Love the hyperlink headline on Michael Moore's homepage to the NYT story on the surge in suicides

[marmar]

[font size="5"]If We're Going to Keep
Executing Murderers, Then
Capitalism Should Get the Chair[/font]


..... and here's the story it links to:


Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm.

More people now die of suicide than in car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the findings in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.

Suicide has typically been viewed as a problem of teenagers and the elderly, and the surge in suicide rates among middle-aged Americans is surprising. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html

[tridim]

1. Thank gawd the media is finally noticing that painkillers kill.

They have already taken one life from me, and I fear they're about to take another.

I hate them.

[AlbertCat]

17. I hate them.

You must not be in pain.

Are these people taking them according to instructions from their doctor?

[tridim]

18. No. She is abusing them.

Legit pain is a different story.

[Newest Reality]

2. One issue is that

when you are faced with homelessness and have no experience with it, yet you know enough about it from reading stories and articles, what would you think or do?

Living on the streets, subject to the weather, abuse, hunger, pain and fear. You are also subject to harassment and becoming an instant criminal since being homeless is illegal. You can be suddenly "deported" and stripped of any remaining items you possess including any spare change and dumped in some other county or bussed far away.

Now, anyone who contemplates that as their fate may consider that, since there is no real support system available to you and once you are that far down getting out is an Olympic struggle that assures you of both low odds for survival, a tendency towards worsening health, and a future that offers little potential to return to "normal life" what would go through you head?

Suicide, in that respect, is not a surprise at all, it is a viable option that speaks loudly to just how callous and unconcerned the most wealthy country in the world can brashly treat the least among us. Did I mention travesty and heartless?

[zazen]

8. +1; one rational response to socioecononomic injustice gets psychopathologized

Of course, we hope that we could transcend such circumstances and grow spiritually and whatever through surrender and challenge--that's been a truism throughout the ages--but these days mainstream medicine and media and America are taught to pathologize and individualize any suicidal impulse, when in fact it would appear to be a very logical option when viewed through the perspective you're describing.

Doctors push every preventive test on you to prolong life, even though the treatment for a condition may bankrupt you, because after all everyone (meaning, the image of middle class America) would choose to live, right? They're stunned if you say, well . . . not always . . .

Well, if your resources are in the negative, you don't want to bankrupt your kids, you can't get disability or SS or medicare because you're too young but you're too actually too sick to work and you can't get work anyway even if you weren't partially or fully disabled, and there's no other safety net, wouldn't it be better to go out with some quality of life remaining?

I keep thinking of the end of Soylent Green. I honestly think suicide centers will be promoted in the decades to come. It'll be framed as a sort of psychological new/age spiritual "treatment" center (you can check out but you can never leave)--the ultimate luxury end all be all entertainment experience.

Since we can't reduce population on the front end--God forbid we bring that up, or make birth control widely, freely available everywhere--it'll be reduced on the back end, as the costs become too prohibitive for most families.

Ideally, we'll start to live in cohousing situations to provide mutual support, lower costs, etc. But that's so anathema to the modern middle class suburbang individualist American. I hope we can start to get there sooner than later, because in perpetual isolation, suicide seems like a very reasonable and compassionate option.

[Newest Reality]

9. +1 back!

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

There is an old science fiction movie called Logan's Run. Well, it was a domed utopia, but you had a "life clock" and had to participate in a ritual quasi-spiritual death ceremony called, Carousel when you turned thirty hoping for "renewal".

[JDPriestly]

19. +1000.

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[ananda]

4. So right.

..

[xchrom]

5. Du rec. Nt

[n2doc]

6. from the article

“There may be something about that group, and how they think about life issues and their life choices that may make a difference.”

Perhaps it is that they were sold a lie, that they could enjoy a better life than their parents if only they supported trickle down economics and the destruction of the safety net. They bought that Lie from Reagan the salesman, and have been buying it ever since. Now they pay for it. As do we all.

[Le Taz Hot]

12. So, the Boomers deserve it.

Is that what you're saying? Because if it is, it's bullshit. First off, MILLIONS of us DIDN'T VOTE FOR REAGAN. Got that? I don't know where this right-wing bullshit comes from but I'm sick of seeing it here. Reagan Democrats were NEVER FDR DEMOCRATS. They were mostly southerners who voted with their feet against the Democrats who pushed for civil rights legislation and who believed the trickle-down shit shoveled out by Reagan. The REST OF US DIDN'T FALL FOR IT.

There are 76 fucking million of us, would you PLEASE desist in putting us ALL in the same category? Thank you!

[n2doc]

14. Do I mention the word 'deserve' in my post?

No. No one deserves what we have become, or being driven into suicide. But that doesn't stop faux-rage artists like yourself. I suppose Reagan won 49 states in 1984 without the boomers. I suppose he only defeated Carter in 1980 because of the dixiecrats. Nobody is ever at fault, in your world, except some nebulous group of KKK members and 1%ers.

I lived through the 80's, and I remember the absolute enthusiasm for Reagan among the boomers in California. Maybe they wanted to bring back Jim Crow there, except we never had it.

And please spare me the straw man rage about 'everyone' being tagged. We all know there are no monolithic groups. All it takes is a majority. I'm not going to preface 'boomers' with "most of, or majority of' to placate you.

[Le Taz Hot]

16. These are your words:

"They bought that Lie from Reagan the salesman, and have been buying it ever since. Now they pay for it. " The implication is clear even to the most simple-minded.

And I noticed you didn't use "some" boomers but "they" as in all of us, which is bullshit and I call bullshit when I see it. I was alive too in the 80's and, unlike you, I was actually a grown up at the time. SOME Californians were big on Reagan for president because of misguided state pride. I'm in a purple part of the state and there were plenty of us working for Carter so I've no idea what boomers you hung with (parents/grandparents, maybe?) but the ones I hung with hated Reagan as governor and hated Reagan as president and we did everything we could to warn the rest of the country.

And speaking of strawmen. No one asked you to placate me, I asked that you be more aware of who you brand with your irrational projections. You know, an attempt at enlightenment. I can see it was a waste of time.

[mountain grammy]

7. No surprise if you've read the "Shock Doctrine." nt

[Fuddnik]

11. Try Chris Hedges, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt".

It stares the problem right in the eye, up close and personal.

[Le Taz Hot]

10. The article skirts around it

but I think a HUGE contributing factor is the inability to get a job. MILLIONS of us were laid off first, often because we were the ones making the most money and we were/are the last to be hired. When you've supported yourself just fine for 40+ years and all of a sudden you're without a job, can't find another one and you've raided your savings/retirement to survive, I can see where many would just want to throw in the towel.

[SunSeeker]

15. +1

[snappyturtle]

13. Here's what Chris Hayes said last night after introducing his guest,

a doctor in psychology,

What is going on over the last ten years that we are seeing this increase particularly among the baby boomers. What do we think is happening?

----------------------

I just love listening to talking heads and reading articles trying to determine the causes that produced the sad statistics. The fact that they have to discuss this leaves my head spinning
however, assured, that they are totally out of the loop.