Suicide rising across the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#71

Post by ethbro » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:25 PM UTC

Something that doesn't get noted enough in the tech community (and surprised me).

Farming, fishing, and forestry far outweighs other occupational groups in suicide rates for men [1].

When standardized against population, at a rate of 90.5 per 100,000 people [2]; vs the next highest, construction and extraction (52.5).

For comparison, computer and mathematical was at 32.8 for men and 12.5 for women.

[1] CDC, 2012 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm#modalIdS...

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#72

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:25 PM UTC

anamoulous wrote: post #40

DannyB2 wrote: post #10

THIS IS NOT a politically motivated post. Compare the map in TFA with this map, which I trivially Googled: http://news.gallup.com/poll/203117/gop-maintains-edge-state-... It's not a perfect correlation, but to my untrained eye, looking at both maps, it seems to me that red (eg, Republican) states appear to correlate closely with higher suicide states. But please judge and compare the maps for yourself and form your o…

Seems weird to start a post with a disclaimer that it's not political and then make a clearly political point... Maybe people just REALLY hate working... https://thumbnails-visually.netdna-ssl.com/us-unemployment-r...

Or maybe unemployed people have such a bad time in central states that they leave, commit suicide, or just die off.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#73

Post by ars » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

DannyB2 wrote: post #10

THIS IS NOT a politically motivated post. Compare the map in TFA with this map, which I trivially Googled: http://news.gallup.com/poll/203117/gop-maintains-edge-state-... It's not a perfect correlation, but to my untrained eye, looking at both maps, it seems to me that red (eg, Republican) states appear to correlate closely with higher suicide states. But please judge and compare the maps for yourself and form your o…

Basically unless you are toeing the line on liberal issues you are non-desired - especially online.

So if you are a republican, or while, or a male, then you better not go online - and certainly stay away from cities.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#74

Post by acover » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

joshuahedlund wrote: post #47

acover wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they correct for any confounding variables? Old people are more likely to kill themselves and US has an aging population. Edit: Also, old people in the USA are more likely to be white.

I don't have time to follow the links and dig into the data quality but a recent SSC post[0] claims "Blacks and Hispanics have only about half the suicide rate of whites", which seems pretty strong to be accounted for by average age differences. [0] http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/05/31/in-search-of-missing-us...

Yeah, I think I'm completely wrong. It's middle aged white men who have the highest likelihood. Those 64-75 have a lower rate. [0]

[0] - https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#75

Post by DannyB2 » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #42

DannyB2 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically one kid (eg, the "bully") says to another kid (eg, the "victim") that the victim's mere existence is deeply offensive to the bully. Hope that helps.

Still missing context. Are schoolyard bullies actually doing this to other kids? Or are you talking about something else? Can you speak plainly and not use analogies?

The bully / victim could be filled in with different values.

The Bully says to gay kid, your very existence offends me.

The White Bully says to non-white kid, your very existence offends me.

The Sports Hero says to the Computer Nerd, your very existence offends me.

Make other substitutions for bully / victim as you see fit. But it's not an analogy. It really happens.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#76

Post by rossdavidh » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

DannyB2 wrote: post #31

User23 wrote: post #2

The article avoids pointing out the obvious, but the map makes it clear this rise is predominantly among white Americans.

If true, that is interesting. My observation posted elsewhere here is that it seems to me that higher suicide states seem to be more Republican party states. Not a perfect correlation, but comparing the two maps seems to indicate more than a casual relationship.

Not clear what "...more than a causal relationship" means.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#77

Post by tafycent » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #65

sudomake wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that no one attempts suicide twice, but guns make it more likely that their first attempt succeeds

That is also correct: >And for those who did not die, it's likely they would not try to commit suicide again. A 2002 review of 90 studies indicates that more than 90 percent of people who survive a suicide attempt won’t die from a later suicide attempt either.

The way that's worded makes it sound like they will go on to try again, but are very likely to fail again. It makes sense that that would be the case, but I don't think it's the point you're trying to make.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#78

Post by m12k » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

Desperation is on the rise. That map of suicides by state looks like a map of "flyover states" that are probably disproportionately hit by the downturn in manual labor jobs.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#79

Post by freedomben » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

test6554 wrote: post #25

Without encouraging or condoning this type of behavior, I really wish people had a chance to conduct an exit interview from life. Only after the decision was solidified and all other methods of outreach had failed. The data would be remarkable and might save many lives. World: We're sorry to see you go. Please let us know why you are leaving, and what we could to do make this a better place to live in the future. Tha…

I agree. This is actually an unfortunate (but maybe necessary) side effect of the push for "look for the signs." I had a fellow engineer kill himself, and it left a lot of unanswered questions. However, he was very familiar with "the signs" and actively avoided doing things that would have tipped people off. He even pushed code and did some code reviews just hours before he died :-(

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#80

Post by tntn » Thu, Jun 07, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

User23 wrote: post #2

The article avoids pointing out the obvious, but the map makes it clear this rise is predominantly among white Americans.

Whether or not it's obvious in the map, it seems to be true.

> By race/ethnicity, non-Hispanic whites and American Indian/Alaska Natives had the highest rates of suicide, with rates for both groups showing notable increases across periods [1999-2007, 2008-2015] (from 14.9 to 18.1 and from 15.8 to 20.0, respectively). Rates among non-Hispanic blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders and among Hispanics were much lower, and showed comparatively modest increases across periods.

From https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6610a2.htm