It isn't the 'religiosity' or even 'religion' that they've found a link with but simply attendance at church or synagogue.

Maybe it's that 'no matter how you feel, you get up, dress up and show up'. Maybe it's just doing that, getting up, getting out and showing up. There are also lots of opportunities to help others at a place of worship. My mom always said that if you're feeling down, go out and help someone else, you enter a state of being both giver and receiver, it gets you out of yourself. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe not. Maybe it's just being involved. I don't know but I do know that it has helped me over the years and over many dark periods.

Kathy, I think I understand what you're saying. It's the love of people we are connected to and feel responsible for that can keep us going. I too went through a period in my life when I seriously considered the big exit, but realized it would have been too devastating for my family, and so I persevered. Once I travelled beyond that dark area I was able to see things from a more useful perspective… so to speak.

I'm fortunate and blessed (in my secular way to be the member of a large and loving family, but even that almost didn't protect me from what I thought of at the time as too much awareness. Perhaps for some folks a certain amount of ignorance is a blessing. I don't say this to be a smartass, but because I believe it is true. In any case, I no longer feel like I have to figure out why the universe ticks, it's enough to keep my own corner of the world “sensible” and to be as good a person as I know how… to enjoy those parts of the mystery that make life more fun and to not let the darker mysteries be a factor.

I, personally, find it intriguing that the rise in suicide is directly converse to the decline of faith.

From the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Vol 40(5):
“Analyzed official suicide statistics and data on religious involvement from the General Social Surveys (National Opinion Research Center, 1981) for representative subpopulations of the US. Variations in the suicide rates of White males, Black males, White females, and Black females from 1972–1978 were significantly inversely correlated with variations in the church attendance of the respective subpopulations during this period. No significant differences were found between the correlations for White and Black females and for White and Black males nor between those for Black females and males and for White females and males. Findings support the general hypothesis that religiosity deters suicide.”

http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=…

Ain't that the truth.

This is a very personal subject for me (as it is, apparently, for you, too). My father committed suicide in October 1978. He was 60; I was 28. Like most suicides, his motivations were complex, and obviously since I wasn't in his head I can only guess at them from what I knew about him. I know that a significant factor in his emotional torment was the Holocaust. His mother died in Sobibor, and I know he had complicated feelings of survivor's guilt. There were other factors, too, going back to his childhood, and he had been under treatment for years for depression and bipolar disorder (still called manic-depression back then).

Suicide has incredible ripple effects in families. I know that when she was younger my daughter expressed fears that I would kill myself (I'm subject to depression, too). Ironically (I think that's the right word), I would never, ever do that, precisely because of her. My father's death was one of the two most devastating events in my life (the other was my first child's illness and death). No matter how bad it's gotten inside my head, I always knew I would never take that final step as long as she was on the planet.