Middle-Age Suicide Rate Increase Leaves Health Experts at a Loss

[Xipe Totec]

I missed the deadline for LBN, so here it is in Editorials...

A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. (All figures are adjusted for population.)

For women 45 to 54, the rate leaped 31 percent. “That is certainly a break from trends of the past,” said Ann Haas, the research director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

By contrast, the suicide rate for 15-to-19-year-olds increased less than 2 percent during that five-year period — and decreased among people 65 and older.

The question is why. What happened in 1999 that caused the suicide rate to suddenly rise primarily for those in midlife? For health experts, it is like discovering the wreckage of a plane crash without finding the black box that recorded flight data just before the aircraft went down.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N5/long4.html


In my opinion, the plane crash analogy is the wrong analogy. Middle aged men and women are sinking economically and many are reaching crush depth.

[truedelphi]

1. For that age group, suicide is an option whose time has come.

Jobs are overseas.

Unemployment lasts only so long.

Interviewers tell applicants to their faces "We can hire younger workers" or "We would like to hire you, you have the experience - but you'd up our health insurance premiums."

Cost of heating going sky high means a more difficult choice than ever - the medications, the food or the utilities. Being without work, you can only afford one and one half of those three items.

Part time work, which used to save many a soul when times were tough, is no longer an option - since it costs a fortune to drive to work, you need at least eight hours of pay when you get there.

MediCare is still ten to fifteen years away - and probably going to be pushed back even further away over the next decade. The crowd that is now fifty might be the first group of workers to never ever get to retire, unless they get too sick or suicide.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Most middle-aged people are one paycheck away from catastrophe

One missed paycheck, one layoff that extends beyond severance, and the whole world caves in around them.

[truedelphi]

4. My husband and I were eleven months from

Catastrophe - thanks to his retirement funds. But when those ran out, they ran out.

Things don't seem that bright right now.

[Xipe Totec]

5. I have a friend, a bio-tech executive

who sat without a job for 2 1/2 years. Finally settled for a job in another state at half his original salary. His savings are gone, his house is worth less than the mortgage, and he has to move.

Life under Bush has been hell for the middle class, and the middle aged.

[truedelphi]

6. Ah if we all had only been oil barons.

Sorry tohear about your friend.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. You need to create your own reality.

Try to block out all that is negative from your life, if that includes your church, so be it. And try to replace it with something that brings you joy. And, this is the key to surviving depression. Find some way to find joy in the smallest things, no matter how ridiculous or childish they may seem to others. Make it a point of seeking those things everyday. For me, one summer, it was seeking out the smallest flowers on the tiniest plants (read weeds) and photographing them. Or trying to figure out what kind of bird was in the trees by the sound of their chirping. No matter how idiotic and pointless it may appear to be at first, do it.

What happens over a period of time, is that you begin to set different benchmarks for yourself and start breaking away from the benchmarks set by society, a society, by the way, which is dysfunctional. It's just a matter of time before we all collectively figure it out and start trying to do something about it.

[truedelphi]

15. When the collective army is at your back, when they have nudged you to the edge

Of the cliff, when you realize that everything you lost is probably going to stay lost, and when you realize that all that you have worked for for so long and so hard is gone forever, and that it is taking up all your energy just to stay this one half inch to the positive side of the abyss, with innumerable forces pressing against you, when you have done that for so long that normal is no longer even a memory, then it occurs to you that the only control you have is stepping over the edge.

The sad thing is, when the victim of these KILLING POLICIES does step over the edge, we now have these New Age platitudes to let us know the victim stepping over the edge should have THOUGHT SOME POSITIVITY into their life.

So even in death, the victim is wrong. The insurance adjusters who denied medical treatment, the credit card companies, the New Age friends with their New Age lingo, the dentist who goes to Guatemala rather than help people in his own community, the doctor who won't see you when you are in pain so badly you haven't slept for a week, all these people can pat themselves on the back and say, "Well that Dumb F&Ck obviously wasn't trying very hard!"

So thanks for your F&CK-ing insight.

Maybe now that you've dispensed your wisdom to me, you can find a couple who are trying to get pregnant, and have been trying for years, and tell them to relax and it will happen. Lucky You. There is a whole world of markets for your insight!

[tomreedtoon]

21. You're 95 percent right, truedelphi.

But there is another alternative. When life is a poker game, and you have only a small hand, and you're about to lose everything you have and hold dear...you can always kick over the table.

For example, I don't know why people hate and fear Harris and Klebold, the Columbine killers. They took what seemed to me to be a rational step; they found their enemies and shot them. Just like the unemployed, the rejected, the screwed middle-agers, they knew there was no way to negotiate with their oppressors. Their only mistake was shooting themselves. If they'd lived they could have gone on to point out why those bastards deserved to die.

(It amuses me that the girl who "believes in God" who was killed...although I understand that's a lie put out by the churches...is seen as an innocent victim. The people who "believe in God" are among the biggest oppresors on the planet.)

Harris and Klebold realized what the flower child Oprah viewer whom you critiqued doesn't realize; there is evil in the world, and it is not only tolerated by most people, it's encouraged. And if you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.

[shrike]

24. Except that that's not quite what happened

The jocks who tormented Klebold and Harris are mostly alive and well today. If I'm remembering correctly, their shootings appeared to be more random than anything else. If they were out to kill "evildoers," why not go to the lockerrooms and go after their tormenters?

I agree that Harris' and Klebold's actions were born from a well of great pain -- having been tormented myself during high school, I understand where they were coming from.

I also question the veracity of the story of the young, Christian girl: it sounds apocryphal to me, or at least embellished. And anyway, saying she is not innocent because she is Christian is a dangerous slope to start climbing down. I'm sure some Germans, even non-Nazi, believed that any Jew had it coming to them (Jews were blamed for Germany's terrible financial problems in that era.)

[jhrobbins]

18. I cannot tell you how right you are!! I don't know truedelphi's story

but mine is significant and I found truth in what you say. My partner developed MS and I have RA and both of us cannot work anymore. Disability covers the mortgage and that's it - everything else has been covered by savings for 2 years now and the end is in sight. We will have to move most likely, but that looms large in that we are both so physically diminished that someone will have to do it for us. We have animals that will have to be relocated as we know no rental will take our cats. Regardless, I have really looked long and hard at my life and have found some comfort in things I would have dismissed before. I also value very different things now. ANd that old saw, 'everything happens for a reason' is more poignant now as well as my Mother's favorite - 'this too shall pass'


I also know that we are not the first to have difficulty visited upon them and this puts it in a different perspective.

[Xipe Totec]

25. Well Said!

I echo that sentiment.

Your words reminded me of this poem by Enrique Gonzalez Martinez, Mexican Diplomat and Poet (1871-1952).


When you learn to find a smile
in the subtle drops that exude
from porous rocks in the mist,
or from the sun, the birds, and the breeze;

When nothing to your eyes remains lifeless,
or amorphous, or colorless, or distant,
and you grasp life and the mysteries
of silence, shadows and death.

When you can cast your gaze at the different
paths of the cosmos, and your effort
becomes a potent microscope
that discovers invisible universes;

Only then in a blazing bonfire
of infinite and superhuman love,
like St. Francis of Assisi, will make brothers
of the tree, the jungle and the beast.

And you will feel in the immense multitude
of beings and things your own self;
and will become fear itself at the abyss
and will become pride itself upon the summit.

Your love will shake the defiling pollen
that stains the very whiteness of the lily,
you will bless the sandy seashores
and cherish the flight of insects;

And you will kiss the briar thorns
And the silky petals of the dahlias…
And piously cast off your sandals
to keep from hurting the stones along your path.


(humbly translated by yours truly)

http://palabravirtual.com/index.php?ir=ver_poema1.php&pid=378

[Karenina]

14. Link to discussion on LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3188282

[emilyg]

7. I agree with your analysis.

[OhioChick]

12. Bingo. n/t

[rurallib]

2. Maybe the analysts should read the blogs

not too hard to figure.

[comtec]

8. Ive been in holland neraly 4 years now and I honestly can't see moving back

And I dislike it here!
But going home... that's just out of the question, completely.
The economy is just trashed.
I worry about my mom n dad (divorced and re-married).
Thankfully My step dad is a (2 years 'late') retired school teacher from a prominent district (which means a decent pension) and my Dad N step mom are retired Government workers and ex-military (livable pensions each, and vet' services if desperate). Dad was a sailor during Vietnam (thank GOD his Captain always found other places to be) on a battleship.

My family is safe, my brother in law is a Coast guard Chopper tech/pilot (sadly too old to be an officer now) so he has marketable skills if he decides to leave the 'guard, or stays as a lifer.

But I worry for my friends. I have one who is left in IT, adn she;'s struggling to stay afloat. Her work place is cut throat politics and I also worry for her.

I'm safe. I just signed a 1 year contract, and if I don't screw up, probably another year, then permanent.
I make a above middle income (Dutch) Salary. It's less than I made at many of my IT jobs, but it's stable and reasonably permanent. There are laws that actually protect me here from momentary dismissal (now that I'm past the temp stage)
Things that are just a dream, or a memory for workers back in the US.

I miss California desperately, especially the weather, but the economic situation is such a mess, realistically I can't see us moving back for a long long time.

So yeah I can totally understand the suicides. Much like during the depression. Mass unemployment, or lack of hope of improving your lot tends to lead to suicides ... or suicide bombings.

Now we have an insight to what causes people to blow themselves up, maybe we can push to do something about it?

[TalkingDog]

9. College gunmen

I wonder if the recent theory regarding anti-depressant use in the spate of college campus shootings has been considered?
An older person on the same medication might be less likely to act out violently toward others; instead turning the violence on themselves.

We give people too many pills. While I understand that some people need them and benefit greatly from them, pharma has an interest in selling them; pushing them on the public through massive advertising campaigns. And like antibiotics, Dr.s feel pressured to provide them.

[groovedaddy]

10. I wondered the same thing...did they look at anti-depressant use?

I have had occassion to examine psychiatric drugs up close, starting with my bipolar mother years ago and her use of lithium. She cold turkey stopped taking it, not liking the side effects, and went bat shit for a short time.
People have a sense that withdrawing from drugs like heroin have serious side effects, not realizing that psychiatric drugs are just as dangerous to get off of.

[Donnachaidh]

13. have you seen the reports about psycho drugs in the WATER supply?

Forget the *use* of antidepressants. What about the people who have no NEED for these drugs getting them anyway - in the water supply?

Everyone is taught to flush their meds. There has GOT to be a tipping point where that comes back and bites us all in the ass. Quite literally.

[fed-up]

16. love to see the future lawsuits-Water Companies charged w/dispensing meds w/out a license :) nt

[Bennyboy]

17. I have 5 friends that commited suicide in the past four years

All lost their livelihoods. Got divorced. Had health problems and no insurance. Could not play the games they were used to playing or work. Could not find a job. Three had long term jobs but lost their retirement and benes. 2 owned their own businesses but had big retailers force them out of business...

I have been there. It is by the grace of somebody that I have not done that. My business is gone (housing slowdown). Divorced. Kids not around anymore. 80 yr old crazy insane parents. health issues, depression. No job, 2 years into a SSI/disability case.

[Xipe Totec]

20. I had only one that did so

Self inflicted gunshot after losing his job; the last connection he had to humanity, after his divorce.

That's more than enough for me.

The guy was a freaking genius too.

[comtec]

22. Makes sense, a genious can see better how screwed he is

not to say he has better insight, as to how he can get out of it.
Depression brought on by unemployment is the worst hell hole pit because of the societal demands placed on men to provide.
The collective pressure of that failure is horrible. These poor souls "failed" as men, and at some point, there is just one 'honorable' way out.

[petgoat]

19. Researching in Depression-era newspapers I found an article about a suicide club.

It was a support-group for would-be suicides who felt
they were a burdening their families. Periodically
(I think it was every month) they'd draw lots to see
who would do himself or herself in.

[Demeter]

23. That's What Happens To People Whose Adolescent "Sense of Invulnerablity" Is Never Confronted

They simply haven't the ability to cope, to hope, or to survive for the revenge phase of life.


Suicide is a permanent solution---most problems are temporary. Even these.