death in the United States, with 49,476 Americans taking their own lives in 2022, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For comparison, 24,849 people in the U.S. died from homicides in that same year.
So far in Connecticut this year, nine youth have died from suicide. In all of 2023, that number was six.
Ann Irr Dagle knows the pain of losing a child firsthand. Her teenage son Brian, a graduate of East Lyme High School, took his life thirteen years ago.
“It was a nightmare. A tsunami hit us, our whole family, our whole community, everyone. I look back and I wonder how we survived it,” Dagle said.
She described Brian's death as a loss she never saw coming. It happened while he was studying to be teacher at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vt.
“When I look back, there were warning signs, but we didn't know back then that there were warning signs. He had lost a lot of weight. He was isolating a little bit from his friends here at home,” Dagle said.
Dagle recognizes those shifts in behavior as cries for help. It’s what she teaches other parents to look out for, through a nonprofit she founded in her son's memory: The Brian Dagle Foundation.
“One thing we can do is normalize the conversation. Talk about our mental health as much as we do physical health,” Dagle said.
Mental health experts agree that checking in on loved ones can go a long way.
“Sometimes when you ask that question, 'is everything okay?', that's too vague, so we try to say 'how are you today' and ask those sometimes uncomfortable questions. But it's better to ask now than to not be able to ask later,” psychiatrist John Lusins said.
While Dagle cannot bring her son back, she honors Brian every day by helping others, as she turns her pain into purpose and supports grieving families like hers.
“I sit with people all the time who are in the exact place that I was,” she said. “They’re in the worst pain that they will ever experience in their life, but somehow some way they will get through it.”
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reported in 2022 that men died by suicide nearly four times the rate of women, with white males accounting for 68% of all suicide deaths that same year.
Anyone with or who knows someone experiencing suicidal thoughts can call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8.
Anyone who needs help finding and affording mental health care can use a Connecticut phone line set up to connect with the right services, which can be reached by dialing 2-1-1.
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