Truth by the Numbers

What the Numbers Show

We should all be in pursuit of the truth, and we should look at the "mental health" statistics honestly, including the ones that are hard to read. How can we ever really address what is going on with us if there is a stumbling block in our path?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 48,824 Americans died by suicide in 2024.¹ This makes suicide the 10th leading cause of death overall and the second leading cause for ages 10 to 44.² Out of those who died, about four in five were men.³ The suicide rate rose from 2014 to 2017 and has held steady since, with a slight drop in 2024.⁴ However, it still remains about 30 percent higher than in 1999.⁵ Some researchers also believe that suicides are undercounted because when intent is hard to prove, some overdose deaths get ruled as accidental.⁶ We should all want to know why these numbers are as high as they are when we have some of the best technology on the planet. Paul put a hard question to a church that prized its own wisdom: "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. 1:20).⁷ What is happening to our men? Are they depressed, and if so, why?

Gallup reports that 19.1 percent of U.S. adults said in early 2026 that they currently have depression or are being treated for it, close to the highest level Gallup has recorded since it began asking these questions in 2015.⁸ If you pull out a snapshot of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29, the figure is 28 percent.⁹ We must keep in mind that these are self-reported answers from a survey, and not an actual clinical count.

Why?

None of these numbers can tell us why, and we will not pretend they can. But they point somewhere. The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that 6,398 veterans died by suicide in 2023, a rate of 35.2 per 100,000.¹⁰ Meanwhile, our nation has been walking away from God. Gallup found that church membership fell from 70 percent in 1999 to 47 percent in 2020.¹¹ A Harvard study that followed nearly 90,000 women for fourteen years found that those who attended religious services weekly had about one-fifth the suicide risk of those who never attended.¹² A later Harvard study of more than 43,000 men working in health care pointed in the same direction. Those who attended services weekly had a 33 percent lower risk of death from drugs, alcohol, or suicide than those who never attended.¹³ That is not proof of cause, and we will not claim it is. But it fits what Scripture has told us all along: "[M]y people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13). We believe that when a man who has seen the worst of this world has nowhere to take it, the problem is more than a lack of programs. We have left the only source that holds the ultimate truth.

What We Believe

We never tell anyone to stop a medication or a treatment that is helping. That decision belongs to a man and his doctor. But we do believe the Word of God speaks to what these numbers cannot measure. God did not make men to carry any of these burdens alone. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). And the pursuit of the truth leads us to the One who is the Truth (John 14:6). "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31–32).

If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988. Veterans and service members can press 1. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.