Hump Day Is a Killer

Don't kill yourself on Wednesday. Among other things, it's a total cliche. A recent study finds that that day is the most popular one to kill yourself. Of those who do the deed, 24.6 percent do it on Wednesday. Saturday is a distant second at 14.4 percent, with Monday at...

By Thomas Francis

July 15, 2009

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Don't kill yourself on Wednesday. Among other things, it's a total cliche. A recent study finds that that day is the most popular one to kill yourself.

Of those who do the deed, 24.6 percent do it on Wednesday. Saturday is a distant second at 14.4 percent, with Monday at 14.3.

Why Wednesday? Well, researchers Augustine J. Kposowa and Stephanie D'Auria can only guess at that.

Conventional wisdom -- and a cat named Garfield -- suggests that Mondays would claim the most victims, as a person seeks escape from the dreadful prospect of another workweek.

Then again, as the week's midpoint, Wednesday is unique in allowing one to reflect both on how miserable the current week has been and how that misery is only half over.

But the researchers found that survivors of The Hump stand an excellent chance of lasting through the week -- Thursday was the least popular day for suicide.

I'm hoping to speak later with an official at Henderson Crisis Center to see whether the research is backed by local trends. An official at Broward 2-1-1, a crisis hotline, suggested I point readers to suicidology.org, a website that has compiled a ton of research on suicide.

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