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Rural America is facing an existential crisis. As cities continue to grow and prosper, small towns are shrinking. That fundamental divide played itself out in the recent presidential election.
[...] The trend is clear: Rural America is literally fading away. It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. And the latest research from the CDC also shouldn't come as a surprise: Suicides in rural America (labeled as non-core) have increased over 40% in 16 years.
From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased everywhere in America. On average, across the U.S., suicides increased from 12.2 per 100,000 to 15.7 per 100,0001, an increase of just under 30%. However, in rural America, the suicide rate surged over 40%2, from just over 15 per 100,000 to roughly 22 per 100,000. Similarly, the suicide rate in micropolitan areas (defined as having a population between 10,000-49,999) went from 14 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000, an increase of around 35%.
On the flip side, major cities saw much smaller increases in suicide rates, on the order of 10%. The graph depicts a clear pattern: Suicide rates are highest in the most rural parts of the country, and they slowly decrease as urbanization increases. As of 2015, the suicide rate in rural areas (22 per 100,000) is about 40% higher than in the nation as a whole (15.7 per 100,000) and 83% higher than in large cities (12 per 100,000).
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jdavidb on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:50PM (26 children)
It would be interesting to see how this compares for men and women separately. The most common cause of depression for a woman is her relationship with her husband or boyfriend; the most common cause of depression for a man is his job. I live in rural America and I'm pretty sure both of those issues are in bad shape for a lot of people. In fact I'm sure that men depressed over their jobs don't do a lot of good for the quality of their relationships with women, so I'm sure they play off of each other.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2, Insightful) by AssCork on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:05PM (10 children)
I'm really curious about the demographic information as well. Gender aside; how does this spike in self-termination compare along professions? The common take-away is that law-enforcement and social workers have the highest rates, so I'm curious if this still holds true in rural America. Same goes for ethnicity, income-level, age-range.
For example, it wouldn't be a huge shock to learn that emo teens decided to punch their ticket early, but if doctors and lawyers started geeking themselves I'd be pretty shocked.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:19PM (7 children)
I seem to recall doctors have a relatively high rate. They do have easy access to lethal drugs and knowledge of dosing.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:15PM (6 children)
So I might conclude that Doctors are not any more likely to off themselves, but have the materials and know how to do it painlessly.
As for social workers and police, I suspect their depression comes from seeing some of the very worst of humanity.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:25PM (5 children)
You would conclude WRONG.
Their suicide rate IS higher than the general population; that's a simple logical and mathematical fact:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/806779-overview#a1 [medscape.com]
The reasons behind that are a *separate* issue.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:29PM
Okay, thank you!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by slinches on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:11PM (3 children)
I'm guessing a big reason is that on top of knowing how, they see first hand what the quality of life is like for terminally ill patients and choose to avoid the worst parts when they get to that point.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday March 30 2017, @09:48PM (2 children)
The link that was posted above actually seems to indicate that physicians may be *less likely* to attempt suicide than the general public. So I think the reasons aren't likely to be specific to their profession, it's probably the same BS that everyone deals with. The difference is that physicians, due to their particular expertise, are more likely to *succeed*.
From the link:
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 30 2017, @11:48PM (1 child)
Still, it's a stressful fucking job with long hours but with soaring malpractice rates, huge student loan debt, and brutal schedules which allow little free time and energy to enjoy the money they do get to keep.
Fun fact: It's called "residency" because residents actually used to live in the fucking hospitals. Let that sink in a moment.
I'm no medical doctor, but if by some miracle I became one, I would definitely feel nothing but hopelessness and regret for all that lost time and money (both from med school as well as my "career") as well as the constant stress and witnessing everything that can go wrong with humanity that I've doomed my life to -- and would likely become one of those rogue doctors who switches patients' charts and medications and pisses in the IV bags and on comatose patients, perhaps slipping RU-486 into the drinks of unemployed Mexican women pregnant with their ninth kid.
Being a trauma surgeon wouldn't be that bad. When Pedro or Tyrone festooned with gang tattoos comes in via gurney for the third time riddled with bullet-wounds and expects to be fixed on the taxpayers' dime (again) we'd have a lot of leeway letting the bastard bleed to death or amputating their genetalia.
Medical personnel generally have a sense of gallows humor given all the suffering they have to deal with on a regular basis -- they do have some cool stories, though, like a male patient in cowboy attire coming into the ER wearing panties underneath and with a various objects stuck in his rectum.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday March 31 2017, @04:45PM
Oh absolutely, I'm not arguing that it isn't, just pointing out that the evidence provided doesn't actually show that it's any worse than anything else. Although I suppose you could maybe make some argument that other people who try and fail might not have ACTUALLY wanted to, and a doctor might not make a half-hearted attempt since they damn well know if it's gonna work or not. So maybe they are actually more likely to make a *serious* attempt, but that's gonna be impossible to measure with any amount of accuracy. And really any attempt is still a fuckin problem.
And I gotta say that my mother is a nurse -- formerly ICU, now float -- which kinda reduces my sympathy for the "poor doctors" who get paid an order of magnitude more while the nurses do the literal heavy lifting and keep the place running all day long. Although that's gotten significantly better since she got that place unionized...or it WAS anyway, now she's just trying to retire before management strips away all their benefits again. Just the nurses though of course; can't risk doctors or management not being able to buy their new Mercedes every year!
Yeah I know those well! My mother's a nurse, my father a disability attorney, in a fairly small town. So they had a lot of the same clients/patients and ended up working with a lot of the same people. Patients, doctors, community assistance programs...I'd get stories about all of 'em from multiple angles!
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Friday March 31 2017, @12:01PM
What's the rural suicide rate when you exclude the "y'all watch this!" suicides?
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Friday March 31 2017, @03:51PM
The info is a couple years old but doctors and dentists actually have the highest rates of suicide.
http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/01/06/top-11-professions-with-highest-suicide-rates/ [mentalhealthdaily.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:23PM (12 children)
Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea since men and women commit suicide at vastly different rates if for no other reason. Female stats would get lost as background noise with as much more often as men kill themselves.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:31PM (11 children)
So when are you killing yourself? We'll throw a party and cheer you on as as you kick out the chair or pull the trigger.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:06PM (8 children)
Oh, I'm dying from being squashed by a skydiving sumo wrestler whose parachute failed while I'm in the middle of a foursome with identical triplet cheerleaders half my age. Or at least that's what I want in my obituary.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:47PM (5 children)
Lock 'im up boys! Or are you old enough to just be a regular pervert?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:14PM (2 children)
Boy babies learn on day one that child bearing age women are the SourceOfAllThingsGood®. Girl babies learn pretty much the same thing, but the difference is, girls learn later in life that men are the SourceOfAllThingsExpensive®, and boy babies never learn that. So we go through life knowing what we learned on day one - child bearing age women are the SourceOfAllThingsGood®.
Those few men who don't understand that are homos, or just plain fucking WEIRD!
Yes, us older guys still like nubile young things. We will until the day we die. At the ripe old age of 120, there might be a dozen old women, and another dozen males working to save our lives for yet another day, or week, or month, and we don't take notice. Let that nubile young female nurse take our pulse, and the pulse will quicken, if only momentarily.
That's the way it is, folks. If you think that "creepy", there is a strong chance that you are one of the lizard people.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:09PM (1 child)
It was a joke jeeezzus
I will agree that we're trying a bit hard to mask the underlying animal nature of humanity and it would be better to talk open about these issues. Trying to hide them under Victorian era morality just causes psychological problems that probably increase the number of sexual predators.
For those of you that have a hard time maybe the good old equation can help you: Half your age plus 7.
A good rule of thumb if you care about the "creep" factor. Also, "age of consent" if you're worried about the jail factor :P No amount of "but its biology!" is gonna get you out of that judgment.
If the carrion eater is 34 or younger then he should be thrown in fantasy prison.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:18PM
It was a joke jeeezzus
No, it wasn't.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:55PM (1 child)
Old enough to be a regular pervert, not old enough to be a proper dirty old man.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:49PM
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:24PM (1 child)
You could just have a coronary at the end of the exercise, instead of sumo-ruining the triplets for the rest of us.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:46PM
I know it's selfish but it's not like I'm going to make a habit of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:45PM (1 child)
Piss off with your glee about suicide. I don't much like TMB myself, but telling people to kill themselves is a particularly cowardly way to vent your anger. It takes the responsibility off of your own shoulders: "I didn't kill him!" and "I was just messing with him!" It is also a psychological attack as well as a type of violent attack, undermining a person's self worth by saying they should die but they're not worth the trouble so please do it themselves.
It is easy to get lost in your hatred, but self-righteousness is a double edged sword. Never forget the timeless quote: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” So, for your own good at the very least, stop hating so much.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 03 2017, @10:25PM
That quote isn't quite right. It's "Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:45PM (1 child)
The most common cause of depression for a woman is her relationship with her husband or boyfriend; the most common cause of depression for a man is his job.
I do not at all doubt that the common causes for depression differ in men vs. women, but I'd be interested in the source for your statement. I tried a quick internet search, and I can't find good summary stats easily.
A few things that I wonder about your statement -- first, we know (as others have pointed out in this thread) that men commit suicide at much greater rates than women, though women also are diagnosed with depression at much higher rates than men. It seems generally accepted by psychologists that depression in men is underreported and underdiagnosed. So, are the causes actually different, or is it just an artifact of how they get diagnosed and reported?
For example, it's pretty well-known that divorce disproportionately has greater negative impacts on men's health (both physical and mental). There have also just been some studies coming out talking about how middle-aged and older men are becoming increasingly socially isolated, which can have significant impacts on health. A few generations ago, there were many social outlets for men -- they'd meet up at the bar (or the American Legion or the VFW or whatever) with the guys after work for a drink. They'd participate in various men's clubs and organizations (that often wore funny hats or whatever). They'd be in bowling leagues or whatever. Stats show that membership and participation in all these sorts of things have declined over the past few decades, with adult men spending more time coming home and having a beer as they watch TV on the couch instead.
The social isolation for men has become so accepted these days that perhaps we no longer even recognize the problems it may cause. Men are less likely to complain about social or emotional interaction (and even if it were a cause for depression, they might be less likely to talk about it with a therapist, instead focusing on job stuff, etc.). And the new roles for "good dads" mean that if kids become involved, men are more expected to be around when they're not working to "pitch in." Women have a lot more practice and emotional resources for maintaining social relationships under parenting regimes, whereas men just tend to become more isolated -- which becomes a real problem then if a divorce happens or after kids graduate and leave the house, etc.
I guess where I'm going with all of this is that relationship stressors may be a major factor in problems with men too, but they may not be complaining about it, whereas it may be enough to send a woman to a therapist.
But the job is often the last refuge for people -- it defines many people's place in the world. If a man lacks all these social resources outside of work, the job is the last source of meaning. If that fails, a depression spiral is very likely to ensue, and the existential angst caused by loss of meaning (with the job often as the last defining element of life) can be a prelude to suicide.
I'm just speculating in a bit of this, but I wonder whether depression often is still caused in men by relationship or social issues, but it isn't enough for them to "seek help" until their lives have lost almost all meaning and they're almost ready to kill themselves. Regardless, I think the combination of rising divorce rates and shifting roles for men that create less social engagement for them outside of work are likely significant contributors to increased depression and suicide rates in recent decades... though maybe job stress/anxiety is seen as the proximate cause.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jdavidb on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:41PM
Interesting thoughts. My source is Dr. Willard Harley - his website is marriagebuilders.com and he's best known as the author of the book His Needs Her Needs. I don't have a page to point you to as a source other than that he has repeated this often on his internet radio show.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings