---
title: "30 Facts About Suicide"
url: https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-suicide-facts/
date: 2017-04-03
modified: 2017-04-03
lang: en
author: "jazz"
description: "Here are 30 Suicide facts. 1-5 Suicide Facts 1. The Complete Manual of Suicide, a Japanese book which provides explicit descriptions of various methods of suicide, was first published in..."
categories:
  - "Fact List"
  - "Miscellaneous"
image: https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/suicide-article.jpg
word_count: 1145
---

# 30 Facts About Suicide

Here are 30 Suicide facts.

## 1-5 Suicide Facts

[![Image credit: en.wikipedia.org](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Complete_Manual_of_Suicide.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Complete_Manual_of_Suicide.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

1. The Complete Manual of Suicide, a Japanese book which provides explicit descriptions of various methods of suicide, was first published in 1993 and sold more than one million copies. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Manual_of_Suicide)

2. When Britain changed the packaging for Tylenol to blister packs instead of bottles, suicide deaths from Tylenol overdoses declined by 43 percent. Anyone who wanted 50 pills would have to push out the pills one by one but pills in bottles can be easily dumped out and swallowed. - [Source](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/a-simple-way-to-reduce-suicides/?_r=0)

3. The day after Robin Williams’s suicide, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline fielded the greatest number of calls in its history. - [Source](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/suicide-hotline-calls-surge/14053415/)

4. Some areas in Scotland and [Japan](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-japan-part1/) switched to blue street lights at night and saw a decrease in suicide and crime rates. - [Source](https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-colored-light-prevent-suicide/)

5. The founder of the Samaritans, the suicide hotline was Chad Varah, an Anglican priest whose first service was a funeral for a fourteen-year-old girl who died by suicide because she had begun to menstruate and feared that she had a sexually transmitted [disease](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-diseases/). - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Varah)

## 6-10 Suicide Facts

[![Image credit: en.wikipedia.org](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Adolf_Hitler_and_Blondi.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Adolf_Hitler_and_Blondi.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

6. When [Adolf Hitler](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-adolf-hitler/) decided to commit suicide; he fed some cyanide to his [dog](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-interesting-facts-dogs/) to make sure it worked. His private nurse later said that the people in the bunker were more distraught by the death of his dog than that of his wife, Eva Braun. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondi#Death_of_Blondi_and_other_dogs)

7. During the 1988 purges in Iran, women were lashed for missing their daily prayers. When one woman died after 22 days and 550 lashes, the authorities certified her [death](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-death/) as a suicide because it was 'she who had made the decision not to pray'. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_executions_of_Iranian_political_prisoners#Dealing_with_women)

8. There were 6500 veteran suicides in 2012, about 17.8 suicides a day. - [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/01/us-military-suicide-epidemic-veteran)

9. In 2002, a Croatian diver got lost in an underwater cave and stabbed himself in the chest to avoid the agony of drowning. It was the first case of someone committing suicide while diving. - [Source](http://neuron.mefst.hr/docs/CMJ/issues/2003/44/3/12808733.pdf)

10. A Japanese pilot who attacked a town in Oregon during [WWII](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-world-war-2-part-1/) returned 20 years later to present his family's 400-year-old sword as a symbol of regret. His daughter later said, if he had received a hostile reaction, he would’ve used the sword to perform a ritual suicide by disembowelment instead. - [Source](http://www.sharpen-up.com/japanese-ww2-pilot-presents-familys-400-year-old-sword-u-s-town-symbol-regret/)

## 11-15 Suicide Facts

[![Suicide-Plant](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Suicide-Plant.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Suicide-Plant.jpg)

11. There is an Australian shrub known as the "Suicide Plant" and its sting can last years and is so agonizing that people have been known to kill themselves after touching it. - [Source](http://io9.gizmodo.com/if-you-touch-this-plant-it-will-make-you-vomit-in-pure-1693770289)

12. In an attempt to protect himself from being poisoned Mithridates VI of Pontus gradually drank poison to become immune to its effects. When he attempted to commit suicide to avoid being captured by the Romans, he failed to die due to his immunity. - [Source](http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/mithridatum.html)

13. In pre-Christian Greek and Roman cultures, suicide was permitted, if not condoned, and often seen as an act of free will that could even be heroic. - [Source](http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/canada/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcanada%2Fa-major-shift-is-happening-in-the-meaning-of-death-from-ineffable-human-destiny-to-legislated-human-right)

14. In 1933, three Japanese school girls crossed in love committed suicide by jumping into a volcanic crater on the [island](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-islands/) of Oshima. This act started a bizarre trend in Japan, and in the following year, 800 other people leapt into the same crater. - [Source](http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1936/05/10/page/98/article/japans-fiery-pit-of-death/)

15. PFC LaVena Johnson was found dead in 2005 at a base in Balad, Iraq. Initially ruled a suicide, an autopsy revealed she had a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, and burns from corrosive chemicals on her genitals. The Army has refused to reopen the case. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_LaVena_Johnson)

## 16-20 Suicide Facts

[![suicide-rope](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/suicide-rope.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/suicide-rope.jpg)

16. Suicide candidates in 18th-century Denmark were afraid to take their own lives because they believed it would send them to hell. Instead, they resorted to killing other people to receive the death penalty and repented before execution, believing that doing so would send them to heaven. - [Source](http://sciencenordic.com/danes-killed-get-killed)

17. A man who suffered from extreme OCD attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head, he survived and the bullet lodged in the part of the brain where OCD originates thus curing him. - [Source](http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1988-02-23/news/0020140103_1_obsessive-compulsives-obsessive-behavior-compulsion-to-repeat)

18. The [FBI](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-fbi/) sent a letter to Martin Luther King Jr. suggesting that he commit suicide within 34 days or have his sexual exploits exposed to the nation. - [Source](https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html?referer=)

19. Eli Lilly, the company behind the SSRI antidepressant Prozac, hid its clinical trials from the FDA that showed patients who took Prozac were 12 times more likely to commit suicide compared to other antidepressants. - [Source](http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/01/03/prozac.documents/)

20. In January 2011, a Russian suicide bomber received an unexpected text message from her wireless carrier which triggered her belt [bomb](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-bombs-explosions/) and killed her instantly. - [Source](https://www.wired.com/2011/01/sms-suicide-bomber/)

## 21-25 Suicide Facts

[![coffee](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coffee.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coffee.jpg)

21. Drinking 2 cups of [coffee](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-coffee/) daily has been found to drop the risk of suicide by 50% compared to non-coffee drinkers. - [Source](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/07/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-risk-of-suicide-by-50/)

22. In 1941, Hitler named Hermann Göring his successor should Hitler be incapacitated. In 1945 when Hitler made it known his plan to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler, requesting permission to assume control of the Reich. Hitler viewed this as treason and had Göring arrested. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring)

23. In 2014 a 17-year-old girl was charged with manslaughter for encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend to commit suicide. - [Source](http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/texts_show_michelle_carter_enc.html)

24. An English composer, Jeremiah Clarke, couldn't decide if he should commit suicide by hanging or drowning himself. He flipped a coin and after the coin landed on its edge in the mud he went home and shot himself instead. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Clarke#Clarke.27s_suicide)

25. In 1965 a [dolphin](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-interesting-facts-dolphins/) and his trainer entered into a sexual relationship, which after being forcibly ended caused the dolphin to commit suicide. - [Source](http://nypost.com/2014/06/10/the-dolphin-that-fell-in-love-with-a-human/)

## 26-30 Suicide Facts

[![golden-gate-bridge](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/golden-gate-bridge.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/golden-gate-bridge.jpg)

26. People who survived suicide attempts by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge often regret their decision in midair, if not before. Said one survivor: “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.” - [Source](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers)

27. The holiday suicide myth supports misinformation about suicide that might ultimately hamper prevention efforts. The idea that suicide rates increase during the holiday season is a myth perpetuated by the media. In fact, suicide rates are the lowest in December. - [Source](https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/holiday.html)

28. If you commit suicide in Japan by jumping onto an oncoming train or killing yourself in an apartment building, the train or building company can/will sue your family for clean up fees, loss of income and negative publicity brought on by your suicide. - [Source](https://joi.ito.com/weblog/2002/08/18/paying-for-suic.html)

29. 2 men who possessed the same [heart](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-heart/) (at different times of course) married the same woman, and both committed suicide in the same way. - [Source](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-30-1180586906_x.htm)

30. The man who invented Life Savers (candy) had a son who committed suicide by jumping off a ship. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Crane)