Many people think that there is a spike in sucidies during the holiday seasons but that’s actually not true. Winter months actually have the fewest sucidies of the year – sucidies are most common during the summer months between May and August, a fact you can confirm on the CDC Wonder death database. More people are depressed in the winter but there are significantly fewer suicides.

People think that’s odd. But the Skeptics Guide to the Universe was discussing it over the weekend – depressed people rarely kill themselves as they lack the energy to do so. But bipolar depressed people in their maniac stages are much more likely to be violent to themselves or others.

If you look at the numbers, the times when homicides spike is the same time sucidies spike – in the warm summer months. Many researchers think that homicide and suicide is closely related – areas with high homicide rates have low suicide rates and vise versa.

That suggests cities should stop looking at homicide as a criminal justice and policing problem see homicide as what it really is – a mental health issue. It makes a lot of sense to shift money from police departments to more mental health counseling in cities – it would save lives and a lot of taxpayer dollars.

https://wonder.cdc.gov/