11–20 of 91 posts
As a fourtysomething man the reason is one of intent. I have no desire to kill myself, but I do know that if I chose suicide I would die.
So why does a fortysomething man have more intent?
Couldn't it be hormonal? doesn't testosterone drop as we age?
Testosterone usually peaks close to 40 (plus or minus five years), and falls roughly 10% every decade thereafter.
Because if life isn't working out in the way you expected, it starts to become apparent in your 40's.
So how do you explain the difference between male and female? Women has lower expectations of life or they hit their expectations better than men in general?
Because if life isn't working out in the way you expected, it starts to become apparent in your 40's.
So how do you explain the difference between male and female? Women has lower expectations of life or they hit their expectations better than men in general?
This is not a good outcome. Every failed suicide attempt is really a good outcome.
There are some things that correlate with deaths by suicide. When the number of people without work rises the number of deaths by suicide increases.
I've been doing some voluntary work around suicide reduction. Some of this is cheap but effective. We get multistorey buildings that have public access (eg car parks) to install signs with phone numbers of suicide prevention charities.
Funding of mental health treatment in England has always been low. "Parity of esteem" is aiming to change that. Eventually the wait times for non urgent MH treatment should be similar to non urgent physical health. (So, a maximum 18 week wait between first appointment and start of treatment). A recent change in law (dec 2014) means that people with non-urgent[1] needs get some choice in where they're treated.
Every local authority in England is supposed to have a suicide prevention strategy, and that's supposed to be informed by the national suicide prevention strategy. So, hosted by Public Health (who are in tirn hosted by county councils) and working with clinical commissioning groups, criminal justice (a shocking number of prisoners die by suicide), the police, drug and alcohol services, mental health services, etc.
Some regions are takig ideas from the learnig disability community. For example: many regions have a "learning disability health and well being partnership"; a few regions have started a "mental health and well being partnership".
I do a bit of work around suicide prevention and I am keen to hear people's ideas around suicide prevention. Please do feel free to email me.
[1] there are a few criteria around who can chose and when they can chose but it's a lot better now. http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/qual-clin-lead/pe/bp/guida...
Campaign against living miserably https://www.thecalmzone.net/
The old strategy for my region (I had no involvement with this. I'm working on the replacement). http://www.gscb.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=62552&p=0
The national strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-preventio...
Here's the cocktail:
1) By 40 you've gotten divorced, and probably have a split family. Those post divorce years can be incredibly difficult for everyone.
2) Life hasn't worked out as you hoped, and your youth is mostly behind you. If you happen to lose a career at this juncture, it can be difficult to regain your footing due to routine age bias.
3) You're unwilling to reach out for help, seek therapy or take drugs to deal with depression. By about 40 your body is also changing, this can compound all the other effects.
4) You kill yourself out of desperation, fear, loneliness, etc.
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/article/marriage-and-divorc...
The more we believe that success of life is based on merit, the more disappointment will occur.
Because if life isn't working out in the way you expected, it starts to become apparent in your 40's.
So how do you explain the difference between male and female? Women has lower expectations of life or they hit their expectations better than men in general?
I'm not sure how true any of these are but:
1) women self harm more frequenty than men, which means it's more likely that they get early intervention and help.
2) women communicate better than men meaning they get constant low level support and easier path into treatment
3) men use methods that are more lethal and less survivable.
4) stigma, discrimination, lack of understanding, etc. many people have no idea what mental health treatment involves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't as such, but when they set out to die they manage to so. This is not a good outcome.
So the reason is not one of "intent", but of "effectiveness".