Ain't Obama's America lovely?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/health/us-suicide-rate-surges-to-a-30-year-high.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.

“It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser for health care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has identified a link between suicides in middle age and rising rates of distress about jobs and personal finances.

Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled. The number of girls who killed themselves rose to 150 in 2014 from 50 in 1999. “This one certainly jumped out,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the center and an author of the report.

American Indians had the sharpest rise of all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising by 89 percent for women and 38 percent for men. White middle-aged women had an increase of 80 percent.

The rate declined for just one racial group: black men. And it declined for only one age group: men and women over 75.

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Just wait until Hitlary wins the oval office

Wow, pretty much every subgroup they split it into is going up, except for elderly people.

An old friend of me that I drifted away from hung himself a couple days ago.

Yeah, I agree, one of the many negative side effects of an egocentric, always connected, information overloaded society - when you think everything is all about you all the time, it becomes harder to deal with problems  when something bad happens and shatters that illusion.

Facebook.
eta: I see I was beat...

People have become very disposable in today's economy.  Gone are the days of 30 years and a gold watch.  Now it's reorg every two months and fire half the staff.  Oh, and hire some illegals or H1B's to take everyone's place.  I think this has a lot to do with it.



 

Those graphs suck.
They have the starting and end points and draw straight lines between them.
No meaningful trend analysis can be done with that.

The chart here:
http://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

Shows rates in the 45-64 age group essentially flat from 2000-2005 and rising and then plateauing again in 2012


The chart below that by ethnicity shows flat rates for all but whites.

I guess White Guilt is really taking its toll.

Freedom of choice is a bitch.

Suicide rates rise and fall over time.  What's so special about 1999 that it was the base for calculation of change in rate?



It looks like 1999 was the bottom of long slow decline from 1975.


The rate of rare events will vary randomly over time.  If you want to create a crisis, pick a low point for the base of comparison and show an alarming increase or pick a high point and show an alarming decrease if that suits your purpose.


Not an expert on suicide trends but an increase from a rate of .000115% to .00013% doesn't seem like a crisis.  Show me some solid causal factors before I think it's anything other than random variation.

I think there is a lot of truth to this

and black people

Wait a minute!

Are you saying, according to that chart, that the US has one of the lowest suicide rates even though we have one of the highest access to firearms, and countries with much more gun restrictions have higher suicide rates!?!?

Alcoholism rose with the rise of Communism in Russia. The sense of despair that set in. Their freedom was taken away so drinking was the only outlet.

Suicide is horrible...

However...in the grand scheme of things...not a whole lot of people killing themselves.

We've been responding to a largely increasing number of suicides lately. And many, many more attempts/threats.

Careful, that kind of talk will get some to call you a commie anti-free market scum on here.

We should love companies reorganizing, outsourcing their jobs, and dumping older workers because it's for the greater good, the greater good!

One simply does not "attempt" suicide.

One either commits it, or one does not.

Are you sure you didn't attempt it and fail?

The steady nature of the rise shows that there is a trend rather than a statistical variance.  Variances would be up and down over the years, not consistently up.  How to nail down the cause?  Got me.

Weakness

THIS.

With Zero's craptastic economy people are hitting their breaking points and taking themselves out due to hopelessness and despair.  The only reason that older people aren't seeing numbers increase is because they've already retired and aren't getting fired/laid off before reaching retirement and falling into the hopelessness and despair cycle that leads to suicide.

I think more like hopelessness in many cases - I won't brand all as a weakness.  Also, we didn't ask to be brought into this world, we were drafted - we should have the right to say enough is enough.



Yes, it hurts those who remain, which is the big downside.





'Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.'









 

Edited

We just had one a few blocks from me this last Sunday.  Young adult man.  Didn't die immediately.  From what I heard, it was very "messy" and his parents came home from church meetings to discover him dying.  They rushed him to a hospital but he still died.

I can't imagine the emotional trauma of those parents, and the suffering the young man must have experienced in his last moments.