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Suicide rising across the US

cdc.gov

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Re: Suicide rising across the US

#191

Post by DanBC »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #93

I'm not finding any breakdown of suicide rates by age, which would be useful especially comparing to the previous period they measure. In fact, I'm unable to find which exact baseline period and the "rising" period they refer to. The article only states "from 1999 through 2016" but one of their data sources only started collecting data in 2003, in a limited number of states (16 in 2010, 18 in 2014): https://en.wikipe…

I agree. I find the CDC suicide statistics very hard to work with.

Here's something from the UK: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

In England we have three main tools.

1) Public Health Fingertips: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/pr...

2) The Office for National Statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

3) The National Confidential Inquiry into suicide and homicide by people with mental illness: http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centrefor...

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#192

Post by DanBC »

o203909kd wrote: post #82
minikites wrote: post #35

Reducing firearm ownership would reduce suicides: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonkblog/su... The common response is that "people will just find another way" but that's not supported by evidence. >“Anything that builds in delay is working in your favor because that fever-pitch time when you’re actually willing to swallow the poison or pull the trigger is often fairly narrow,” said Cathy Barber, wh…

I am a psychologist and to be honest, I think focusing on methods is well-intended but misguided because it leaves the pain but takes away the mechanism. I'm not convinced that even eliminating firearms completely would reduce suicide rates as much as some think because people would find another means. Even the linked piece states "nobody knows what would happen if firearm availability in the US resembled levels of o…

> I am a psychologist and to be honest, I think focusing on methods is well-intended but misguided because it leaves the pain but takes away the mechanism.

I work in suicide prevention in a country that has seen decreasing rates of suicide at a time when the government has been defunding mental health care.

Reducing access to means and methods of suicide is the most important thing we can do to stop people killing themselves.

Barriers on bridges and multi-storey carparsk save lives. Smaller pack sizes of paracetamol prevents death. Gun control would absolutely save lives.

We've had a wide range of natural experiments for this. Two notable examples are when the UK changed the domestic gas supply from coal gas to natural gas; and when the UK introduced laws for catalytic converters. Two very common methods went, and rates declined for some years after.

Of course you need the bio-psycho-social support too, but method removal is crucial.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#193

Post by DanBC »

sudomake wrote: post #59
minikites wrote: post #35

Reducing firearm ownership would reduce suicides: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonkblog/su... The common response is that "people will just find another way" but that's not supported by evidence. >“Anything that builds in delay is working in your favor because that fever-pitch time when you’re actually willing to swallow the poison or pull the trigger is often fairly narrow,” said Cathy Barber, wh…

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

> I've heard that no one attempts suicide twice

Lots of people attempt suicide more than once, and many of them die by suicide when they try again.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#194

Post by djschnei »

krapp wrote: post #166
djschnei wrote: post #126

Young (white) men are completely lost in the US right now. The most exciting thing in the majority of my friends lives right now (23-26 years old) are the current challenges in Fortnite. Everyone is scared of longterm, meaningful relationships and Tinder provides the instant artificial validation to make those long-term relationships seem unnecessary. You're a tryhard if you have serious career aspirations or goals.…

>Young (white) men are completely lost in the US right now. None of the anxiety or malaise you describe in your comment exclusively applies to white people or men, so the parenthetical seems irrelevant.

Suicide rates for non-Hispanic white Americans are the highest. Clearly, race isn't irrelevant.

> 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

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#195

Post by mercer »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #187
throwaway00006 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This resonates with me. It's very hard to win empathy from those who haven't struggled with suicide. And it's frustrating how many people will confidently offer you advice they've never needed themselves. Trying to rationalize suicide to someone will almost always lead to more self-alienation, so it's a conversation I avoid almost entirely. Thanks for being forward. Suicide is nothing to be ashamed of and I believe m…

I'm extremely tired today, so I am probably not making my points as eloquently as I would like. Although this is a new account, I've participated on HN nearly 9 years and some folks are well aware of that. I get recognized as also being that other handle by a surprising number of people. I have long addressed controversial issues like suicide. That isn't anything new. Today is my birthday. I am trying to tongue-in-ch…

Happy birthday! Hope you don't let any downvotes bother you.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#197

Post by harimau777 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #169
kuraudo wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's possible to deny it at this point; you'd have to be blind not to see the hatred directed towards white people. This behavior is both encouraged and protected by the culture & institutions running the western world at the moment. The opposite is cracked down upon swiftly.

I feel like this comment is coming from some parallel bizarro world. We have an openly racist president and majority party and yet somehow it's the whites who are suffering?

Those two things are not mutually exclusive. This is especially the case when you consider that, for example, government is currently controlled by conservatives but popular culture is controlled by progressives. Similar situations exist for the deep south versus the coast, churches versus software companies, gun culture versus hip hop culture, etc. Therefore, depending on their circumstances both a minority progressive and a white conservative can be suffering.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#198

Post by natecavanaugh »

jaredklewis wrote: post #176
JacksonGariety wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dilemma is that leaving social media is increasingly tantamount to leaving society, which is the basis for what remains of politics. On the other hand, the "politics" that occurs on social media is increasingly nothing other than a popularity contest. It seems hopeless.

> The dilemma is that leaving social media is increasingly tantamount to leaving society Aside from my debilitating addiction to HN, I don't use social media. I have a job, family, large circle of friends, and all the usual attachments to society. I vote and love to debate politics with pretty much anyone interested. How exactly would my attachment to society be improved by more social media? If HN went away tomorrow…

I dunno about this. I consider HN social media (we are socializing via media of sorts), but even on Facebook, when I post something that I believe validates my perspective, my social graph includes intellectually honest people who chime in with thoughtful counters and we're allowed to have thoughtful dialogues, and have benefited from their influence (as well as those types of discussions in meatspace as well). I've also had less enjoyable discussions in both areas. When I see relatives post things that are flagrantly one-sided or even untrue, I try to engage respectfully and try to offer another take. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

But I think increasing communication is one of the side effects, and overall, generally a good thing. As I like to repeat often, clarity is more important than agreement, and having more ways to connect with people gives alot more clarity into who they are, as well as valid counters to my own preconceived notions. Sometimes, others viewpoints don't change my mind overnight, but often they either long-term influence more nuance in my own ideas, or even gird my thoughts to a more defensible position.

And like any social network, virtual or physical, we all tend to have those oddballs in our lives that are really into watching random things online and sharing them with others, and that to me just means more spice to life.

Twitter on the other hand ranges from pointless to toxic when it comes to conversations. It's a broadcast network that by nature narrows positions into extremes, in my experience.

Of course, like my real world relationships, I need to do some amount of curation or a break from certain folks or sometimes the entire system, but overall, it's been a net gain for me socially. YMMV :)

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#199

Post by pjc50 »

ars wrote: post #174
pjc50 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/24/politics/march-for-our-lives-... That's rather heartwarming; they clearly intuitively understand solidarity. It's not like someone is holding a gun to their heads and making them do it.

Why is it famed as a "privilege" and race issue then? They can only be inclusive if the other person is a minority?

Arithmetically, the majority has to be the group that includes the minority, surely?

More seriously, all those kids recognise that news coverage and politics applies very different bias to young white people and young nonwhite people, and they're refusing to accept that and keep pointing it out.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#200

Post by tpush »

Mirioron wrote: post #101
some_account wrote: post #92

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.

... which is why he said he prefers a mix of both, instead of either extreme.
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