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Written July 10, 2011
Updated June 13, 2025
It is a depressing reality that many people with a serious mental illness will attempt suicide at some time in their lives. It’s estimated that up to half of those with bipolar disorder will attempt suicide. (Although my personal feeling is that this is artificially low. People often don’t want to admit to attempting suicide.) That’s a very large number. More women will attempt suicide, but more men will die by suicide. Women will overdose while men will use firearms. More than half of these people will not leave suicide notes.
We are lucky that most suicide attempts fail. Most people who attempt suicide will be rescued by others.