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Also, scanning Wikipedia, North Korea's suicide rate in the top ten of nations but only about 1.5 times that of the US (where despair is also reputed to reside)

• Analemma_ 7y ago
  This isn't very scientific, and people living in those countries might disagree, but my sense of the messes in Greece and Venezuela is that they are acute crises, which have to come to and end sooner or later. It might not be a good ending, but one way or the other the situation will have to be resolved. People aren't as likely to kill themselves over a temporary emergency, without aggravating factors like pre-existing mental illness. In addition, Venezuelans can still find a sense of community and purpose (even if that's just "opposition to Maduro" or "opposition to opposition to Maduro"), and community belonging and purpose are strong deterrents to suicide. By contrast, the "suicides of despair" reported in the US and elsewhere seem to be a response to chronic, secular (as in long-term trends, not irreligious) hopelessness of their situation ever improving, aggravated by loneliness and isolation. It doesn't surprise me, then, that suicides can be more common even in a region where conditions are strictly better.