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Suicide rates for middle-aged people are edging up -- particularly for white men without college degrees -- and a combination of poor health and a poor economy may be driving it, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Middle-aged people usually have a relatively low risk for suicide as they seek to support their families, but baby boomers are bucking this trend, sociologists Julie Phillips of Rutgers University in New Jersey and Ellen Idler of Emory University in Atlanta found.
"If these trends continue, they are cause for concern," Phillips and Idler wrote in the journal Public Health Reports.
"Male baby boomers have yet to reach old age, the period of the male life course at highest risk for suicide; if they continue to set historically high suicide rates as they did in adolescence and now in middle age, their rates in old age could be very high indeed."
The researchers used suicide data from the National Center for Health Statistics and analyzed it by age group, marital status, education and other factors. The period they studied preceded the most recent economic crisis.
"Following a period of stability or decline, suicide rates have climbed since 1988 for males aged 40-49 years, and since 1999 for females aged 40-59 years and males aged 50-59 years," they wrote.
#1 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 7:40 AM EDTI can see this. Middle aged men without college degrees are being laid off all over the country with no great prospects for getting another job that pays more than minimum wage. Very stressful!
#2 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:30 AM EDTOn another seed, many people in their fifties were stating they were not able to get hired again because of their age. The seed was about people in their fifties and early sixties believing they would never work again, not because they wanted to retire but because of agism.
No doubt those who are committing suicide have those same feelings.
Our media is so youth obsessed that the first group subjected to this false culture from birth are now committing suicide at higher rates simply because they are growing older.
When you are constantly told to hurry up and die, as has been said here, even on the Vine, it plays with your mind.
I do not know of another time where it has been more clearly stated that we no longer have purpose. Without that sense of purpose, without being wanted, a person does think to him and/or herself, there is no reason to live any longer. What's the point?
We do ask ourselves if we have done everything we can, and many of us have made preparations for a time to leave of our own accord.
I realize how dramatic this sounds, but I never thought I would actually speak so candidly about it, either.
I've long known I have no intentions of living in agony at the end of my life. As a lifelong equestrian, I know the value of compassion at the end of life. I don't force my four legged friends to suffer when there is no hope and don't see it as noble to needlessly inflict incurable pain upon myself.
However, that is far different than the suicides in these articles. You described their plight well in the first part of your post. They're getting the clear message they've outlived their usefulness and ought to just clock out forever.
That's cruelty in its worst form. It completely degrades and devalues a person into nothingness or a mere object to be used and abused. Women has always suffered this humiliation. That it is now being experienced by men just because they are aging is new. It's just as horrid no matter who has to endure it.
The pressures are there and I am one of the unemployed 2 yrs too young for SS and too old to get a decent job worth having but my life expectancy is very long.
Grandfather - dads side 107
grandmother - dads side - 101
great aunt and uncle and great great grandmother Moms side over 100
and when I can no longer take care of myself and I still have my wits about me then I and I alone will decide if its time for the happy hunting ground.
the economy. the cost of aging . the fact that people no longer care for their elderly. health in general.
what of the numbers of being poor and suicide ?
#3 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:32 AM EDTGood question. I don't know the answer offhand. Can't look for it right now. Perhaps I can later.
I am 56 yrs old, white male...with 2 yrs of college...no degree. I work full time as the fuel desk for a trucking comany, but my second job and passion is being a professional astrologer.
I have dealt with suicide issues personally and it has been very helpful to have the resource of compassionate friends and astrology to understand some of life's challenging cycles.
Of course each individual will have their own unique circumstances and timing when it comes to life's events...But there are three major cyclic times for, depending on the individual's response or not, potential change, insight and healing.
The first is called the Saturn Return between the ages of 28-32. This a time to reflect upon all that has transpired in those years of life and determine if you are heading in the direction you thought you would be or want/need.
The second is the Uranus opposition between the ages of 42-44. This is where you are exposed to the balancing energy from what you are usually comfortable within, i.e. for masculine/assertive individuals you will be confronted with your feminine/receptive issues. For those who are at home with feminine/receptive energy you will need to confront your masculine/assertive issues.
The third is called the Chiron return between the ages of 48-52. During this time the opportunity is great to evaluate the healings of all wounds and how you are going to use the wisdom gained in relation to your legacy.
#4 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:29 AM EDTI'd like to see the stats on new anti-depressant prescriptions in this demographic.
I'd bet this trend follows an increase in those scrips.
#5 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 4:49 PM EDTI would too. It seems as though the researchers were surprised by the results, but if you look at it, it is not surprising. Many of those men have seen their incomes drop, their life savings either eaten up by medical bills or lost in the stock market and then their doctors prescribe "anti-depressants" when they have a real reason to be down in the dumps.
People have learned to take matters into their own hands, especially in recent years when it is so obvious that the world is out of control, with little chance of being redirected.
It takes a very strong mind to overcome suicidal tendencies. There are still days that I struggle with the concept, and the sheer effort put forth to decide to live can truly be exhausting.
In another conversation I had on the vine yesterday, I pointed out that all the laws in the world cannot "force" a person to want to live. Others can demand that we respect and obey their commands, but in reality, if we do not have the will, the knowledge, and the reason in mind to want to find a way to keep living, then we do not have to do so.
People want to see happy thoughts. They need a little good news. They are looking for ways to salvage the life they have worked for, and encountering very nasty obstacles to those dreams. After someone has been kicked down so many times, they tend to quit trying to get back up.
#6 - Wed Sep 29, 2010 5:17 PM EDTSuicide is not rational in the sense that "I must obey the law." That's silly to even comtemplate.
Suicide is an intensely personal decision made to stop the emotional pain. It is the most effective way to accomplish that. However, it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, which is why our instinct as a society is to stop suicides.
But we can't "reason" the person out of suicide because their emotional state doesn't allow it. One woman I know attempted suicide because of ongoing clinical depression. She did not want to do it, but she could not resist the disease itself. She even called for help both to family and to her psychiatrist, made an emergency appointment to see her psych, talked to her family as she dressed to go to the appointment and yet took an overdose instead of leaving her apartment.
She lived, fortunately. She described her experience as feeling as if she was outside of her body watching someone else control it while she took the overdose. She was thinking "don't do it" while watching herself do it. This experience of not being in control is quite common I later learned.
So talking to someone who is that depressed is not going to accomplish anything. We each need to learn more about how suicides happen so we can take action if we see those symtpoms in our loved ones.
BTW, people who commit suicide often suddenly appear to be happier in the days or hours just before they commit suicide. Psychologists say that is because they've finally made a decision and are looking forward to being free of the emotional pain.
In my opinion, the Army suicides and the civil suicides among the single men and single women are related. The single-human-being family is the most forgotten category in the world. I am presently writing a doctoral work on all the teachings of John Paul II. This has led me to the necessity to do lots of readings of the late Pope. My reserch shows that even he, the greatest "humanist and universal" thinker in a thousand years, did not consider a single-man, or single-woman - a family. Yet they are! Each single person is part of the human family! Millions of unmarried people, the Army included, live among us, unnoticed ... being part of our global family ... yet utterly forgotten, ignored, and denied as such! They have to confront the difficulties of life as everybody else. They lack the normal family and state support. They are the most neglected social category in the world! When poverty strikes, and unemployment, they are seldom the first to loose heart. Now imagine these people in the present circumstances. The media have just reported, that the gap between the rich and poor has reached historic proportions. Under the circumstances, in my opinion, the vulnerable single-man and single-woman housholds will naturally be the first to crack!
#7 - Sat Oct 2, 2010 7:52 AM EDTGood points. I would add that single parents are part of this group. They too are traditionally denied "healthy family" status by too many in our society. Instead of obtaining support (except in government programs aimed to help children), they are attacked for daring to be unpartnered. The shame that is heaped upon them is both unnecessary and illogical.
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