An FR thread from this weekend stated that Japan is not the only nation to experience an increase in suicides at a level more than COVID 19 deaths.
Early in the “pandemic” someone did an analysis to find that there was an increase in suicides by county in Texas. The increased level of suicides was observed in counties which had no COVID 19 deaths.
Also, early in the year, my wife and I had sequestered at a family cabin in Payson, AZ. On one of our forays into town for supplies, we talked to a shopkeeper about the local COVID 19 situation. She knew of no COVID 19 cases, but she had read about a 14 year old boy who committed suicide, apparently due to the stress of the situation.
My nephew (college freshman this fall) has had two acquaintances/friends from his high school commit suicide earlier this year.
Early in the “pandemic” there was actually a slight decrease. As the article states, Immediately after a crisis, suicides sometimes decrease briefly because of a “pulling together effect.” In the first six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, suicide rates among New Yorkers declined.