Suicide and MS have had a long relationship. This is Suicide Prevention Week (Sept. 5-11), and Sept. 10 is Suicide Prevention Day.
Depression is experienced in 40 - 60 percent of the MS population. Although MS is not a fatal disease, severe depression accounts for 3 to 15 percent of MS deaths by suicide. These are not insignificant statistics. While I am not a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or any kind of trained therapist, I am going to talk about MS an suicide today. There are so many options for MSers who feel the pain of depression as well as some other symptoms.
There are documented cases of assisted suicides associated with MS, although it doesn’t happen so frequently since disease-modifying drugs have come on the scene. People who have MS and have developed symptoms that make life unbearable consider their options, and some select suicide . Of course, what is unbearable is an individual measure. Even Dr. Jack Kevorkian said, “I don't persuade to suicide.”
My mother died early last year, but she was depressed and ready several years earlier. After her first stroke, she selected the retirement home where she wanted to live. Another stroke, and she had few abilities and fewer life skills. In time subsequent strokes began eliminating her remaining abilities one by one, including mental abilities, and finally her memory. Her memory was not completely gone as evidenced by her wave as we left after a visit.
One time years earlier I told her about a fun and interesting movie, Harold and Maude. I was impressed by the character Maude who was so full of life and adventure, but had a planned to die when she turned 80, and she did. My mother was not so amused.
Americans don’t like to talk about death at all, and they find themselves unprepared when the moment happens. We know we are all going to die, and we need to take responsibility by preparing, making decisions, and communicating those decisions to family and health care members. Anyone who is depressed finds it hard to go through those steps alone.
People with MS are at higher risk than the general population for depression, which has several causes. A known side effect of interferon-based disease-modifying drugs is depression, so taking medication to make the MS better results in depression. A lesion in the section of the brain that controls mood could cause depression to come and go, just as with any other symptom. Living with MS is often unpredictable, painful and isolating, and leads to extended periods of frustration and helplessness - sure to bring on depression.
Anyone with MS can be depressed at some time, and the depression makes it more difficult in daily life, but it is difficult to ask for help. The bleakness of MS is multiplied by depression, and sometimes leaves the MSer open to thoughts of suicide to end the pain. One of my favorite authors, Albert Camus, said, “All healthy men have thought of their own suicide.”
