https://www.nbcnews.com/health/ment...nds-suicides-reached-time-high-2022-rcna99327 Just heard this on my radio, close to 50,000 suicides in the U.S. in 2022. This seems shocking. The "officials" blame this primarily on too many guns and mental Illness. And yet, we are a country with people taking so many drugs for mental illness......A lot is Wrong. My uneducated reasons overall are: Covid for starters, lockdowns, business closures and the beat goes on Jobs leaving the U.S. with Nafta and the rest. People being replaced by digital machines And true our population has exploded but this is still Shocking.... Others will most likely add to these, but this is how I see it now. My generation and many of you can agree, had nothing like this.
The first on the list is the biggest factor. The way the "pandemic" was handled destroyed lives. I could tell just by the way people were driving recklessly. "Guns?" They have always been here, but they make a good scapegoat.
Agreed about guns. They are exceedingly hard to come by in Japan but they have a distressingly high suicide rate. It’s not the availability of a gun. It’s whether the person wants to die or live. Duh. https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Japan/United-States/Crime/Suicide-rates
I was just reading an article on this. It seems that the rate for younger people had dropped, while the rate for older people has risen. Here are some suicide numbers from the article: % of Suicides By Sex Total Increase 2.6% (2021 to 2022) ↓ 8.4% Ages 10-24 ↑ 6.6% Ages 45-64 ↑ 8.1% Ages 65 and over The highest-rate demographic has always been Old White Guy, for whatever reason. I once tried researching underlying causes, but came across a bunch of "serves them right" stuff and nothing of substance.
At one time Japan's overall suicide rate was 5x that of America's. The preferred method of choice was (is?) a mixture of household chemicals. They often put warning signs on the door so as to not accidentally harm someone who might walk in unawares.
I believe the major difference on why more men than women do suicide, women are very social, lots of friends and joiners of groups, men, not so much. I played bridge for a lot of years and in the final groups I was in, many more women than men.
There might be something to that. On the other hand, I think men are more likely to be comfortable alone than women. In 20 years as a paramedic, my experiences are anecdotal for the most part, although this is a topic that often came up for discussion at EMS conferences and workgroups. In my experience, most suicides fell within about three different groupings. 1. High schoolers, for whom every life crisis can be overwhelming. Kids kill themselves over breakups, even though, if they hadn't killed themselves, neither one of them would be likely to even remember the name of the other twenty years later. Other things as well, such as an inability to get a date, and arguments with parents, sometimes lead to suicide. Without going too far off-topic, this is an area where homicides also come into play, often followed by suicide or suicide by cop. A large percentage of mass shooters, teenagers and young adults, are people who couldn't get a date. Quite a few of them were autistic, but that's another matter. 2. Holidays, which are prime time for suicide. The very fact that these are such happy times for stable families leads those who don't, or no longer have stable families, to be very depressed during the holidays. Some of these are people who were once married, with children, who now find themselves alone, either because of divorce, the death of a spouse, and alienation from their children. Thinking back on a happy past does not lead to a happy present. The Christmas season, in particular, is a tough time for a lot of people our age. Not only are they likely to be thinking back to past Christmases with their spouse and children, but also to Christmases with their parents, siblings, and so on, many of whom may no longer be alive. 3. Drinking can destroy lives. Although this is seen among drug addicts as well, it seems to be more common among alcoholics. Their addiction causes all sorts of problems in their lives, including the loss of relationships, jobs, and even homes. It is not uncommon for them to turn to suicide, sometimes probably without even thinking it through. Although I'm sure that it still occurs, unemployment was once a common precursor to suicide, but I haven't come across that, possibly because there are more support systems in place so that people are not necessarily put out on the street so soon after a job is lost.
Guns were much more available when I was young. I bought my own .22 when I was 12 and a deer rifle when I was 15. Many of my friends bought guns through the mail before it was illegal. We had rifles in our cars and trucks when parked in the school lot during deer season so we could go hunting right after school. None of that is now legal, but there we few if any suicides and no school shootings. Guns are not the problem. Covid certainly was a major contributor in many guises.
Same here, and I have no doubt that COVID has led to suicide since pretty much everyone was isolated, out of work, and out of school.
The other aspect of holiday blues is the erroneous assumption as to what everyone else's circumstances are. "Perfect family holidays" make for great movies and commercials, but it's not always the truth. When we are dissatisfied with "the known," it's easy to conjure up a perfect "what if," even if that "what if" in no way represents reality. It's all about expectations. Regarding Male v Female: Women have more unsuccessful suicide attempts because of the methods they choose...usually pills & poison. There's time for remorse and a 911 call. Men most often choose firearms, which have no Undo button. I also wonder if there's a difference in the numbers between those who have had kids and those who have not (even though the kids are in their adult years.) Perhaps having that generational connection and sense of obligation to others gets one "outside" of oneself (although my ex-wife's father suicided, and he had 3 kids, albeit he was divorced.) Regarding older people having a higher rate: Setting ill health aside, I know that most of us have lamented the loss of energy and capacity to do what we used to do. I wonder if the loss is higher for folks who have been active and engaged in projects and home repairs during their lives. Perhaps that also accounts for the difference between men and women, where men (generally) find value in doing stuff and women (generally) find value in relationships and interactions. While we all hit an age where we cannot longer "do," it might hit men harder because women can still get value out of socializing and interacting with others. Of course, I may be full of poop.