U.S. Suicide Rates for adults ages 45-54 climb to highest level in 25 years

[elehhhhna]

Suicide on the rise for middle-aged Americans
Rates for adults ages 45-54 climbed to highest level in 25 years, CDC finds

updated 9:49 a.m. CT, Fri., Dec. 14, 2007
ATLANTA - The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans has reached its highest point in at least 25 years, a new government report said Thursday.

The rate rose by about 20 percent between 1999 and 2004 for U.S. residents ages 45 through 54 — far outpacing increases among younger adults, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22258413/


Hmmm. Wonder why.

[mac2]

1. Middle Aged in America

Could it be that those middle aged people lost their good jobs, partners, savings, homes, are in huge debt, etc.? Most of them did everything right such as an education, training, etc.

They are the American workers betrayed by their own government. Even their clergy greedy with their hands out with no help for their own. Who wouldn't be depressed? The young can always recover. It's harder for those up in years. It is a great economy for the top 1% only.

Yes..older women are tossed aside by their husbands and the job market. You're too old. Even with an education and training they are ignored.

I can't tell them to hold on help is coming or Bush will be impeached and the country\economy will turn around. We all know that won't happen. Yes..government can interfere with your life big time. So remember that the next time you vote for a Republican or a Democratic Light.

[elehhhhna]

2. Yep. You nailed it. Rates for middle-aged women are the highest, btw.

[Missy Vixen]

7. Women over 50 are considered invisible and disposable

to the cult that worships youth and beauty in this country. It's sad when one considers that women can finally be exactly who they are at 50...

Of course, this is IMHO, YMMV,
Julie

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Don't forget out of reach healthcare. Perhaps an additional reason for

the suicide rates are illnesses they can't get treatment for. :(

[OhioChick]

8. Bingo! n/t

[truedelphi]

12. The job mnarket is extremely difficult for middle aged women

The employer is going to have to pay a whole lot more on the company health insurance premium if they have you on it.

So easier not to employ you to begin with.

[elehhhhna]

35. Single-payer HCare would do more to end age AND SEX discrimination

in hiring than any other possible thing.

[truedelphi]

41. Yep It sure would.

So eventually people who can't find work end up getting General Assitance, so that the middle income tax payer is paying for that.

[Desertrose]

17. You are right on...sadly.

and don't forget the ultimate sin of actually LOOKING middle aged.

Yup...youth is the uber goal. Pretty funny, isn't it, when you consider aging is pretty much inevitable.....

[havocmom]

31. Then, there is the 'sin' of knowing a thing or two.

Can't have us old bags around helping the young ones wise up fast and thwart exploitive employers.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

23. You are correct. Middle-aged, middle class squeezed out of the American Dream.

Add in the "me, me, me" generation prepared to emotionally persecute anyone who's been knocked on their ass by this savage economy and you have yourself the perfect brew for hopelessness.

[fed-up]

29. you forgot buying a nondisclosed former meth lab and learning you own a worthless haz-mat site

and everything that you worked 60-80 hours weeks almost your entire life for is unsellable because our f&cking government has done NOTHING to educate the public or to put any laws into place to alert buyers or renters.

[zippy890]

3. 'highest among middle aged women'

;(

but they don't know why, there's no theories about this sad fact.

I guess increased suicide among middle aged women doesn't rate further study. I hope there is some follow-up to this, to figure out possible reasons.

[BuelahWitch]

26. They know why, they just won't say

Because then they'd have to admit the economy sucks under this administration and things aren't a bed of roses in the US. And that's unpatriotic, don'tcha know? :eyes:

[rolleitreks]

4. You reach fifty, you figure out you're not really relevant anymore. n/t

[kestrel91316]

9. Yep. Sez kestrel, who is now 50 and 11 months.......

[liberal N proud]

5. Similar to the traders in 1929, only this time it is every day people

People who have lost it all in the mortgage crisis. All at the hands of money hungary monsters who through collusion with the government have stolen peoples lives from them.

[symbolman]

10. I think its more than that, though I agree

and as a 53 year old male I fit right in there. Even four years ago life was at least Safe and fairly comfortable enough.. I don't ask for much, and am happy with what I have..

I think it runs to the very roots of Reality... Everything I've learned, the way I was raised is ALL WRONG.. The world is upside down and backwards thanks to the corruption of mankind, there's no longer a handshake that has meaning or constitues a fair contract. You no longer look a man in his eyes, that is freaky and deceptive now.. Simple pleasures cost $$$$ now.. You can't work your way to the top, burearacratics and bean counters rule everything, movies have no heart, nor do most people anymore, there's no SLACK, only aggression..

Its turned into an ugly world in so many ways that younger people can't begin to imagine, with no idea what they've lost, and no ear to even hear about it..

Having worked in two psycho wards in my youth I held Truth and Reality to be Sacred, its all we've got, but its now so distorted as to not even be worth using :)

About time to do like that old film "wild in the Streets" where a teen became President and ordered all the Old people into camps, where they fed them all LSD laced Oat Meal... I'm just about ready for it :)

When we miss more than we want, its OVER...

[truedelphi]

13. Sorry you are in the same boat I'm in Symbolman

And last year when my times were tough, it was the working class middle-aged Jesus freaks who saved me. Telling me as they handed me the rent money, "Don't worry about paying me back. When you can, you can."

The rich liberals I knew were all, "You should have planned for your life better."

[Trillo]

27. I was moved by this paragraph of yours

I think it runs to the very roots of Reality... Everything I've learned, the way I was raised is ALL WRONG.. The world is upside down and backwards thanks to the corruption of mankind, there's no longer a handshake that has meaning or constitues a fair contract. You no longer look a man in his eyes, that is freaky and deceptive now.. Simple pleasures cost $$$$ now.. You can't work your way to the top, burearacratics and bean counters rule everything, movies have no heart, nor do most people anymore, there's no SLACK, only aggression..

There is much broad-brush truth in your words.

[elehhhhna]

36. "When we miss more than we want, its OVER..."

says it all

[Neecy]

11. I wonder...

How many of these people lack access to health care and know no other way out should they fall ill?

[tridim]

14. I know 3 people who committed suicide this year

The only three I've known my entire life.

Ages 60,52 and 16.

How about that state of the Union Bush? Still strong in your opinion?

[libodem]

15. So sad

these poor folks must be in over whelming amounts of despair, hopelessness, and helplessness. Oh, well, America has more Billionaires, than ever. Who cares if the rest of us all kill ourselves. The Compassionate, Republicans, only care about the unborn. After we are here, we can just fuck ourselves and go to hell. God, forbid there should be an affordable Mental Health Clinic, someone might receive something for free. Oh, Noes. I blame Bush.

[undeterred]

16. There is a ton of age discrimination in the work force

and a lot of sex discrimination against women. And if you fight it, you're labelled a pain in the ass.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. Very true.

If you're over 40 and skilled and highly educated, you are not worth interviewing, let alone hiring. The middle class is dead. They want young people who are not so expensive, who can work overtime easily, who can stand up all day in shitty jobs.

I went to college and grad school, earned 3 degrees, and followed the rules, believing I would be rewarded. And in my case, no churchgoers would help me find a job, nor would any of my alleged friends from law school. And they kept saying law was one of the areas that couldn't be outsourced, so there would be jobs. What a fucking joke!


I decided the only way out was to retire early. If the employers are so much into cheapthink that they don't value experience and skills, then fuck 'em.

[Deja Q]

20. They do? They claim the young have a "sense of entitlement" and are "coddled". BTW,

Thank disney for bastardizing the lyrics to "Beautiful World". They changed "It's not for me!" with "And maybe for me!"

:puke:

Gen-Y has that coddled problem? Try the children raised on that crap combined with prostitutes sold under the label "Bratz".

[symbolman]

40. What the hell is Devo 2.0?

Herr Maus has corrupted the ART of Devo? Wouldn't it be Devo -2.0? I mean how much more DE-Evolved can you get with Herr Maus involved? Is that part of the "High School ZenoTypes" DVD? Saw some of that playing in a store while shopping, nearly upchucked in the Aisle...

Just goes to prove what Zappa said, that the Music and Recording Industry is run by a 14 year old girl named, "Debbie"... :)

[alarimer]

28. This makes me feel pretty damn hopeless

I will finish my Masters right around age 40. And I hope to get out of my shitty job with that advanced degree but I sort of feel like maybe I ought to keep the job I have even though I hate it and the people there, even though I will have an advance degree in a position that calls for a GED.

I really, really worry about the things you mention. Maybe no one will want to hire me because I am getting to that age that no one wants. My personal life sucks because of it too I think.

Perhaps the lottery is my only option?

[graywarrior]

19. Hell, I walk that line every day.

Particularly now when I cannot find a decent job, just go turned down for a new car loan, have no health insurance so can't find out why I am so exhausted all the time (probably depression). I've got one foot on the platform of no real options and one foot on the train of no real options. I can't make like things are ok too much longer. Our only escape from Florida was getting a newer car so we could drive back north, but now that's out of the question. I can't take another day of this shit. I can see why older people say fuck it. It just doesn't get better when you're in your late 50's and you figure that out pretty damn quick.

[blues90]

25. I didn't think age mattered until I lost my job

Boy I found out in one big hurry how the younger people get the jobs even without the experience I have . I was even told at a few places after I called them back , oh we hired a younger fellow as a trainee.

I am 59 and can't find even a crap job . It is very depressing , it's to much to bear most of the time .

[RainDog]

39. I would have never thought

from reading your posts here on DU that everything wasn't great with you. but I guess that just means I've been away from DU for so long.

I've thought about suicide more than once in the not so distant past. Sometimes it seems like the only viable option, if the ones that exist when you're alive make you wish you were dead. My kids are the reason I didn't do this.

but that kind of thinking works against people - but what's better, to prepare for the worst or to expect the best outcome in one situation or another? I went for years w/o health insurance after I got a divorce. I couldn't find a decent job and so I went back to school and got a masters... and I was in my late thirties! But I'd been a mom as much as a person in the workforce, so I did have to update my skills and all that.

still, the world is so full of bullshit sometimes I could just scream. I know so many decent people who work hard and do the right thing and they are treated like crap - and then I see Bush/Hilton world and I wonder how this can be the same country.

I hope things work out for you. I'm so sorry to read that you've had hard times.

[BlueIris]

21. K&R. Yikers. nt

[gauguin57]

22. Just turned 50 (and had a FABULOUS birthday!) ... not to be flip, but ...

... I'll tell ya' ... if I didn't off myself when Bush was inaugurated the second time around, I'm gonna live to be 150. Living through this administration has toughened me. Yep, I'm having trouble finding a job ... but I refuse to give up hope.

You want fries with that?

[malaise]

24. I'm betting lost jobs and

medical bills

[Digit]

30. If it comes to living under a bridge in a box or suicide, I always hated bugs

That is being alittle flip, I know, but I cannot imagine anything more horrible than to be homeless.

I love how these people always say we need to SAVE alittle more for retirement. Well crap, I haven't had a vacation for 25 years, I brownbag my lunch, I don't go out for dinner or movies, I don't have cable TV, a cellphone or other "toys".

I live simply, but yet am unable to "save" money. There IS no money to be saved after food, utilities, house payment (glad I purchased a cheap house now), medications, and incidentals.

If I were to be diagnosed with some life threatening illness now, I would probably lose everything.

I expect that God would forgive me if I checked out early.

[Bennyboy]

32. I have had a bunch of friends do this lately....

It seems on a monthly basis. I am 52 and they all are in the range mentioned. We have all been outsourced,laid-off, ENRON'd,or building bubble'd. That means looking at working some shit job for the rest of our lives. One that doesn't pay, doesn't have benes and is probably part time.

As for me I am disabled and in my second year of waiting for something. I can't work, my shoulders are shot, and even if i could it would mena that i would get denied my claim. I know people that have been waiting for three years or more.

[Roon]

33. I know a fifty something man who committed suicide last year

He was a federal police officer and he had a heart attack and couldn't work anymore. Him and his wife lost their house and had to move into an apartment. Days later he killed himself.

[leftofthedial]

34. we might as well all do it

there's not much point in being Amurkan if you're over 45

the country is bankrupt

there are fewer and fewer and fewer jobs

the only real "investment" most of us have left--our home--is losing value, even if we can keep from losing it

nothing we need--food, fuel, shelter, water--will be affordable much longer

post-global warming (2020-ish), the planet will *maybe* support 1 billion people, so most of us will die anyway; if we off ourselves now, at least we won't have to watch our kids starve

[DFW]

37. Whew!

I just turned 55 this year. Out of danger!

[elehhhhna]

38. The company I work for cleans up suicides and there does seem to be an uptick...

We don't just do suicides but it's part of the deal. Did y'all know your homeowners insurance will pay for the cleanup?