For the longest period since 1910, our life expectancy is declining in this country.
That is what the CDC told America this morning. It is shocking to say the least, that we are a wealthy, developed country, and our life expectancy is going down.
There are two big reasons why: drug overdoses and death by suicide.
In the U.S., on this night, suicide deaths are at a 50-year high.
More than 47,000 Americans died by suicide last year.
For a decade, that number has been on the rise, no decreases. Why?
"We have some things that are pointing us in the direction," said Dr. Dan Reidenberg with SAVE (Suicide Awareness, Voices & Education). "First of all we have the economic crisis that happened in 2008, and that still has lingering effects for us when we look at the data."
There's also media and social media.
"Take '13 Reasons Why' that came out last year," he said. "Studies are showing that there was an increase not just in suicidal thinking and thoughts of young people but actively looking for ways to die, and hospitalizations went up after that."
Another reason we are at this number is that people are actually being reported as dying by suicide. That wasn't always the case.
But it still doesn't mean we can't stop fighting to find out what needs to change.
"We need to know a lot more about imminent risk," Reidenberg said. "We need to know a lot more about the warning signs."
We also need better treatment.
"It's very difficult for someone to go to the doctor and say 'I'm not doing very well,'" Reidenberg said. "The doctor to prescribe an antidepressant and the doctor then to say to the patient, 'This is gonna take four to six weeks to work.' We need medicine that works far more quickly for somebody who is really struggling with thoughts of taking their life."
And those struggling are a staggering number.
"We have more than 10 million Americans who will think about suicide in a year."
But even as we lost 47,000 last year, 275,000 attempted to take their lives - and survived.
"When we hear stories of people that have survived, that have recovered, that have gotten through a dark time in their life, that helps people," Reidenberg said. "It gives them inspiration to say, 'Maybe I can get through tomorrow, too.'"
And if we can just find those on the edge, think about what can happen.
"In a very short time we lose people," Reidenberg said. "Studies will tell us about 20 to 25 percent of people make the final decision in five minutes, another 20 percent is 10 minutes. So about half of the people we lose, you have 10 minutes to save them. That's different than all the other diseases out there. If we could figure out who they are and we could intervene very quickly, we could save half those people right away."