There was a Training evening on suicide this week. There were fifteen of us at the three hour presentation – fourteen women plus myself. The gender imbalance at the training said much about the nature of the problem, and perhaps about the nature of the incomprehension.

One participant recounted a tale of a spate of suicides among teenage boys in a provincial town. “Why would a boy of fourteen or fifteen want to die by suicide?” someone asked. There was no answer forthcoming.

I spoke up, “Because it’s horrible being …