More than 49,000 people died from suicide across the U.S. in 2022, a 3% rise over the year before That's according to a new report released Wednesday by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The number in 2022 is the highest ever recorded in the U.S," says Sally Curtin, a statistician at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics and a lead author of the new report. "These are provisional data, so we expect the final number to actually be a little bit higher than that."

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Police officers jump from one chaotic and stressful call to the next and often "absorb" the tragedy they encounter each day. Frank Ray, a former police officer and country musician, is working to break the taboo surrounding officer mental health so no cop turns to suicide or alcohol to escape mental anguish. 

"Unfortunately, we've sort of bred an environment when it comes to this profession of suppressing those traumas and experiences that you deal with on a daily basis. And that's not good, because eventually they will manifest themselves. Those experiences you go through, if you suppress it long enough, it's going to manifest itself and in unfortunate circumstances," Ray said. 

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Actor Courtney B. Vance was a young actor on Broadway in the 1990s when he received a call from his mother that would tear his world apart: His father was dead, she said, by suicide. Years later, Vance's godson, a promising college student, would also die by suicide.

In the wake of these devastating losses, Vance has focused on peeling back the layers of both his father's pain and his own struggles as a Black man in America. In a new book, The Invisible Ache, Vance and psychologist Robin L. Smith (who often goes by Dr. Robin) explore the trauma unique to Black men and boys, and address what they see as an urgent need to change the conversation about mental health.

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When it comes to reducing stigma around suicide, not treating it as the elephant in the room is helpful, say mental health experts.

But it’s not just talking about it that matters, it’s also about what you say and how you say it — which is why some have moved away from saying “committed suicide” and other phrases that can have harmful consequences.

Social stigma around suicide can amplify shame for people experiencing suicidality — which includes suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts — making seeking help or talking about it more difficult, said Urszula Klich, a clinical psychologist in Atlanta.

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