Suicide Among Professional Divers

[Trace Malinowski]

I've known three scuba instructors who committed suicide. One instructor was my open water instructor, one was a friend, and the third I only knew on social media. Has anyone ever done a study on depression linked to diving and suicide among professional divers? I don't know how many people the average person knows who have committed suicide, but I've known three classmates from high school who committed suicide. One while a student, one soon after graduation, and one just a couple of years back who was an Army major. He shot himself in the parking lot of the reserve center. We know about veteran suicide, and teen suicide, but what about workplace suicide and how might diving compare to that?

 

[BoltSnap]

I don't know of anyone of my friends or acquaintances who committed suicide in the US or in the middle east. At least I can't remember any.

 

[Akimbo]

Has anyone ever done a study on depression linked to diving and suicide among professional divers?

You always have to be careful when developing a hypothesis to avoid conflating proximity and causation. Being in close proximity soon after multiple murders does not make someone a serial killer — CSIs and EMTs for example.

Are you limiting your question to recreational diving instructors or including dive masters, commercial, and military divers?

 

[cathal]

Correlation is not causation and all of that etc. for example, Everyone who breathes air dies, ergo air is a lethal gas.

 

[Searcaigh]

I don't know of anyone of my friends or acquaintances who committed suicide in the US or in the middle east. At least I can't remember any.

I only know of one person who committed suicide, he was a friend of a friend and ex-RN pilot who served during the Falklands war back in 1982. Very sad.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

You always have to be careful when developing a hypothesis to avoid conflating proximity and causation. Being in close proximity soon after multiple murders does not make someone a serial killer — CSIs and EMTs for example.

Are you limiting your question to recreational diving instructors or including dive masters, commercial, and military divers?

All diving occupations. The only caveat to the military diving would be military divers who did not experience any combat in the traditional sense. Obviously, those in the special warfare community would be exposed to stress and trauma that fall outside the realm of diving. I was wondering if increased nitrogen loads could act as a depressant, if the lifestyle of diving instructors at poverty level contributes to a sense of hopelessness, or if brain damage might come from commercial diving or military diving such as you did involving saturation and life under pressure. I don't know if divers are at a higher risk of suicide or not. I was wondering.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Correlation is not causation and all of that etc. for example, Everyone who breathes air dies, ergo air is a lethal gas.

I was wondering if anyone discovered if repeated exposures to depth and pressure could cause depression and suicide, like had DAN or other doctors ever done a study.

 

[tursiops]

I was wondering if anyone discovered if repeated exposures to depth and pressure could cause depression and suicide, like had DAN or other doctors ever done a study.

Or repeated exposures to far-out speculation and conspiracy theories on SB.....

 

[Akimbo]

I was wondering if anyone discovered if repeated exposures to depth and pressure could cause depression and suicide, like had DAN or other doctors ever done a study.

Another category you could add to the mix would be caisson workers, which is a much larger and more studied population than working divers. For what it is worth, I can't recall seeing any study or noticed a correlation.

I don't know where you could go for data for a statistical study. I doubt that OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the US) or HSA (Health Security Agency in the UK) would have suicide data because it rarely occurs on the job site.

Another interesting question is are people with depressive disorders less inclined to engage in diving at any level? You can tell from this sentence that my totally uninformed bias is "probably not".

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Or repeated exposures to far-out speculation and conspiracy theories on SB.....

The University of Sheffield Medical School conducted a study in 2018 that found scuba diving could offer therapeutic benefits to combat veterans suffering physical and psychological wounds but that was due to the state of relaxation one can achieve while diving and the social benefits or organized group activities, I believe. Diving, like alcohol and other things, might be good in moderation or as a recreational endeavor. A glass of wine or a couple of cups of coffee have been studied to be beneficial. But alcoholism or too much caffeine are not healthy. Scientists are always looking for something to study. With an increased interest in mental health awareness, I did not know if DAN or other researchers had studied the effects of diving on exposures that would coincide with those who dove daily. I didn't find abything on a Google search, but since diving docs look at this forum I figured if there was one they'd know or know how to find such a study if it existed.