Suicide rates in the US are highest among elderly men, and most involve guns, CDC report says
Suicide rates in the US are highest among elderly men, and most involve guns, CDC report says
The suicide rate in the United States spiked in 2021, reversing two years of decline, and rates among older men were especially high, a new report says.
Senior men have higher rates of suicide than average, and firearms were involved in more than three-quarters of those deaths in 2021, according to a CDC report
Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) is only legal in 11 US states.
At best, it requires a diagnosis for a terminal illness with 6 months left to live.
Individuals with an Alzheimer's or Dementia diagnosis are precluded from being able to make that choice, even if the diagnosis is recent and they still have most of their faculties.
We could be doing so much more to allow people to go out on their own terms and die a good death. It doesn’t have to be traumatic for family members, whoever discovers the body, or those who will inevitably clean up the aftermath.
Ever see the show Shameless? Very dark comedy throughout, mostly light hearted content. One episode had me balling. One of the main characters is having memory issues. They were sort of working their bucket list that reunited them with a friend that also had memory problems. The friend mentioned their spouse dying. Main character asks how they remembered. They had it written down on a post-it note on the fridge.
If I had to relive my wife dying every day because I forgot, just put me down.
My wife has a dementia patient for the past year who doesn't remember being married and having children. She says he proposal to her about once a week. Maybe it won't be as bad as you think?
So the choice given to a dying old man faced with watching his "retirement" and healthcare costs drain whatever meager remains of the estate he might leave behind is faced with this choice:
A) Spend six figures on the various hoops needed to legally kill yourself. B) Spend 40 cents on a really good 9mm cartridge.
Medically assisted suicide doesn't work in places without public healthcare. You can NEVER be certain that the decision isn't driven by financial concerns, and like ALL HEALTHCARE IN THE US, its really only available to at least marginally wealthy people in the first place.
For real. Once I retire in a decade or so, I’ll try to live off social security for as log as possible, but once I need to dip into my savings, I’m just tapping my kid’s inheritance. At that point, death is the only financially rational option.
I knew someone who made use of a death with dignity law and one of the doctors that he had to see to get the OK legally had to entourage him to take his own life. Something along the lines of "I have to tell you that, instead of a peaceful drug-assisted death, you have the option to forgo eating and drinking until you die."
The sad part is, some people have done that because in their area there was no legal medical assistance. I read an article a few years ago about a person who decided to go out that way. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to be clawed by hunger pains for days until death. I've experienced hunger for days while waiting on a paycheck, but until death? That's a whole new level of horror.
We put dogs down every day because they have incurable diseases or are suffering.
I had to put my dog down a few years ago because she was so old she could no longer get up or control her bladder or bowels, and I felt guilty for letting it get that far. I still remember the look in her eyes when they gave her the pain killers to knock her out, she looked so relieved.
I don’t understand how I get to make that decision for a dog, but a grown human, in most places, can’t make that call for themselves and go out in a peaceful and controlled manner. If I knew I was going to die painfully in a few months or a year, I’d definitely take an overdose or nitrogen asphyxiation over the disease. When dogs have a better way out than people, something is seriously wrong.
Too many people think the point of society is so you have others to take advantage of.
I had someone close to me with a terminal illness use a gun to end his suffering. He had a bottle of Oxy on his nightstand and a gun inside his nightstand and the only reason I can think that he decided to go the gun route was so he was sure that it'd be done. It sucks that he didn't have any other options available that could have provided a more caring and humane way to exit. Instead now his wife has to live with having found him like that in bed, and my daughter has to live with the fact that she never got to say 'goodbye'.
There unfortunately isn't going to be a perfect answer here. I think most people would agree that a 17 year old in perfect health but depressed shouldn't be able to die and I think most people would agree that 95 year old with a week to live in serious pain should be able to.
Where the line is, who gets to decide, and what criteria they use is always going to be something debatable. I generally think it should be decided by medical review boards and the most important criteria should be consent.
“There’s too much identity tied up in one’s work, so that is lost [after retirement]. And then there’s the cultural script of what maleness means in in our culture, so men just won’t admit or won’t receive care for depression because of that sense that it’s somehow not what a man does.”
What use is a cog that can't cog anymore? Caring for elders is not built into our value system and not protected by our economic system.
Hell, it may be the only way to retire in a few more years.
Maybe it isn't about caring for them maybe it's about teaching them to live with what they have. The skills for being retired are different than the skills of working. The skills of taking care of grandchildren are different than children.
We just sorta assume people know what to do when they get a certain age and maybe that isn't a valid assumption. I am just thinking of an uncle I had whose health just crashed right after he stopped working. He didn't add physical or mental work to make up for not working anymore. As opposed to some elderly I know who have loaded up the hobbies.
What use is a cog that can’t cog anymore? Caring for elders is not built into our value system and not protected by our economic system.
Also, what good is "care for depression" when the causes of depression aren't a "chemical imbalance" but having to live in a partriarchal capitalist society that only values men for what they can provide?
What if constantly calling a system that fails men "the patriarchy" was part of the problem?
What if calling a system that blames all men for a system that benefits a tiny elite was a large reason why so many men are totally dead disenfranchised with the concept? If there was even a one percent chance that was true - would you stop it doing it?
So?
We value capital here, not human life.
As an American, shouldn't our glorious free capitalist market celebrate these depleted capital batteries taking themselves out of the equation and lowering the tax burden on our beloved job creators requiring social supports once they can no longer make them money as fast food employees or store greeters?
What kind of Americans would put value on human life that can no longer generate private shareholder value? Smh, ya'll need to find supply side Jesus.
To be fair though, the common method is as American as
apple pie baseballvast homeless tent cities. 🇺🇸🎶 Oh say can you seeee...today's mass shooting on teevee... 🎶🇺🇸Well see, capitalism isn't about productivity. It's about maximizing capital. More consumers means more spending, and more money moving to people maximizing capital. So... Capitalism hates the death of consumers and loves procreation even more.
But you're only a consumer if you have money to spend. If you're broke, you're out of the market.
TRUE DAT! no, my capslock isnt on.
✌️
No no no, we must keep them alive on life support for as long as their bank balance remains. Them after that we shall keep going until their entire family line is in debt to us. Brilliant!
You really don't need to talk that way.
I genuinely wish I didn't.
But Alas, this cruel nation makes respect impossible for me, and in lieu of any power, my only solace is making mockery of our unrepentant oppressors and this exploitation camp of a "society."
I think others have mentioned this, but I'm disturbed that the article seems more concerned about guns than about the way our society and culture fails older men.
Sure it gets a mention but omg guns.
Get rid of all guns and gun suicides will plummet! It's just obvious! Can't you see that?! The problem is GUNS GUNS GUNS. After all, this is an anti gun article, right?! Wait... Why does the article mention suicide?
Get rid of all guns and gun suicides will plummet!
Shouldn't you guys be somewhere crying out mental health in the replies to yet another mass shooting article?
Sure you can kill yourself other ways, and society isn't great to older men, or men, or women, or infants, or whatever...but guns deliver instant death that is just barely on this side of the line of premeditated.
The rise in suicide rates also coincides with lax gun laws if you have read anything about the subject.
Think about the last time you had a long, lonely night, it was miserable, right? What if you had an instant way of ending it all right that moment at the height of your torment, and that method was within arm's reach?
Guns can easily turn a bad night into a person's last night. Expand outreach for mental health and work on improving society in other ways, sure, but continuing to provide ubiquitous, instant means to kill yourself and others does zero to solve any of society's ills.
Fr in amarica wel fix everything but the thing creating the problem. Baning guns ain't gonna make people less depressed, less isolated, less valiant and the only people that feel safer are people who didn't have issues to begin with.
This is a really sad state of affairs for older guys.
Imagine a guy who gets to 55+ and takes a look at his life and realize he's not where he wants to be and it feels like there's no chance to restart. Maybe he just didn't get into the housing market in time or start his 401k. Maybe some health issues or divorces blew out his savings.
These are the guys who were out of college right before the world was flipped upside down by technology, so I'm sure a lot of them never thought they had to catch up to keep their career running.
It would be really hard to not see it as a personal total failure, and to be frank their family and peers might see it that way too if they know. It probably feels like standing at the base of Everest when he should have the summit in sight.
His peers are either feeling depressed like him or they are jetting around on holidays most of the time.
Guys are taught most of their life to stuff the emotional things, so the future feels hopeless because he's in a bubble and doesn't understand how common this feeling is.
I hope we can find more ways to let guys like this, and all people, know that this feeling is temporary and there is a lot of hope waiting at the next turn.
Maybe he needs a bit of a boost from some antidepressants and someone to talk with who can help him let it all out. Or maybe he just needs a society that sees him as someone with something left to give, who still has jobs to be done, and that's enough.
Good job in taking a serious issue and putting an unnecessary partisan spin on it, CNN. The issue of guns needs to be sidelined when talking about issues as serious as suicide.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/suicide-rate-by-country
If Republicans actually gave a shit about mental health maybe we wouldn't have so many gun suicides.
Suicide isnt reported in many places, because it is a social and religious taboo. For example the greek orthodox church still refuses to bury people who killed themselves(and 99% of greeks used to be christian orthodox, though atheism is becoming more popular nowadays).
Everyone saying it's ridiculous to prevent people from killing themselves needs to keep in mine that these rules are generally in placw to prevent vulnerable people, including and especially the elderly, from being convinced to kill themselves so junior can inherit their house. People are bastards and absolutely will take advantage of more lax euthanasia laws to rid themselves of "troublesome" or "useless" people.
Yeah... this isn't "it's my time, I'm ready", this seems more "I live in a system that has made my every waking day a depressing and fear filled nightmare, convinced of my own worthlessness, with death as my only release".
But I want my kid to inherit my house. I'll be damned if I piss it away on a bunch of entities compelling me to stay alive so they can drain everything I've accumulated. Fuck them. End me while there's still something left.
Evolution has never stopped. Humans are simply creating new selection pressures. Humans are cruel to each other so that some will kill themselves. This will remain the case until cooperation becomes a dominant survival strategy.
Damn dude. I think this too and it’s crazy to see someone else explain this.
Well, cooperation is a dominant survival strategy. But that does not mean it's fair or that everyone will be an even slightly equally beneficial party.
Yes but evolution is natural, this rat race that pushes people to suicide it's entirely fabricated.
Idk... sounds too much like social Darwinism
Ban guns that will fix the mental health problem…
Sarcasm for those unable to spot click bait. Might as well have titled the story “Death the leading cause of suicide among elderly men”…
Why does the US mentality always revolve around a single cause?
It's clear that the availability of an instantaneous way to end your life on a whim with zero effort and zero percieved pain is going to facilitate a lot of suicides. No, banning it wont stop suicide, but it would absolutely reduce them. To suggest otherwise is simply statistically disingenuous, regardless of how much you have the right to bear them or not.
But if guns are part of the US identity and culture then so be it, but that means spending on mental health outcomes and prevention need to dramatically increase.
It's a cost either way, whichever side of the gun debate you are on
If you understand suicide even a little bit you would know men do not fuck about when it comes to suicide. There is little in between, no cry’s for help they are rare. guns are a tool to achieve the outcome and the statistics will never change.
So this click bait title is just stupid anti-gun garbage. Men will ALWAYS be the higher suicide rate no matter what.
Up next water is wet.
we should ban rope as well just to be safe
did the americans find out about lemmy? wtf is this comment section??
Guns are life. My rule to live by is "Love, Hate, Guns, and Ammo."
Guns just add dangerous violence to everything.
In a shooting event, the "good guy" trying to stop a bad guy with a gun can still accidentally hit innocent bystanders with bullets. By adding more bullets flying, they've effectively made the situation more dangerous, and now when incompetent cops show up, they'll think anyone with a gun is the shooter.
In a suicide, you're not only risking it not working because you didn't explode enough of your own head, you're also putting other people in danger, depending on the caliber of bullet and gun used. You could easily have the bullet exit the back of your head and enter your neighbors apartment and harm someone on the other side. You could also live through your attempted suicide and have an even worse life with a totally disfigured face.
Guns make everything worse.
If you need defense in a shooting/violent attack, carry a high-powered flashlight that you can temporarily blind an attacker with, allowing you and others to escape in their confusion and/or get close enough to disarm the assailant.
If you want to off yourself, buy a fucking Exit Bag and get some god damned helium.
Guns have nothing to do with this and you fell victim to partisan click-bait. You got perfectly distracted from the real issue of suicide, it seems.
You are making some bold assumptions that a person that is in that headspace actually gives a fuck about anything else or anyone else.
Art imitates life. I equate it to using a weapon as literary device. If you're reading a book and the author mentions a gun on the table, that gun will be used.
Think of how many minor traffic accidents or drunk arguments at birthday parties result in deadly consequences because just like our author, if someone has a gun, they may use it.
None think about having to clean up all their blood and brain matter left over. Suicide is so selfish.
Wall Street is selfish. Taking more profit than you need is selfish.
These people were desperate. Many likely due to rampant American capitalistic selfishness forcing them to subsist on catfood so business crooks can have 2 vacation homes and 5 expensive cars instead of everyone benefitting from market prosperity.
Selfishness is America's brand, but being driven to put a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger isn't selfishness, it is largely a consequence of other's selfishness. Our suicide rates are extreme in the supposedly "developed" world because selfish people demand everything and we let them do it at societal expense.