Foreclosure-Related Suicide: Sign of the Times?

But he noted that for those willing to look beyond suicide, there may be another way out of the crisis.

"As long as you have your health, there is always a way out," he said. "Maybe you have to file for bankruptcy, and that happens. Maybe it means that you have to apply for food stamps, or that you have to look among your family for help.

"Once you find out that foreclosure is not a sign of personal failure, that it is not anything that is happening to nobody else ... there's hope."

O'Berg, however, said he feels mortgage lenders also have a part to play.

"The banks got us into this mess," he said. "They should be working with people to help get them out of it."

Associated Press reports contributed to this story.