Sobering Fact: Fibromyalgia Is Associated with an Increased Rate of Suicide


Although it is an important issue that affects many families around the world, suicide is not exactly a typical topic at the dinner table. Chronic diseases may not be the main reason for suicidal tendencies to show up among patients, however, they are still a modifier that should be taken into account, just like stress and depression.

Another important factor that needs to be taken into account is euthanasia, which is the practice of administering a painless death to someone who is suffering. This is still an important topic, that is also controversial, in many countries today. While it isn’t considered a suicidal tendency, per se, it also affects the statistics of suicidal rates.

Sadly, in most cases suicide is a subject that is often overlooked by the people surrounding patients who are experiencing the chronic, painful and invisible symptoms of fibromyalgia. It is usually regarded as a taboo subject that “may not even be in someone’s thought.” However, that is not the truth, and suicide is an important topic that needs to be brought to the table.

Most have at least one friend, or a friend of a friend, or a distant acquaintance who has passed away by committing suicide. If that is not the case, most at least know a celebrity who caused their own death on purpose. In most cases, people who contemplate their death as the ending of a painful path are people who suffer form depression. For example, last year’s biggest and saddest news for the world of celebrities may have been the unexpected death of Chester Bennington, the internationally acclaimed lead singer of one of the most important nu-metal bands in history, Linkin Park.

However, do chronic diseases, such as fibromyalgia, diabetes, lupus and other conditions have an impact on the suicide rate?

The answer is yes. Conditions, such as fibromyalgia, tend to cause the suicide rate to sky-rocket, making it ten times higher than the rate of the general population, according to the data collected.

What is causing an increase in suicide rates for chronic disease patients?

How devastating it is to live with a chronic disease is not a secret. These types of diseases affect not only the patient themselves, but also anyone who is surrounding them. For people having to face this while not being mentally strong, it can easily drain all of their purpose since they only see a constant decrease of their condition. Nowadays, dealing with a chronic disease is considered one of the most stressful and tiresome things for anyone to go through, it could even be at the same level of other stressful events, like losing a loved one, getting fired from a job, or having a divorce.

It is also known that lack of support and misunderstanding patients receive from those around them causes them to have depression, which is just another fact that increases the rate in suicide. While patients can feel confused, lose all hope and constantly think that they’re stuck with their illness, emotions play an essential role in keeping these problems on a patient’s mind.

For these kinds of problems, there are no easy ways out, and patients may have to endure suffering for years, which can really affect families and relationships. This can trigger the appearance of many other problems and struggles that only add more stress to the current situation, making it all the more painful and difficult for patients and their relatives.

Such is the case of people suffering from fibromyalgia, knowing that it is a condition that can totally modify the lifestyle conditions of someone, making them never to feel “normal” again and even more hopeless due to the fact that no cure has been found yet to be efficient enough on solving this condition permanently.

It is worth mentioning that for experts, the best option when facing one of these conditions is to keep the mind busy and have a good attitude regarding all the complications derived from this chronic illness.

Suggestions that may help bring down the suicide rate:

  1. It is important to educate oneself in the condition that the person is going through. Finding more information about the illnesses from well-known sources and reputed websites is essential in order to know how to fight it. For that reason, the first suggestion that can be made is to gather as much information as someone can possibly find on the web and share it with their loved ones as well.
  2. The second thing that can be done is to offer support for these people going through difficult conditions. It is important to constantly ask these people how they are doing and how are they feeling and repeat the same process with all their relatives and people that may be affected by their loved one’s problems. Always let them know that they can count on you.
  3. Last but not least, people must learn to understand the problem and how difficult it might be for that person to cope with the disease. Make them always feel love and speak to them whenever they display signs of having to speak to somebody. There are people going through chronic illnesses that even have to visit a doctor completely alone with no one by their side that can actually support them.

It is important to keep in mind that company may be the best gift for someone going through one of these conditions. For people with fibromyalgia, friends and relatives need to take into account their limitations when inviting them to do any kind of activity, considering these is something that they will later on be grateful about and it will count as one of those things you do because you care about them.