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Suicide rising across the US

cdc.gov

111–120 of 211 posts

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#111
post #2

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

"Suicide decedents without known mental health conditions (11,039; 54.0%) were compared with those with known mental health conditions (9,407; 46.0%) for 27 states. Whereas decedents were predominantly male (76.8%) (Table 1) and non-Hispanic white (83.6%), those without known mental health conditions, relative to those with mental health conditions, were more likely to be male (83.6% versus 68.8%; odds ratio [OR] = 2.3, 95% CI = 2.2–2.5) and belong to a racial/ethnic minority (OR range = 1.2–2.0)."

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6722a1.htm

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#112

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 have attempted suicide. I am frequently suicidal. I don't hesitate to comment on it in forums. I sometimes blog about it. Most people genuinely aren't interested in understanding it. If they understood, they might feel compelled to treat other people better and that isn't on their agenda in most cases, basically.

I understand it. It's not like the world is a super happy place and everybody is like 'why would you want to leave this place - it's amazing!'.

Everybody has their own experiences. Their life is unique. Telling other people that they should stick around can even be selfish, depending on what they are going through.

However. Living life is a skill, and I believe can you get quite satisfactory skill levels by making hard choices and changing your life for the better until it becomes pretty fine. You may even feel happy. Takes hard work though, and it's very hard to find that energy when you are depressed and your brain is telling you that your problems are unsolvable. But they are not. That's the good news I guess. :)

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#113
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try reading Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, from what you just said it sounds like you might really like it. He covers a lot of the themes you're talking about in a really approachable way As for what other conception of states can exist, socialism is pretty cool I think

Socialism might seem pretty cool for someone willing to ignore the last 100 years of humanity's experience with it.

Ok, here's my impassionate take on Marxism (I know Marxism != socialism).

The fundamental tenet of socialism is the idea of dialectical materialism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism) which basically states that there are two forces engaged in an endless struggle and future state is a result of synthesis of these two.

There's a close relationship between say Engel's dialectics and something like linear logic. However, Engel's third "The law of the negation of the negation" is fundamentally flawed. You provably can't have both adversarial relationships and still allow double negation.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really surprising that middle-aged men who have been raked over the coals in a divorce and left with a hole they'll never get out of, would opt for an end to the pain.

Agreed. Divorce is one of the most financially devastating events that can happen in one’s life. The longer I’m alive, the longer I recommend to people to never get married. Live together, but keep your finances separate (does not apply in community property states; watch out!).

Prenuptial agreements are a thing. Though there's probably some sound thinking behind the point of view that if you aren't willing to get married without a prenup, then you really shouldn't be getting married.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Socialism together with some capitalism is really the way to go. Having one of them totally uncontrolled to an extreme level is what leads to problems.

Just look at the outlook people had in the Soviet era. It's really not that better than what capitalism gives you.

No. Look at Sweden instead.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"where they are totally engulfed by white folks" Too bad they were forced there at gunpoint and not allowed to leave... when will white people learn to stop forcing people into their country, then when they ask to leave, building a wall to keep them in.

You're kidding, right? Many people were forced into the US, and not allowed to leave. The descendants of those people are natural-born citizens. It's their country too.

Their ancestors were forced here, but their ancestors are not the ones "engulfed by white folks" which is what the original comment claimed.

Now, their descendants may feel like they're being persecuted, because they hear that they are from people who have no apparent reason to lie to them. And they may in fact be killing themselves over it.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#118
post #54
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless there is an /increase/ in how much people are being told something analogous/similar to that, I'm not sure how that would explain an /increase/ in the rate. Is there a reason you would expect the harm from things of that sort to have increased as of late?

Are you kidding? Social pressure to make people feel worthless if you don't toe the line on liberal issues has absolutely skyrocketed.

I don't think one's political positions/expressions are really a fundamental and immutable part of what one is in the way described by the comment.

Unless you mean that the attempts to make people feel worthless are done on the basis of immutable things, but are done in response to "not towing the line"?

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#119
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…

It is pretty well known that one of the demographics to see recent increases in suicide is white males, especially those experiencing economic stress. Since that demographic went pretty heavily for the Republic part in the last several elections, I think it's a pretty obvious possible explanation for the correlation you see.

Another statistic is that gun-owners are statistically more likely to successfully commit suicide. Red States have higher proliferation of guns, and often its easier to obtain a gun.

Modern paramedics can rescue people who take a lot of pills, or do other, less successful forms of suicide. But a bullet-to-the-head is often fatal. No coming back from that.

So it could be a case of "successful" suicides vs "unsuccessful". I'd assume that the rate of "attempted suicides" is roughly equivalent across the country. But an uptick in gun-culture could increase the number of "successful suicides", so to speak.

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