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I'm not writing off what you're saying (I agree that young men are suffering and less likely to admit as much) but you are equating mental illness and suicide.
by afavour 4y ago
I'm not writing off what you're saying (I agree that young men are suffering and less likely to admit as much) but you are equating mental illness and suicide. I think it's important to note that it is possible to be depressed and anxious without being suicidal.
It's quite possible that young men are less likely to be depressed but that those who are depressed are more likely to turn to suicide. If that were the case it would be a very important distinction to make.
- ALittleLight 4y agoOne way to think about it is that we can't reliably measure mental health conditions. So, we can't objectively quantify how many boys or girls are depressed, we can only rely on self-reports. However, we can see the extreme consequence - suicide, and that is an objective measure. If the one objective measure we have indicates boys are suffering much worse, then that's reason to suspect that our subjective measure (self-reporting) may not be giving us an accurate reading.
- afavour 4y agoReason to suspect, perhaps. Reason to call bullshit... IMO, no. There are way too many alternative factors to jump to a conclusion.
- _0ffh 4y agoI agree which the general sentiment. If we want to determine how much worse things got in recent years, though, we would need to compare those numbers to what they were a few years ago. I understand that boys were always more likely to die by their own hand than girls, but I'm not sure by how much.
- ljm 4y agoI'm going to say this as someone who's attempted suicide more than once and failed. How can you rely on self-reporting? Self-reporting requires awareness and it can't be assumed that people are aware of their affliction; it also requires that the doctor takes it seriously. You know how many people commit suicide, but unless you leave a detailed note behind your reasons are completely unknown and all that is left is a medical history which in itself may not be reliable or complete. This is where the pain of dealing with a suicidal loved-one kicks in: you don't know what they were thinking. You can only fill in the gaps: they were happy all of a sudden, etc.
- seizethecheese 4y agoWhat do you think is the correlation between suicide and severe depression? If it’s greater than 1/3 the comment you’re replying to is correct.