Suicide Among Professional Divers

[Subcooled]

Suicide involving diving seems to rare, at least.
https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_murder_and_suicide_involving_scuba_diving

 

[tursiops]

Suicide involving diving seems to rare, at least.
https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_murder_and_suicide_involving_scuba_diving

That abstract makes a lot more sense when you look at the full-text pdf and find that "105" is actually ten to the fifth power,
.

 

[DXHI]

Makes sense. My neighbor is a vet and he has to deal with some really sh!tty animal owners who are really sh!tty to their pets. I remember my first dog that I had to put down (either brain tumor, extreme case of epilepsy, without tests hard to say but there was no longer any quality of life so it was an easy, yet still painful decision). The vet asked me if I wanted to be in the same room. WTF? I held her as she took the lethal injection and felt her take her last breaths and last heart beats. That is the bare minimum that pet owners should do yet for some reason people think that bare minimum deserves accolades. I'll never understand that.

I work ER / critical care. You would be surprised that the skit and low life’s and just crazy people we put with . People are getting crazier by the day.
Had a client just last week that threatened to whoop my ass because his dog with a broken toenail had to wait while I was treating a critical hit by car. His was simple I should just be able to get him out the door then I focus on the HBC…

At check out.. “If you weren’t behind that counter I’d teach you a thing or two.” I set my stethoscope on the counter and walked around to where he was and said “We’ll…” he turned around and walked out

Cases of neglect, owners that repeatedly accuse US of beating their dogs while they are in the back getting blood drawn… while you can hear them cussing their spouse in the room, makes you raise eyebrows…

People that feed their dogs their drugs to see what happens..

Then trying to transfer pets to a primadona specialist.. who because you sent the memo at 5:31 am vs 5:30 am when he checks his messages refuses the case just to be an ass while owner is crying / begging to transfer to them with cash in hand and then he makes us look stupid on ER….

I can go on for pages and pages but our job is not as rewarding as people think… I love treating the pets and it’s such a rewarding feeling when everything comes together .. and you can give yourself a quiet pat on the back but… I hate client interactions … hate them .. I hate to use Covid as the turning point but people are just unappreciative of anything since then.

Had an owner two weeks ago that waited 16 hrs to bring their in labor frenchie in for C-section. All the pups were deceased at that point .. now he’s got a lawyer and trying to say I stole the puppies …. After he told us to just cremate the remains.. now he’s decided because HE DID NOT want to see them we stole them. Case won’t go anywhere because we have cameras in clinic … just the damn headache of dealing with it after working 60 hrs a week.

Last live aboard me and gf did.. told the gf we’re getting a cover story .. she’s my sugar mama and I just do odds and ends work … because I didn’t want to have to talk about work while on vacation

 

[Germie]

Or, it were the covid restrictions that caused the suicide?
So when did they did it? Before covid or during covid period? We have seen here more people with suicide during covid,but I don't know any diver who did it.

 

[Wibble]

Have known several people who've committed suicide over my lifetime including three close colleagues (different organisations). Seems a pretty common cause of death in healthy people. Only known one diver who did this (worked on a dive boat).

It's desperately sad and an awful shock to those around.

Alas, it's part of the human condition.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

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?

Trace, that's an interesting question. An article that looks at causes of death among professional divers in Norway:

Mortality among professional divers in Norway - PubMed

Overall, mortality in professional divers was lower than that of the general population. However, professional divers had a higher risk of dying from work-related accident or suicide.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

One needs to consider other factors aside from diving among this population, which can be very difficult to tease out.

Buzzacott and Denoble (both of DAN) looked at diving as a possible suicide method but it's not the same as looking at divers who commit suicide:

The epidemiology of murder and suicide involving scuba diving - PubMed

Murder and suicide in involving scuba are extremely rare. A systematic search identified 19 published studies describing 4,339 recreational diving fatalities occurring between 1956 and 2011. Case vignettes identified three possible murders and eight likely suicides. These are summarised and the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Bubblesong]

Our local super-achiever high schools have suicides every year and my son’s college, WPI, had 7 suicides in one year. Huge suicide numbers in Transexual people too. I feel that suicide is associated with super, internally driven people who either can’t live up to unrealistic goals, or were running from “demons” in the first place, and could not outrun them with a driven lifestyle.
All I can do is be easy going and encourage people to go easy on themselves.

 

[Boarderguy]

There has been a lot of recent talk about how scuba is a dying industry...

Before you all get the pitchforks let me say this: I've lost friends and family to suicide, have fought those thoughts myself, and I still find the above funny.

 

[DXHI]

There has been a lot of recent talk about how scuba is a dying industry...

Before you all get the pitchforks let me say this: I've lost friends and family to suicide, have fought those thoughts myself, and I still find the above funny.

Boarderguy it’s booming in my area. My LDS has trips that are booked out until 2024.

 

[Akimbo]

An article that looks at causes of death among professional divers in Norway:

Maybe I can't see the whole study but were the suicides normalized to the national suicide rate for the age group and gender? In the grand scheme, it must be a pretty small population so plus or minus one would make a huge percentage difference.

Conclusions: Overall, mortality in professional divers was lower than that of the general population. However, professional divers had a higher risk of dying from work-related accident or suicide.

Norwegian saturation divers is a pretty tiny club, and a very competitive occupation. Performance pressure is enormous.