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Washington Post: Suicide rates rise sharply across the United States
- Thread starter Orayn
- Start date
Didn't north Dakota have a huge oil boom and bust?
People bought 70k cars and were fired a week later
People bought 70k cars and were fired a week later
Yeah, the rapid rise and meteoric fall of the shale oil industry played with the lives of many, many people.
Awash with money, then it dried up damn near instantly. It's been on a weird cycle over the past few years.
Yeah, was the oil crash aimed at Russia that hit Venezuela too IIRC. I think its recovered some though.
Not too surprised honestly. My urge to kill myself have increased tenfolds in the past year despite doing a really good job of holding it back after my failed attempt years ago.
Another good point. Access to guns contributes massively to this.
This, plus having a very effective and accessible method widely available method doesn't help either.
That's actually not the main issue when it comes to suicide rates. As an example, South Korea has incredibly strict gun laws but one of the highest suicide rates out there. If guns aren't around, then people unfortunately find other, just as viable methods to do it. The issue is our mental health care in this country, and that's what should be the focus here.
What are you talking about? I live right by the new Foxconn plant in Wisconsin and they're installing the nets as we speak.
Studies I've read have shown that suicide success and recidivism when the method used is not a gun is much lower than when guns are used and gun account for around 50% of successful suicides in the US. Many countries with different gun laws have high suicide rates than America, but I think it's clear that a major component of America's increasing successful suicide rate is access to firearms.
Just as viable is not the same as just as effective though and finding other methods often takes time, time during which people can reconsider. It's similar to the how women attempt suicide more often than men, but men are more successful because they pick more violent methods. Obviously, having a high rate of suicide attempts is terrible too, but America's gun prevalence does contribute to this specific stat.
And the places this is happening, are places where some of these people are actively voting against their interest. It's very sad to see.
Social media and the internet has majorly fucked up the mental health of young people. Aside from the obvious harassment issue, I earnestly believe it has contributed to the widespread loneliness we're seeing in younger generations. I also blame 24/7 access to news moreso than the news itself. Living in bad times isnt a new thing but never before have we been so overexposed to the bad stuff going on and it fucks with people's heads.
Tl;Dr I blame the internet for all of this.
Tl;Dr I blame the internet for all of this.
It's not specified in the article if this is for successful suicides or for suicide attempts but it does note
Whether or not that is connected I can't say but I'm not sure if simply removing access to guns would fix this problem. The article continues and notes that many of the individuals who did commit suicide showed signs of undiagnosed mental illness, meaning focus should likely go there first and to raise awareness.
You're only using half of that statistic when you cite it like that. The other half is about the methods that are used in other countries. In countries that don't have access to guns, men still manage to choose more effective methods like hanging over overdosing like women do. Guns are a very small piece of the puzzle, and removing them doesn't solve the issue in any way. I'm not going to go further into the different methods that are out there and what's most common world-wide, because I don't think that's really appropriate to have on the forum, especially when I know that people on this forum, including this thread, are suffering from thoughts like this. If you're genuinely interested in the differences between countries, there's a lot of studies out there.
In the US, guns are used by the majority for successful suicides, that's true. But if they were all taken away tomorrow, what would that solve exactly? How would that reduce the stigma on mental health so that people can find help? How would that make mental health services more affordable so that people who want to get help, can? People get into bad spots to put it lightly, and don't feel like they're allowed to reach out and get help. These are the real issues of what's going on, and why these rates are rising. This is what we should be focusing on, and trying to fix.
It's not a matter of "fixing" it, it's a damage mitigation technique, similar to suicide nets on bridges.
The suicide rate did noticeably decline after Australia implemented stricter gun laws.
I wonder if one day soon we will see a big backlash against social networking and we return to a more Web 1.0 like internet environment? I hope so.
I didn't say it would solve anything. It would reduce successful suicide rates dramatically and quickly, which should be a goal for everyone.
Clearly we also need more social safety nets and more emphasis and less stigma surrounding mental health.
But Ketkat, no amount of increased mental health awareness is going to solve it either. We need to look at all aspects of this issue rather than just our favorite bits of yarn to unravel. I only brought up the gun issue because it is less generally looked at as related to suicide, whereas an increased awareness of mental health priority is clearly part of it. I've done quite a bit of research on the subject because it's affected many people in my life, and I think the best way to dramatic reduce successful suicide rates in the shortest amount of time in America (lots of qualifiers there) would be to remove the guns from homes.
I also support and espouse increased mental health services because, like, duh.
No, lack of other things that can kill you. In most western countries, suicide is the leading cause of death for the age group. The US is the exception because you guys rank "unintended accidents" as number one, which lump together disparate things like drug overdoses, traffic accidents and asorted other mishaps.
The 15-34 age group still die a lot less overall than older age groups.
Sure, then in that regard I'd agree that it would lower the suicide rate by guns. That's still ignoring the core issue that something is driving people to suicide in larger rates than in the past. Taking away the method of suicide doesn't remove that 'something' that is driving people to this extreme and, as KetKat as noted, will potentially just drive people to other methods.
In fact, I think if you minimize the role that firearms play in successful suicides in America you're being quite myopic. People can have all the help and support in the world but if they have one particularly bad mental health day and access to a gun they are more likely to die than someone who doesn't. It's that simple.
Don't do this. If we truly care about mental health we would understand that suicide rates are going up due to shitty qol.
Sorry to butt in but I do agree with what you're saying. There is likely no 'one' thing to fix that is going to magically solve this increasing rate, it's going to take changes across multiple fields to have the best outcome here. Reducing guns in homes will reduce successful suicides, increasing mental health awareness will hopefully open up more avenues for people to discuss problems that may lead to suicide, and so on. We all do have our little yarn that we go to here but it's really not something that can just be fixed all at once.
edit: to add also, the problem become more complex when minorities and socioeconomic status is taken into account too. Is the lack of jobs an issue too? Is it poverty? is it minority stressors? etc. etc.
Go from booming 90s economy, collapse of the USSR leaving the US as the sole superpower, a long period of peace time, and a feeling of invincibility to:
9/11
Afghan War (somewhat ongoing)
Iraq War ("finished" but many veterans)
The Great Recession
Aging population
Social media
Connectivity with isolation thanks to the internet
Greater awareness of social ills due to social media
Student debt going absolutely out of control
I honestly wonder what factor of American society during this time would have led to LESS suicides?
9/11
Afghan War (somewhat ongoing)
Iraq War ("finished" but many veterans)
The Great Recession
Aging population
Social media
Connectivity with isolation thanks to the internet
Greater awareness of social ills due to social media
Student debt going absolutely out of control
I honestly wonder what factor of American society during this time would have led to LESS suicides?
Not true, actually. Taking away the easy methods actually lower the overall suicide rates - not just for the methods you remove. Suicide is often surprisingly impulsive. The depression that drove you to it might have been going on for a very long time, but the decision to act is commonly a split second decision. If you force people to go with less effective methods that take longer and are more painful, a very large number of them either stop in the process or fail and never try again.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3290984/
If there is a root cause these people have in common it should obviously be adressed as well. But don't knock the effect that getting rid of guns would have on the overall suicide rate.
I was thinking this too. Social media and toxic forums can exacerbate those feelings.
This doesn't surprise me. That timespan covers a great '99 economy to a post recession America. People also had feelings about a president who didn't have to use sunscreen.
That's a lot of used rap cars.
Keep in mind this study only goes through 2016. It seems like people have been generally stressed the last two years but this would suggest it's been going on for longer.
Yeah, I'm not surprised. People are more aware then ever about how bleak a lot of the world is. It was easier to stay ignorant before we all had the internet. Now we can all easily learn about the many ways both we and the people around us are in danger and being taken advantage of. My sister has self-harmed herself in the past and it and what she's said to me has made it clear that we're too engulfed in dire-sounding news everyday.
Stay strong and look to close ones for support!
Stay strong and look to close ones for support!
Not surprising, i mean the quality of life in America has been decreasing over decades in line with the growth of oligarchy, enflaming tensions and stress of all kinds
This is the big story of our modern times that is under-explored but I expect future generations will look back more analytically. I was born in 1979, I remember life before the internet and after it. Society, as far as it treats itself and each other, has changed for the worse and this isn't just an old man yelling at clouds. The internet has been every bit as much a curse as a blessing.
The US can be too absurd at times. A family friend of my wife was broke, old and couldn't find work. He refused to get government assistance because of pride and welfare stigma. He ended up killing himself RIP.