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U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoSo the real-wages economy is still in recession, I bet.
- adrenalinelol 10y agoI hope I'm wrong, but I suspect this is an intractable change in our economy. I also have another feeling (in which I once again hope I'm wrong) that a solution to said issue won't come until a lot of pain has been dealt out.
- beachstartup 10y agoyou're not wrong at all. it's clear that modern life/economy is too much for some people to deal with, and we as a society are learning how to cope with that. quite frankly the modern world is turning into a freakshow of epic proportions. media, social and otherwise, reflects that. i say this as a libertarian -- we're going to have to come to some kind of socialist equilibrium, or else people are just going to keep eliminating themselves, quickly or slowly. i think a lot of people just don't care if it continues.
- nibs 10y agoI think the flipside of this is that the capital class has the responsibility to deploy the capital in a way that it drives the cost of living down. We need more companies that do more with less (technology in classical sense) instead of less with more (more overpaid people accomplishing little meaningful work). Also, food keeps going up so much in price, I assume for a lot of people inflation is much higher than stated, because gas prices assume they have a car.
- simplemath 10y agoThat simply wont happen until capital holders are forced to divest themselves of their capital. Pooling of capital at the extreme right tail of the bell curve is accelerating, not decelerating.
- aianus 10y ago> Also, food keeps going up so much in price, I assume for a lot of people inflation is much higher than stated, because gas prices assume they have a car. Core inflation numbers do not include food or energy costs.
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoSlavoj Zizek said, "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." I think he should have also added, "or, nowadays, the reform of capitalism". I may be a seize-the-means-of-production socialist, but I acknowledge that managed capitalism in its Keynesian and social-democratic forms has actually existed and actually worked. What I find weird, a kind of ideological brainwashing on whole populations, is how nobody else to my Right acknowledges this. Everyone seems to pretend that the transition in the '70s-'90s from social democracy to full neoliberalism (ie: privatization, financialization, offshoring of industries, strengthening of intellectual-property laws over the industrial power of physical producers of physical goods) was some kind of mechanistic historical inevitability, as irreversible as gravity or entropy. The misery and suffering of our people will stop as soon as we stop considering it inevitable and remember the dozens to hundreds of things we can do about it without even having to take riskily radical measures!
- mdanger007 10y agoLack of traditional support structures: Family, religion, friendships, etc. are the issue. A tough economy deals a blow to support structures, but it's not sufficient: Poorer countries don't have as high a suicide rate.
- danharaj 10y agoThere is no room for Homo Sapiens under neoliberalism, only Homo Oeconomicus.
- MaxfordAndSons 10y agoYou're right, the absolute quality level of support structures is not sufficient. The sufficient cause is given by the relative decrease compared to the expectations established in the latter half of the 20th century, which the most affected group (middle class in middle-age, i.e. the majority of Baby Boomers) grew up with as understanding to be an expected part of American life. At least us in the younger generation have a more clear eyed understanding that the safety net can be taken away by greed, and if we ever succeed at rebuilding it, we'll hopefully have the foresight to make it more robust against neoliberal attacks.
- DanBC 10y ago> Poorer countries don't have as high a suicide rate You have to be careful when comparing suicide rates across countries. They often don't count the same thing.
- advantark 10y agoUnemployment may be going down, but that doesn't count for much when most of the added jobs are $10/hr service jobs.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>most of the added jobs are $10/hr service jobs. People employed at minimum wage decreasing: https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LEU0253127000A https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LEU0253127000A Weekly earnings rising (a bit): https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LES1252881600Q https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LES1252881600Q Where is your data?
- mkhalil 10y ago2nd link displays median weekly income for full time is ~$350. 350/40 hours = 8.75/hr Edit: Turns out it's 1984 dollars.
- praxulus 10y agoThat's $8.75/hr in 1982/1984 CPI adjusted dollars, which comes out to ~$20/hr in 2016 dollars. http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=8.75&year1=1984&year2=2016 http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=8.75&year1=1984...
- JDiculous 10y agoHalf of America's top 10 fastest growing jobs pay less than $25,000/yr http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/18/news/economy/fastest-growing-jobs/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/18/news/economy/fastest-growing...
- adrenalinelol 10y agoYour source is for full-time employment. Part-time jobs surged after 2008[1] and haven't returned to pre 2008 levels. [1] http://blog.indeed.com/the-role-of-part-time-jobs/ http://blog.indeed.com/the-role-of-part-time-jobs/
- RALaBarge 10y agoIt is sometimes easy to forget to acknowledge the bubble we find ourselves in, in modern life. In a group of professionals where we are taught "the sky is the limit!", it is important to remember that for the vast majority of our brothers and sisters on this earth, not only is the default difficulty of life set to hard but the deck is also stacked against them in every game.
- davesque 10y agoEven inside our bubble, the sky is not necessarily the limit.
- nugget 10y agoHappiness seems to derive from personal achievements. I fear we are headed towards a future wherein most people's basic needs of food, shelter, and entertainment are met but with relatively fewer opportunities to satisfy the need for accomplishment, at least by traditional definitions -- comfortable lives of quiet desperation.
- duaneb 10y agoI disagree. I think happiness mosty derives from companionship, eating well, and being in the sun. It is capitalism that drives the need for achievement without reason.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- danharaj 10y agoI think personal autonomy and collective responsibility are what would make me happiest. I'm lucky to have a job where i have a little bit of both, but so long as i have to devote most of my hours to pay rents upon rents and barter for my survival, i can't have much of both.
- vixen99 10y agoYou mean it does for you. I have no idea what works for other people. I like Shaw's dictum "We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it." and "A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth" Capitalism is merely a description of people's desire to trade goods and services with each other with as much freedom as is compatible with civil society. It didn't need to be invented; it was a natural occurrence. I do understand that some people would like to prevent that from happening.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dragontamer 10y agoThere's clearly a socioeconomic issue at hand here. A somewhat related statistic is the death rate in rural America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/white-death/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/white-death... If we see suicide as a mental-health issue, then its just another statistic demonstrating that people are unhealthy.
- pakled_engineer 10y agohttp://globalnews.ca/news/2646574/attawapiskat-suicide-isnt-a-big-mystery-lessons-from-successful-suicide-prevention-strategies/ http://globalnews.ca/news/2646574/attawapiskat-suicide-isnt-... Quebec has been successful in stopping the rise in rural and native youth suicides.
- maxerickson 10y agoThe absolute rate was 13 per 100,000 people. At that level, a major rise is enough to get public health officials to pay attention, it isn't a signal of our society crumbling before our eyes.
- Analemma_ 10y ago> The absolute rate was 13 per 100,000 people. That statistic is meaningless if you don't compare it to the absolute rate for other causes of death. In the US, suicide is the second-leading cause of death* of people aged 15-34, and very high on the list for ages 10-15 and 35-54 (source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_02.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_02.pdf, pages 18-19). "A signal of our society crumbling before our eyes", maybe not, but if the second-leading cause of death in a large age group was a bacterial disease, and it has increased by a double-digit percentage in the last decade, people would be calling that a public health emergency. * Accidents being #1. And since accidents are, well, accidents, suicide is arguably the leading cause of death that we can meaningfully do something about.
- maxerickson 10y agoSure, and we have a huge problem where a public health emergency comes up and then the press freaks out the public, which doesn't understand what a public health emergency means (not a lot for most individuals). Look at the rational response of the government in the US to Zika and the breathless nonsense being spouted in the press. I think it is at least instructive to look at the rate; I live in a town of roughly 10,000 people. The rate translates into ~1 person here committing suicide in a year. I don't want anyone to kill themselves, but it isn't a shocking number when put in those terms.
- DanBC 10y agoEspecially since some of those accidents are going to be death by suicide that went undetected. The US uses this definition for suicide. http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/definitions.html http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/definitions.ht... > Suicide > Death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with an intent to die as a result of the behavior. That "intent to die" part makes it hard to decide whether something was suicide or accidental death, and we know it causes some incorrect classification.
- lalallala 10y agoWHAT TO DO IF YOU NEED HELP: Crisis Text Line provides free assistance to anyone who texts “help” to 741-741. If you prefer to talk on the phone, N.I.H. recommends the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
- ktRolster 10y agoIt's not surprising, they've seen the presidential candidates.
- virmundi 10y agoI know that I, as a 30 something, have no voice in any of the candidates. I like Bern as a person, but not as a President. None of the Republicans align with my ideals, and I literally ran a Republican campaign for Coroner when I was 17/18. I just don't think there is any presidential candidate that's pro gun, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, with a reformist mindset to unseat the Corporate-tocracy we've installed.
- mindcrime 10y agoI just don't think there is any presidential candidate that's pro gun, pro-choice, pro-gay rights Gary Johnson probably comes pretty close to fitting the model you're describing. https://garyjohnson2016.com/issues/ https://garyjohnson2016.com/issues/
- akhilcacharya 10y agoWhat exactly constitutes a Republican campaign for coroner? I didn't know that was a partisan office.
- virmundi 10y agoIn South Bend, In, parties put forward a representative for that office. It's an administrative role. The Coroner does not, necessarily, open the remains to determine cause of death. As such, the role helps align various resources to causes like drug prevention. It also governs the amount of work spent on finding evidence for a crime. The campaign is typical campaign. I got the press involved in some of our research that showed signs of corruption and negligence. I coordinated yard signs, etc. The research part was particularly horrifying. Not because of the deaths, but because of how many black individuals were dealt with.
- ktRolster 10y ago
- twoquestions 10y agoDoesn't surprise me unfortunately. While in theory anyone in the US can make it with sufficient effort, the reality is that some people get economically shat on through no fault of their own. Our national mythology/culture doesn't take this into account, and as a result we're incredibly vicious towards those who struggle. As more and more capital needs less and less labor to be profitable and create value, we're going to need to find more effective ways to make sure everyone's needed, or things have a potential to get much worse before they get better. EDIT: As others have noted, we also severely undervalue social capital, so we by and large firesale it to accumulate more material value. We work more instead of spending time with friends and family, thereby dangerously isolating ourselves. Thank you all for pointing this out.
- maxerickson 10y agoIsn't part of the problem you are identifying thinking about it in terms of people being needed? I think people generally want to have purpose, but I'm not sure fulfillment has to be achieved by answering some external need.
- vippy 10y agoViolence is structural.
- twoquestions 10y agoWould you mind elaborating on this? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean.
- vinceguidry 10y agoNot the commenter, but I came across this term in the book Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong. Essentially society requires violence to function. In the beginning, someone had to coerce farmers to produce a surplus, with this surplus the first states and militaries were built. As societies evolved, the violence became less overt and more implied, embedded within the structures of the state. At some point, in order to have a society and not anarchy, you have to have people telling other people what to do, and these people can't take no for an answer. All you can do is reshuffle it so it's less and less onerous over time. It's a thread that runs throughout the book, in order to explain religion and nationalism and war were deeply entwined all throughout recorded history and well into prehistory for as long as we've had the mental capacity to think about matters larger than we are.
- dominotw 10y agoCurious about the huge disparity between male/female suicide rates in > 75 age group. http://i.imgur.com/BAMSfbT.png http://i.imgur.com/BAMSfbT.png
- Archio 10y agoI'm curious about this as well, but it seems that the disparity is fairly constant and not just extreme for ages >75. The rate for men is over 4x that of women for ages 15-24 and over 3x that of women for ages 25-44. There seems to be a variety of possible explanations for the difference [0] (which is common across several countries). One of them is that cultural male gender roles make seeking help a shameful thing, so males are less likely to seek assistance for suicidal thoughts [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide [1] http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6#/page-1 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6#/...
- dominotw 10y agothat age group was particularly interesting because I would assume men and women in that age group would face the same exact pressures. So the usual explanation of 'men are forced by society to be successful which drives them to suicide' won't be applicable.
- Archio 10y agoRight, but over age 75 one would expect both men and women to be facing the same pressures of potentially (a) stopping work and (b) losing a spouse due to death. It appears that both of those can disproportionately affect males in our culture as men are pressured to work hard and provide for their family [0] and when a spouse dies, men do not have the same "social and familial connections" as women for support [1]. [0] http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6#page-1 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-003-0397-6#p... [1] http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/352844 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/352844
- Jtsummers 10y ago
- skylan_q 10y agoour hugboxes aren't working.
- eastbayjake 10y agoI pulled some WHO data for a collection of North American and European countries over the last thirty years[1], and while it's factually accurate that US suicide rates are at a 30-year high the rate remains middle-of-the-pack for developed Western nations. The "surge" is a small absolute increase from the 30-year baseline. That does not make it any less tragic or less deserving of attention, but we should pick appropriately-scaled policy solutions instead of those we might use for a crisis. (The NPR piece today about suicide rates in Greenland strikes me as an extreme crisis.[2]) It's also worth noting, for all the people pointing out economic causes for increased suicide, that economically-battered Greece has by far the lowest suicide rate in this group. [1] http://imgur.com/OKnsBF4 http://imgur.com/OKnsBF4 [2] http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/474847921/the-arctic-suicides-its-not-the-dark-that-kills-you http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/47484792...
- DanBC 10y agoBut did suicide rates in Greece go up, or stay the same? http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e007295.full http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e007295.full >Results The mean suicide rate overall rose by 35% between 2010 and 2012, from 3.37 to 4.56/100 000 population. The suicide mortality rate for men increased from 5.75 (2003–2010) to 7.43/100 000 (2011–2012; p<0.01). Among women, the suicide rate also rose, albeit less markedly, from 1.17 to 1.55 (p=0.03). When differentiated by age group, suicide mortality increased among both sexes in the age groups 20–59 and >60 years. We found that each additional percentage point of unemployment was associated with a 0.19/100 000 population rise in suicides (95% CI 0.11 to 0.26) among working age men. > Conclusions We found a clear increase in suicides among persons of working age, coinciding with austerity measures. These findings corroborate concerns that increased suicide risk in Greece is a health hazard associated with austerity measures.
- eastbayjake 10y agoThey did go up, but in a country of only 11 million people Greece's low rate means annual suicides went up from approximately 370 people to 501 people. My point is simply that the relative measure (35%) might lead us to inappropriate policy solutions versus looking at absolute measures (131 additional suicide deaths in an entire country per year) or deviation from comparable nations.
- willidiots 10y agoLots of comments in here about economic factors. It's important to recognize that depression can occur independent of one's situation. There's a stigma around depression which keeps many people quiet when they need help the most. I worry that our decreasing face-to-face interaction and emphasis on individual-success-at-all-costs is worsening this; it's so easy to socially isolate yourself these days.
- lostgame 10y agodeadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) recently admitted to having a serious struggle with depression. [1] He also just bought a $5 million house in Ontario [2] - case in point that money doesn't buy happiness. [1] https://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/deadmau5-opens-up-about-his-struggles-with-depression https://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/deadmau5-opens-up-about... [2] http://www.youredm.com/2014/10/10/deadmau5-buys-5-million-mansion/ http://www.youredm.com/2014/10/10/deadmau5-buys-5-million-ma...
- yk 10y agoSemi-random thought about the article on middle class people who can not afford a $400 emergency a few days ago[0], media creates remarkably unrealistic expectations. In that article someone estimated that one needs $100k - $150k for a middle class live. Or rather for the expectations of a middle class live. An example is people tweeting food, if you follow thirteen people who post pictures of their lunch, then you will only have a comparatively good lunch once every two weeks. (And that is only if you don't follow people whose job is to post amazing food.) Similar, TV is full of people who complain about being poor sitting in an apartment with Hudson river view. ( It does not help, that the apartment looks like it was designed by an $5000/hr interior designer, because the director wanted it to look good and hired an $5000/hr interior designer.) Basically this is a variant of Charlie Stross's idea, that news acts as a depressant, because that is the kind of news that sells. ( And is usually a lot easier to write.) Old-media is full of the kind of middle class existence that is at three times the median income, while social media means that the expectation is to keep up on average with the maximum of your peers (because only the best is posted). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11527523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11527523 [1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/04/psa-ignore-the-news.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/04/psa-igno...
- omegaham 10y ago> An example is people tweeting food, if you follow thirteen people who post pictures of their lunch, then you will only have a comparatively good lunch once every two weeks. This is a great example, and it applies to everything. Looking at stoves? Your buddy just got a top-of-the-line range. Looking at lawnmowers? Another buddy of yours got a $3,000 riding mower. Looking at cars? Another friend just bought a BMW. As a result, you get the extremely powerful feeling that you should own all of these while in reality, your friends splurged on one thing. I set up a home gym a few weeks ago. Just like everyone else, I happily posted it on Facebook and contributed to the problem. The thing is, I don't really do anything else; I'm too goddamn busy to go out, to go on vacation, to buy a boat or fifth-wheel or anything like that. I saved up for two years to buy it, too. But that's not the message that gets posted on my Facebook wall right alongside the fantastic vacation that someone else took, the $200 that another person spent at a fancy restaurant, the new car that the next person bought... Facebook and the media make everyone compare their daily life to everyone's highlight reel. And that's really, really dangerous.
- known 10y agoMay be unable to achieve self-actualization in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
- imperialdrive 10y agothanks for sharing this!
- overcast 10y agoThis isn't surprising at all. Social media permeating every inch of our souls, just drowns people in everyone else's seemingly perfect lives. When people view Facebook feeds of everyone on vacation, eating amazing food, taking amazing adventures. It makes you feel like you're missing out on all of that, and that your life can't possibly compare. While in reality, it's many cherry picked snippets of potentially hundreds and thousands of lives. I've certainly caught myself being worried about not being at my maximum potential, why didn't I go to an Ivy league school, why didn't I work harder and play with the big boys Silicon Valley, why am I not out traveling the world living carefree. However from any outsider, I'd be viewed as incredibly successful. It's a sad state to be in, and you just have to distance yourself from it. It's awesome to have goals, but you can't expect to be able to achieve the goals of hundreds of people simultaneously.
- VonGuard 10y agoThis, coupled with the incredibly mean people on the Internet, I'd expect. Who wants to reach out when everyone's just a jerk all the time? I'm very guilty of this, too. Reddit, Twitter, and other similar forums are cesspools of hate just as much as they're wells of love. For every Arnold post on /r/fitness encouraging someone, there are 20,000 posts calling OP a fag and deriding someone for asking a simple question. I feel like the Internet is in its High School years, now. The 90's were like grade school, and prior to that it was kindergarten (70's, ARPANET). Now, we've got gang fights, drugs, ineffective leaders/teachers, lowered expectations, and above all, teenage angst.
- overcast 10y agoLast year I closed my Facebook, and various other social accounts. This year I've stopped using Reddit. They really are just toxic, and incredibly wasteful. I agree, this Internet can be so much more than stupid memes and bullying. Even the concept of the "downvote", should never have existed. Certainly it was started with good intentions to weed out trash articles, but it's never been used properly outside of making someones voice disappear. I don't know what's next, but it's certainly not going to be another social network.
- stray 10y ago"Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled." It is tragic that girls of that age range kill themselves at all. By 2014, their suicide rate rose to the level of boys' suicides in 1999. Meanwhile, boys' suicide rate between 1999 and 2014 rose even more than girls. This however, is not alarming for some reason.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- philovivero 10y agoIt's not alarming (to the average person) because in the human species, females are precious and males are disposable. You can see this theme running throughout a huge gamut of social situations and media. When bad things happen to girls, this triggers a low-level concern response that isn't triggered when bad things happen to boys. Boys are supposed to get back up, shake it off, and try harder. If they kill themselves, we feel a little bad, but the badness is the same level (give or take) as throwing away a plate of food before it was finished. It has taken me a very long time to accept this as true (and am far from accepting it as right).
- carsongross 10y agoHysterical. The female rate is < 1/3rd that of men and still the articles first five paragraphs focus almost entirely on women.
- MollyR 10y agoWhere did you get this number ? I've skimmed the article and couldn't find it. It seemed a little strange they didn't didn't do direct comparisons between genders to me as well. I couldn't shake the feeling this was to be part of a larger narrative.
- stray 10y agoThe numbers aren't in the article. The article links to the study -- the numbers are in the study: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db241.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db241.htm
- carsongross 10y agoHere is a graph from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/201-250/db241_fig1.png http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/201-250/db241_fig1... Men killed themselves at about 4.5X the rate of women in the past, and at about 3.5x the rate of women now.
- dave2000 10y agoIsn't this female rate increasing faster than the male rate? If one of your children was behaving badly at school and the other child was normally good but started to misbehave wouldn't you focus on the latter child to see what had changed?
- sakopov 10y agoMy family immigrated to the US from Russia back in 1998. We were below poverty-level poor. It was a real, tough struggle to stay afloat, but I never remembered the sense of dread, desperation or depression. You were just too busy surviving. 18 years later and we have cars, houses, bank accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, stocks and etc and I've never seen my family more miserable than I do now. I really had no idea what depression even was until we came here and I started struggling with it and finally went to a therapist after I couldn't take it any more. Sometimes when you don't have much you appreciate what you actually have and that's more than enough to live for.
- jonahx 10y agoCan you pinpoint what it is about US culture that creates the sense of dread and depression for you and your family?
- DougN7 10y agoIMHO it's that our goals are not for things that are fulfilling. The "American Dream" is a house, two cars in the garage, a couple of weeks of vacation, money in the bank, looking forward to retirement, clothes, iPhones, etc. None of that brings happiness. Sure, having the necessities is important. But there is very little happiness in a $50K car over the $10K car, but that extra $40K had real costs -- it took a lot of effort, stress, time, etc. So over and over we trade effort, stress, time, etc for things that don't bring happiness. After a while, we're just weary of life. I don't know what the solution is exactly. It definitely revolves around relationships with people. Helping them. Listening to them. Cooking for them. Raising them. That is where fulfillment and joy are found.
- ASinclair 10y agoTake that $40k you would have spent on a car and invest it so you can retire earlier. This realization clicked for me when I heard about Financial Independence / Early Retirement. Don't buy fancy possessions, buy time. You can use that time to focus more on your relationships. Mr. Money Mustache comes off as over-the-top but his blog and others like it touch on these themes.
- jernfrost 10y agoI think the myth of the American dream is an unhealthy contribution. Americans have been bottle feed that anybody can make it in American through hard work. When people fail anyway I suspect it is much easier to blame yourself and look at yourself as a failure to the family that depends on you. Viewing oneself as a failure is a tough pill to swallow for many. I think many Americans would have a healthier mental state if it was acknowledged that the poverty and unemployment many experience is not caused by their lack of hard work or character but a product of the failures of the society they live in. America is now one of the least socially mobile places in the western world and yet the majority of American keep believing in the myth that anything is possible.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dickbasedregex 10y agoThis is only going to increase. At 36 and considered successful I dread every day. I resent and seethe constantly. I've seen numerous healthcare professionals and feel like each have failed. I only bother anymore because it's expected of me. That matters less and less every day. All anyone does is pay lip service to any of this. It will get far worse before it's likely to get better. Honestly, let it come.
- harywilke 10y agoThese stats[1] are form 2013, but i always find it interesting that just over 1/2 of the suicides in the US are from self inflicted gun injuries. 1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm
- sebringj 10y agoWaking up from the American Dream tends to do just that. The banks have more power than ever after the housing market collapse and income inequality keeps steadily increasing. The rules are shifting in the favor of capitalism in its purest form, devoid of empathy. At the same time, the world's poorest are experiencing better living standards. Are those somehow related?
- crimsonalucard 10y agohttps://aeon.co/videos/a-neurologist-finds-peace-and-happiness-in-the-feeling-of-constant-acceleration https://aeon.co/videos/a-neurologist-finds-peace-and-happine... I think we're all searching for happiness. While I still haven't found what it is for me personally, I think we're all looking in the wrong place.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- kazinator 10y ago> Recent research has highlighted the plight of less educated whites, showing surges in deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, liver disease and alcohol poisoning, particularly among those with a high school education or less. Why is the article mentioning accidents and diseases? Is it implying that these are counted as suicide? I.e. is this the same research, or a tangential discussion of some other results? If liver disease was not considered suicide 30 years ago, but is counted a suicide, you will have a jump in the numbers. More people dying of drug overdoses can easily be pinned on the War on Drugs, which creates an ecosystem such that only brutal criminals get to distribute drugs, and they don't care what they contain since they don't even bat an eyelash when they murder. Overdoes don't prove increasing "plight"; they more directly confirm increasing junk on the streets. Not to mention, new kinds of drugs!
- DanBC 10y agoDeath by drug overdose would tend to be counted as accidental death. But it's easy to see that it could be a death by suicide. So when people talk about the suicide rate they tend to also mention the suicide deaths that are hidden in the accidental deaths. > More people dying of drug overdoses can easily be pinned on the War on Drugs, which creates an ecosystem such that only brutal criminals get to distribute drugs, Lots of US drug overdoses are people overdosing on prescribed opiates. (I agree the war on drugs has caused very great harm).
- seandougfan 10y agohttp://www.thehappinesstrap.com/about_act http://www.thehappinesstrap.com/about_act
- tristor 10y agoOne thing people don't seem to want to discuss (even in this thread) is that humans are social creatures and that our society has become increasingly anti-social. One representation of this (out of several) is the changes in how dating and the relationships between men and women work in modern society. Some of these changes are clearly good, but I don't know that all of these changes are good. There's more people who are single now than ever before, and many of them find it difficult to impossible to find a significant other. This has become so common at this point that it's a running joke in mainstream media about people currently in their late 20s/early 30s. Meanwhile, I have several male friends whose complete inability to find a suitable relationship has lead them into dark and deep depressions, including attempted suicide. Obviously there's more at play here, but I think this is one thing that we hardly ever discuss as a society, how important it is that each of us feel loved. How important it is that we have someone to come home to every day. How the changes social media and the Internet have wrought on society lead us to spend more time in front of a screen than in front of another human being forming a real connection. I'm sure these issues affect women just as deeply as they affect men, but I feel like men seem to consider suicide as an option more than women, especially as they age. It seems strange that we've put so much effort into this issue yet it still seems almost insurmountable to catalog and connect the people who are desperately single with each other.
- orangecat 10y agoI think this is one thing that we hardly ever discuss as a society Yes. Or if we do discuss it, it's to laugh at the loser geek virgins. Admitting that you're single and wish you weren't is extremely low-status, possibly even more so than admitting you have a mental illness.
- pm90 10y agoExcellent point. I would like to add that in modern society, its not just finding a significant other, but even maintaining relationships that are changing very rapidly. So, for people who find it hard to find a mate, first: they are already at a disadvantage. Next, even if they do manage to somehow find someone, they have to deal with this new dynamic as well. I really wish that more men in the US would be comfortable talking about relationships. Many (especially in the tech community) accept their current status as something that cannot be changed and resign themselves to a life of solitude. Women (in my anecdotal experience) do a lot better perhaps because it is much more socially acceptable to talk about relationships and dating.
- brownbat 10y agoI'm not sure we really have a "U.S." suicide rate. In Montana, you're looking at suicide rates over 20 in 100,000. It's higher than Japan. Homicide is more like 3.7 in 100,000. DC has only six suicides per 100,000, lower than roughly 100 countries around the world. These numbers tend to bounce around a bit, but someone should really figure out what Switzerland has been doing right for the last three decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Suicide-deaths-per-100000-trend.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States#/...
- mirimir 10y agoSure, maybe socioeconomic. But here's a wild guess: SSRIs and SSNIs. They went mainstream in the early 90s. There's good evidence that they increase suicide rates in young people. Maybe it's worse than that.
- xyzzy4 10y agoIMO the problem is the lack of arranged marriages. Dating is too difficult, and lots of people fail at it. Then they feel depressed because they are alone.
- ilamparithi 10y agoHa ha. Here I am thinking arranged marriages are too difficult and I should have born in a different culture.
- methodover 10y agoFriend of mine killed himself last week. Late twenties. Married. Programmer. It was totally out of the blue. Never had any idea anything was wrong. Such a waste. So. So sad. If you're struggling, talk to someone. Please.
- tn13 10y agoIn my opinion government regulation into prescription medicine is a primary cause of this and other mental health issues. Many times buying a sleeping pill could have helped many of these people but you cant buy them off the shelf.
- tn13 10y agoIn my opinion government regulation into prescription medicine is a primary cause of this and other mental health issues. Many times buying a sleeping pill could have helped many of these people but you cant buy them off the shelf.
- zurukea 10y agoI'd really appreciate some help refining this thought but I believe that for low and middle income earners, the pros of living in a city no longer outweigh the cons. If you're spending most of your time working to make ends meet then here is how I view the two. These are of course relative to living in a small town, not a completely rural setting. Pros: - Large selection of fast food places - Large selection of stores to buy material junk - Short travel distances (likely canceled by commute times) - 24/7 stores Cons: - Expensive housing which forces people to rent small apartments or even rooms that prohibit social gatherings. - Limited or no personal outdoor living area, backyard - Expensive or non existent parking. - No sense of community - Limited exposure to nature and non developed areas What I'm trying to get at is if you're simply working minimum wage or slightly above you could get the same job in a small town where you don't have to spend money to enjoy simple pleasures and the cost of living is dramatically lower. Sure you have to buy groceries when the store is open, or drive an hour to a larger town when you need a new computer but seriously I could probably list a 1000 benefits to living in a small town where there isn't a war over every morsel of land, you're more free to use your land as you wish, there are fucking trees and grass, and every move you make isn't watched. Really hoping someone can bounce a few thoughts back on this. The city and province I live in are facing really dark times and I think this is playing a huge factor.
- trynumber9 10y agoInteresting you say this. Rural areas, in general, have a higher suicide rate[1]. I grew up in a small town (300 people) and I can tell you that it was quite bleak. I vastly prefer my current life in a small city (65,000 people). At least there are things to do and places to walk to. [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17219751 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17219751
- pessimizer 10y agoGood news for black men - I wonder why we're doing better?
- VladKovac 10y agoPlease do Cryonics. If you're skeptical read this: http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html