Depression is a potentially life-threatening mood disorder whose complications often include suicide. The fatality level of depression is measurable by completed suicide, and approximately 10% of the population commits suicide each year with differences most distinct between gender and color, “Although depression is more often diagnosed in women, more men die from suicide by a factor of 4.5:1 than women. White men commit over 72% of all suicides” (Depression, 1999, 1). Therefore, by and large suicide is primarily a white phenomenon. However, among people of color adolescent suicides rates are rapidly increasing and rivaling the adolescent suicide rates in the general population, “In 1980, the suicide rate for young whites was 157 percent greater than it was for young blacks. Today, it’s 42 percent greater” and “Between 1979 and 1992, the rate of suicides among Native American males age 15-24 was nearly six times the U.S. average and the highest for any group based on age, sex or race” (Rate 1998, 1; Becker 1998, 1).
Symptoms of depression commonly include heightened prolonged periods of sadness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, sleep or appetite disturbances, loss of energy or motivation, feelings of worthlessness and suicide ideation among others. However, when it comes to the reasons why people of color are experiencing high and rapidly increasing rates of suicide, clear distinctions are not evident. However, as with many social phenomenon, there are a host of theories as to why blacks, Native Americans, Asians and other people of color may be committing suicide in greater numbers than ever before. The reasons span from increased levels of success and the stress and breakup of the nuclear family it implies to racism and a lack of success and opportunity and the depression they often spark in people of color. Perhaps most shocking is that while white men by far still commit suicide more regularly than any ...