Joblessness And Hopelessness: The Link Between Unemployment And Suicide

Kerri, a 57-year-old living near Seattle, says she lost her software sales job three years ago -- and that age discrimination has made her ongoing search for work feel hopeless at times.

"I went to an interview and the guy actually excused me before we even started. He said, 'Well, we're looking at your resume and we don't feel that you'd be a good fit,'" Kerri recalls. "Why would I be brought in after two phone interviews with managers?"

By the winter of 2009, she says, she'd taken all the rejection she could stand. She swallowed a bunch of pills.

"There was a reason: I had no hope," she recalls. "There was no point for the future. I had just lost another job opportunity that I thought I had done a really good job at and they just dismissed me. I was old, and they're not going to hire me. With that, I couldn't have my life back."

She says that when she came to in a hospital, doctors told her she'd called 911 before passing out because she wanted someone to come feed her two dogs. She doesn't remember making that call.

While she says she's more comfortable now talking about what happened then, she asked that her full name not be used in this story because she's only told one other person, a family member, that she tried to kill herself.