Suicide survivor: Social media, culture of loneliness have created a dangerous environment, especially for the young
Part 2 of 2
Suicide was the 11th-leading cause of death overall in the United States in 2021, claiming the lives of over 48,183 people, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s more than 20,000 more deaths that were attributed to homicide, with 26,031 deaths bearing that classification in 2021.
Suicide was especially common for younger people, according to the CDC.
“Suicide was the second-leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10-14 and 25-34, the third-leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 15-24, and the fifth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 44,” it reported.
There were nearly two times as many suicides (48,183) in the United States as there were homicides (26,031).
There was a startling jump in suicides from 2009-19, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System.
The age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 11.8 per 100,000 people to 13.9, according to the center. However, the suicide rate in 2019 was lower than the rate in 2018, when it reached 14.2 per 100,000.
Kevin Hines (above, photo courtesy Kevin Hines), who survived a suicide attempt when he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000 and has made it his life’s work to educate people about suicide, has a theory why they are increasing and why people are more aware of it.
“Suicide is both more common now than it ever has been around the world,” Hines said. “And there’s more awareness now than there ever has been around the world. There are efforts that suicide-preventers are making that are absolutely saving lives on a silent basis. But over the course of the country and the globe, suicides have increased.”
Why?
“I really do believe that there is a lack of resilience in today’s culture,” he said. “I believe that we are losing people left and right to suicide because they’re not being taught how to survive in the face of pain. Pain is universal. It covers everyone everywhere at any time. Anyone can experience it. The difference is, how do we get past the pain that we’re experiencing?”
Hines said young people don’t know how to navigate the stormy seas of emotional upheaval they experience.
“I think a lot of kids are being raised by their devices, their mobile devices, rather than parents and teachers,” Hines said. “And I think there’s a great deal of loneliness going on in the world and a lack of connection due to social media. I think there are great things that social media can and has done, but I think there are some dangerous things it already does do. So I think we need to find a balance.”
The goal is to reduce the risk of suicidal ideation and behavior and for people to deal with thoughts of suicide. A more open and honest discussion of brain health along with more awareness and less shame can help young people at an especially vulnerable time, he said.
Hines was adopted by Pat and Debbie Hines in the San Francisco area when he was 9 months old. He has physical and mental health challenges as a boy, being prescribed Tegretol, an anticonvulsant medicine when he was 10 in an attempt to control epileptic seizures.
When he was taken off the drugs, he showed signs of bipolar disorder and suffered from depression. Voices urging him to commit suicide plagued him.
Finally, in the fall of 2000, his pain amplified by the suicide of a drama teacher, Hines wrote a suicide note and stepped aboard a bus to the famed orange bridge. He wept, and hoped someone would talk with him and ask him what was wrong, but no one did.
Another rider pointed at him and said, “What the hell is wrong with that kid?”
But no offers of help came.
Hines was the last person on the bus when it arrived at the bridge. The driver ordered him off: “C’mon kid, you gotta go!”
Hines paced for more than half an hour, unsure of his next steps. A woman — he thinks she was from Europe — approached him. She handed him a camera and asked him to take her photo at the famous tourist destination.
Hines took five photos, handed her back the camera, and then he went to the rail. In an instant, he was over the side.
Hines was in a seated position when he slammed into the frigid waters, shattering three vertebrae.
The pain was unlike anything he had experienced, and he was afraid he would drown. But he was kept afloat by a sea creature — Hines is convinced it was a sea lion — and tried to swim to remain above the powerful waves, despite the fact that his legs were not functioning.
A Coast Guard boat, summoned by a call from a woman who drove past Hines as he released his grip on the bridge, plucked him from the water. A world-class back specialist was available when he was brought to Marin General Hospital.
“My hospital stay lasted for weeks. One regular visitor was a Franciscan monk. He suggested that I was spared for a reason, perhaps to tell my story, maybe to help put an end to almost 70 years of preventable deaths off the Golden Gate Bridge,” Hines told the Bridge Rail Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end suicides from the span and other locations.
“I didn’t know then — but I do now — that he was right. I have been telling my story to thousands of students, parents, and others,” he said. “I also have been counseling at-risk youth and adding my voice to those of Bridge Rail Foundation and other groups advocating for a suicide barrier on the bridge.”
Hines said he realized he needed to share his story with others who were plagued by suicidal thoughts. It has become his life’s mission.
Hines also was determined to see a barrier placed at the Golden Gate Bridge to save others who felt drawn to the span. Nearly 1,800 people have jumped from it since it opened in 1937, and just 40 are known to have survived, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation.
Hines said he has heard reports from 26 survivors, and 19 of them said they felt the same emotion he did after they jumped — they wanted to live. That’s why he said they must be prevented from taking that giant step that almost always ends in death.
In late 2023, a net was placed across the entire 1.7-mile span of the Golden Gate Bridge. It hangs beneath the east and west side of the span, covering approximately 95 percent of the bridge, according to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District. Because of ongoing construction or design factors, vertical fencing is in place instead of or in addition to the net in some areas.
“The purpose of the net is to reduce the number of deaths associated with individuals jumping off the bridge,” the district website states. “The net is a proven design that deters people from jumping, serves as a symbol of care and hope to despondent individuals, and, if necessary, offers people a second chance.”
Hines has been a leading advocate for the net. He said it can help save others like him, who saw no other choice than to plunge off the bridge to their apparent doom.
Most weren’t saved by a sea lion and a Coast Guard crew. The vast majority who jumped from the Golden Gate died in the San Francisco Bay.
But not Kevin Hines. For some reason, he survived — and he has a story to tell.
If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text CNQR TO 741741.
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Reprint with permission.
