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Friday, May 03, 2013

Middle-Aged Suicide Rate Surges

The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28% in the last decade as the rates in younger and older people held steady. This period dominated by two stock market crashes, a real-estate crash, and a hyper-repressive Fed saw a stunning 40% surge in the suicide rate among 35-64 year old white men and women (with non-Caucasian rates steady). 39 out of 50 states registered a statistically significant increase in suicide rates among the middle-aged.

Suicide prevention efforts have tended to concentrate on teenagers and the elderly, but research over the past several years has begun to focus on the middle-aged. As AP reports, the CDC report contained surprising information about how middle-aged people kill themselves: During the period studied, hangings overtook drug overdoses in that age group, becoming the No. 2 manner of suicide. But guns remained far in the lead and were the instrument of death in nearly half of all suicides among the middle-aged.

During the 11-year period studied, suicide went from the eighth leading cause of death among middle-aged Americans to the fourth, behind cancer, heart disease and accidents. Today's payrolls data will do little to lift the spirits of the middle-aged worker; we live in cruel and unusual times.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thought has crossed my mind several times.

Anonymous said...

Who should be surprised that suicides are up, considering the negative impact of everyday news stories. Couple that with high prices and diminished sinking incomes. Media overloads everyone every day with their incessant doom and gloom, in every news story. If a person didn't know better they might think that there's a well organized driving force behind it. The only people that reading the doom and gloom are the intelligent or better educated, so it's apparently intended for them, idiots are reading anything because they can barely spell, let alone have any interest in news or reading. Yet, when you go out to the shopping malls or out to eat, everything seems normal just like it was decades ago. Sounds like intentional slanting of good/bad news, vs reporting it.

Anonymous said...

I've killed myself 3 times this week, and am considering it again for tomorrow! But for tonight, I;ll just have another beer....

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
The thought has crossed my mind several times.

May 3, 2013 at 1:51 PM

me too. Sometimes on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

3:08 it sounds like people living on extended credit. A day will come when everybody maxes out and everything and everyone will be screwed.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing these guys have lost good jobs, can't find new ones, and figure that their family will at least get life insurance or SS death benefits.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post.I now know that 64 is middle age.That means that I will live to be 128 unless I kill myself first.