Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html

by uladzislau • 13 years ago

40 55 13 years ago

tokenadult• 13 years ago

"The most pronounced increases were seen among men in their 50s, a group in which suicide rates jumped by nearly 50 percent, to about 30 per 100,000."

As an American man in his fifties, I find this a startling statistic. This suggests that there may be a cohort effect that makes the Baby Boom generation more vulnerable to middle-age suicide than preceding generations of Americans.

DanBC• 13 years ago

Older people tend to have more medication around the home. Access to means and methods is a risk factor for suicide, thus having meds == increased risk for attempted and completed suicide.

I really want to avoid gun control debate, but having access to guns is a significant risk factor for completed suicide.

Also, in women, lesbians tend to complete suicide in their 40s and 50s rather than their teens. At least, that's the case in the UK.

Here's the UK University of Oxford Centre for Suicide research (http://cebmh.warne.ox.ac.uk/csr/) which has lots of information about suicide and deliberate self harm.

Shivetya• 13 years ago

CDC numbers, men are 56% likely to use a gun, women are more likely to use poison, 37%. Some differences in links provided by same source so it gets a bit confusing.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/Suicide_DataSheet-...

mindcrime10• 13 years ago

I really want to avoid gun control debate, but having access to guns is a significant risk factor for completed suicide.

It's an interesting question whether or not this should even be part of the gun control debate. IF, if, you accept the idea of a "right to die" (I do, FWIW), then people who voluntarily choose to end their lives using a firearm should not be counted as "gun deaths" in anything like the same way as homicides, or even accidental deaths.

Now granted, that's a controversial topic in it's own right, but it's something to consider. If somebody choose to die, does it really matter how they do it?

Of course, it also raises the issue of whether or not people who (try to) commit suicide really want to die or not, or are just "looking for help" or whatever the phrase is. I don't really have a stand on that.

guard-of-terra2• 13 years ago

On the other hand, If I'd attempt a suicide and have this choice I'd choose firearm by a large margin. It's a humane way to die, as opposed to e.g. hanging. Just imagine it: Somebody living a miserable life and even dying painful and miserable death.

strlen• 13 years ago

> I really want to avoid gun control debate,

Gun control debate in the US centers around several proposals: restricting semi-automatic firearms, restricting handguns in particular, and additional checks at firearm purchase time.

Problem is the first two:

A) Do not matter in regards to suicide. A semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round magazine is no more useful than a double barrel shotgun (a firearm type that is legal in most countries, even those that prohibit all other types of firearms).

B) Significantly turn gun owners (who are the ones mailing their constituents) against all kind of firearm regulation, including the last kind of measures, such as additional background checks, requirements to demonstrate safe handling, etc...

California has a ten day waiting period for firearm purchases and as a result has a lower firearm suicide rate despite the fact that handguns and semi-automatic firearms are readily available. While they're restricted to ten round magazines and -- in the case of military-style firearms -- require using a tool to release the magazine, it's unlikely that these laws matter much in regards to suicide.

rdouble• 13 years ago

This suggests that there may be a cohort effect that makes the Baby Boom generation more vulnerable to middle-age suicide

Seems simple enough... They don't have enough money for retirement and their kids hate them.

untog• 13 years ago

Complete speculation, but perhaps it could be a lack of financial security? Savings wiped out in the financial crisis, not earning enough to cover it into retirement?

r00fus• 13 years ago

Could it be due to the fact that jobs for this crowd are hard to find/retain, while they are still a decade-plus from retirement?

I know several 50-60s aged folks, great people who've been unemployed/underemployed for years. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they may have suicidal thoughts.

The disruption oriented job market is moving too fast for these folks, and there are fewer less-skilled jobs available for them to fall back onto that pay a living wage.

Add to that the insult to injury that social security is under attack and their kids (if they have any) might not be able to take care of them either.

jriley• 13 years ago

"The rise in suicide may also stem from the economic downturn over the past decade."

I saw this in my local area. Some traditional breadwinners in established careers suffered in the last recession.

For those at risk having trouble getting help I'll highlight two options (no affiliation): http://www.crisischat.org/ http://ecouch.anu.edu.au/

angersock2• 13 years ago

Perhaps it's realizing that the work that they've done has caused great harm to the United States of America their parents left them, and that they've left a troubling legacy of selfishness and consumerism that has degraded the notion of family and community?

Or maybe they just can't afford that Harley or entry-level Porsche that is supposed to come in your 50s.

cpursley2• 13 years ago

Yes, and many of them went broke living above their means for so long. When the recession hit, they wouldn't adjust their lifestyles because 'they deserve' and subsequently lost most or at least half their wealth after all those years of working late and 'postponing' family life. You speak brutal truth, my friend.

gertef3• 13 years ago

That's... painting with a rather broad brush.

mindcrime10• 13 years ago

“The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn’t panned out that way,”

Very true for GenX as well, in my experience. Speaking from my own experience as a member of that group, I think we all thought we would have more of a positive impact on the world, than what we have had to date. For all the talk about how we were just disaffected, lazy whiners back when most of us were teenagers, this generation always had a lot of optimism and a lot of drive to effect social change, from what I saw.

Now, we are creeping up on middle age (I'll turn 40 this year myself) and the world doesn't really look any better in a lot of ways, and looks worse in some. :-(

On a personal level, I don't really expect to commit suicide, but I'll freely admit that there is a "background thread" that fires and mulls the possibility from time to time. I haven't really accomplished shit compared to my expectations for myself on an individual level, and as age catches up with me, the idea seems more reasonable. I have a vague notion that if this current startup doesn't succeed, I may pull a "Leaving Las Vegas" deal and checkout that way.

I prefer to take an optimistic view though... The startup is going to succeed, make us all very wealthy, and I'll live out my final years on a yacht in the Carribean, being tended to by a bevy of beautiful young redheads who like rich old guys. :-)

grecy• 13 years ago

I highly, highly recommend you take a couple of years off, and go and see what the rest of the world has to offer.

You'll be shocked how many hundreds of millions of people out there have way less money and stuff than you, but are massively happier with their lives.

(I personally took two years to drive from Alaska to Argentina, I'll never be the same person again. http://theroadchoseme.com)

eli_gottlieb• 13 years ago

But the key to being happy with way less money and stuff is to be secure in the money and stuff you do have, which Americans overwhelmingly are not. You can have a whole lot of stuff, but get laid off... miss a payment... and it all comes crashing down.

mindcrime10• 13 years ago

That sounds very appealing, actually. But I don't feel like I can justify the time off. Bit of a catch-22 on my part. There's a part of me that would like to shuck it all off, quit technology, move to Hawaii and set up a stand renting surfboards on the beach and live in a cave. But the other part of me is still chasing dreams and still feels like he has something to prove, to himself and the world, and isn't even slightly interested in taking time off. That's time that could be spent writing code, or prospecting for leads, dangit! :-)

But who knows.. maybe if the startup thing doesn't work out, I will totally do the "turn hippie and just travel and relax" thing.

jseliger2• 13 years ago

In addition, let me offer some recommended reading: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. It rearranged my thinking about a lot of things. I've written a lot about it on blog, but this: https://jseliger.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/on-what-makes-peop... is probably the most useful summary.

mseebach2• 13 years ago

> and the world doesn't really look any better in a lot of ways, and looks worse in some. :-(

I think that's an unnecessarily pessimistic view of the world, and I think it's fairly common in idealists. I am myself guilty of indulging in pessimism with fellow idealists. We have big plans and great visions, and almost by definition, they don't come true, and to the extend they do, progress is glacial.

You can always find a metric by which the world is going straight to hell, but if you put on your pragmatic glasses, you can also find some metrics that show great improvements. I've found it useful to seek out those as well.

mindcrime10• 13 years ago

That's a very good point.

guard-of-terra2• 13 years ago

"Suicide rates among middle-age Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm"

I don't live in the USA, but are't baby boomers supposed to be older than "middle-age" now?

noblethrasher• 13 years ago

The youngest boomers will be in their late forties or early fifties.

pat_punnu• 13 years ago

49 to 67

omni• 13 years ago

They are using the term "middle-aged" to describe a person between the ages of 35 and 64.[1] The "Baby Boom" is generally described as having occurred between 1946 and 1964.[2] Therefore, there will still be middle-aged Baby Boomers until 2029.

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm?s_cid=... [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_War_II_baby_...

Alex3917• 13 years ago

Compared to those born between 1900 and 1931, Americans born between 1962 and 1978 were 3 times more likely to have grown up in severely abusive homes, 5 time more likely to have attempted suicide, 4.5 times more like to have contracted a sexually transmitted disease, 50% more likely to have suffered depression, and 50% more likely to have experienced alcohol addiction.

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743503...

RexRollman• 13 years ago

Couldn't some of that just be that we've have gotten better at diagnosing some of those things?

rhizome• 13 years ago

There's a story like this 3mos after every high-profile suicide to garner some sales (papers, pageviews) via predictable copycat trends.

D9u• 13 years ago

I wonder what percentage of suicides are military, or veterans?

downandout• 13 years ago

Advances in technology have eliminated or drastically changed many of the jobs these people have, and there is no end in sight. As a result, there is no economic opportunity for many of them. In modern society, that leaves few options. While many suicides can be attributed to mental illness or depression, an increasing number of them fall within the definition of "rational suicide".

Fewer people can now serve the needs of far more people than ever before possible. For example, we are rapidly approaching the day when humans will no longer be involved in many forms of construction, and most of those jobs won't be replaced in any other field. Millions of manual labor jobs worldwide can be replaced by a relatively small number of engineers in a single location working to automate those tasks. As our world catapults toward this reality, unemployment and the resulting suicide rate can only increase.

iknowno_one• 13 years ago

Excellently put, the solution in the short term is counseling and creating a culture in which down-time, leisure and enjoyment of life is prized more than "putting in your hours."

The purpose of automation is to make our lives easier. We have to think that a bum living on the street is not a drain on society, in a lot of ways he is doing more "work" just to keep himself alive than the average wage-slave. We need to stop thinking that "work" is somehow the goal of a person's life and transition to "enjoyment" being the goal.

Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.

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