Suicide Rates Reach All-Time High In US During Post-Covid Surge

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data pertaining to suicide rates in 2022.

Approximately 49,500 people died by suicide last year. For the second consecutive year, the number eclipsed the previous record.

The trend follows a two-year period from 2019 and 2020 in which the number of suicides declined. Dr. Rehan Aziz, a psychiatrist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J., says the timing is not a coincidence.

"During the pandemic, social isolation increased and access to mental health services decreased," he told Fox News Digital.

Dr. Aziz refers to government-induced lockdowns, social distancing, remote learning and isolation.

Consider that some children and adults went months without seeing a friend. Others went weeks without leaving their homes.

Though lockdowns were mostly lifted in 2022, the effects remained present.

Last year, Frontiers in Psychiatry concluded a study on what it called "post-lockdown depression." Per the finding, "The result point to the long-term effects of the pandemic on mental health issues, even when restrictions are lifted, and to positive solitude as a coping mechanism in time of stress.

"The current findings have global implications for clinicians as well as for governments, social organizations and other stakeholders," adds the report.

"We hope the findings will raise awareness to adaptation difficulties returning to routine following social restrictions. We call policy makers to initiate programs informing the public on these issues. Simply put, it appears that negative psychological implications linger, even after the lockdown and associated restrictions have been lifted."

We hope so, too.

A mental health concept of mysterious figure back to camera, sitting on a bench alone. With a grunge, textured edit.

Stringent lockdown policies proved ineffective in stopping the spread, yet potent in increasing mental health complications.

And those who enabled the policies should be held accountable, voted out of office, and removed from their positions immediately. But, of course, they won't be.

Americans have not felt this alone, this freighted, and this lost since the dawn of World War II, adds The AP. But unlike in the 1940s, social media algorithms now prey on the vulnerable.

As OutKick reported, TikTok builds custom feeds to exploit each user's emotions. The platform learns a user's weaknesses in under two hours through, but not limited to. the use of hashtags like #breakup, #sad, and #depression.

By that night, TikTok bombards the user with content to keep them scrolling in dismay.

“Each video a kid watches, TikTok gains a piece of information on him. In a few hours, the algorithm can detect his musical tastes, his physical attraction, if he’s depressed, if he might be into drugs, and many other sensitive information," warned Guillaume Chaslot, the founder of Algo Transparency.

“There’s a high risk that some of this information will be used against him. It could potentially be used to micro-target him or make him more addicted to the platform.”

Between lockdowns and algorithms far more sophisticated than any human to combat, it's no wonder so many users fell addicted to TikTok over the past three years. And why so many came to question their worth.

Specifically, males aged 25 and 44 years are most vulnerable. Suicide rates are nearly four times higher among males, with 39,255 taking their own lives in 2022 compared to 10,194 females.

The data from the CDC makes your heart sink. It's horrific. It makes you question how a nation can sustain production with suicide rates so high.

And yet, the trend will fail to garner any notable amount of attention. In fact, Dr. Aziz described the suicide spike as a "silent public health crisis."

"I say silent because it has not received the attention it deserves," he explains. 

Perhaps the coverage of the mental health crisis is not as politically advantageous to the press as more incendiary topics, like white supremacy, Donald Trump, and transphobia.

But there is no topic graver, more consequential than the rise in suicide rates across the country. There is no topic that warrants more awareness, care and response.

So, if you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).