Suicide is skyrocketing in young people

[GutsAP]

You can thank the left and their participation trophies for this.

Just setting kids up for failure by having them grow up where everyone wins and no one loses so that when they enter the real world and face the slightest bit of adversity they completely crumble and cannot handle it.

It's your fault, tbh.

[ParanoiD84]

From the looks of it it's only going to get worse sadly.

[Masark]

You can thank the left and their participation trophies for this.

Yes yes, it's the leftists' fault. That's why the problem is worst in the red states and least in the solid blue ones.

[Rasulis]

You can thank the left and their participation trophies for this.

Just setting kids up for failure by having them grow up where everyone wins and no one loses so that when they enter the real world and face the slightest bit of adversity they completely crumble and cannot handle it.

It's your fault, tbh.

Sorry. The 10 states with the lowest suicide mortality rates are all blue states. The 10 states with the highest suicide mortality rates are all red states. CDC is a great source. You could also check depression rates by states. The same pattern repeat itself.

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Yes yes, it's the leftists' fault. That's why the problem is worst in the red states and least in the solid blue ones.

I am getting pretty tired of posting the same Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers over and over again.

[Puzzlesocks]

You can thank the left and their participation trophies for this.

Just setting kids up for failure by having them grow up where everyone wins and no one loses so that when they enter the real world and face the slightest bit of adversity they completely crumble and cannot handle it.

It's your fault, tbh.

As other people have posted, traditionally conservative states show a higher suicide rate.

More than that, suicide rates spike the less support systems are in place. The more we "let people face adversity" by ignoring slums and ghettos by blaming the people in them instead of trying to help them, the higher rates of all sorts of mental illness climb. You might as well be making the argument that peasants had higher rates of depression than bureaucrats because they were weak-minded. It obviously had nothing to do with environmental factors at all!

[Techno-Druid]

Sorry. The 10 states with the lowest suicide mortality rates are all blue states. The 10 states with the highest suicide mortality rates are all red states. CDC is a great source. You could also check depression rates by states. The same pattern repeat itself.

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I am getting pretty tired of posting the same Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers over and over again.

To be fair for both sides, I don't think this is a political issue or due directly to the prevalence of guns or the lack thereof. I think there are a lot of factors that are pushing young people to commit suicide, but primarily it seems to come from 1) decreasing social interaction and activities associated with it (i.e. sex) 2) increasing academic pressure 3) decreased sense of purpose or belonging. This is at least the picture I see, both being a young person and talking to other young people.

[PC2]

As other people have posted, traditionally conservative states show a higher suicide rate.

That correlation means very little though. We would need data on whether the individuals are conservatives or progressive. It could be that conservatives are more likely to commit suicide in a blue state that doesn't fit their values. And progressives are more likely to commit suicide in a red state that doesn't fit their values.

Regardless though I would be skeptical that any political parameter is even in the top 5 regarding which parameter has the most causal power.

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But yeah, blaming it on the left is wrong too.

[Elegiac]

No what's hilarious is you think i think that. I was speaking of mass migration to better climes because of the mass starvation due to the blight. Can't do that if the whole world is suffering the same as you. There's no where to run to.

Hint: The mass migration wasn't necessary in the first place because the circumstances were both engineered and aggravated by policy decisions, not overpopulation.

[Techno-Druid]

As other people have posted, traditionally conservative states show a higher suicide rate.

More than that, suicide rates spike the less support systems are in place. The more we "let people face adversity" by ignoring slums and ghettos by blaming the people in them instead of trying to help them, the higher rates of all sorts of mental illness climb. You might as well be making the argument that peasants had higher rates of depression than bureaucrats because they were weak-minded. It obviously had nothing to do with environmental factors at all!

There's actually some credence to what @GutsAP said, minus the partisan BS. Children, especially young children, do need to experience low-levels of stress and overcome adversity to grow more emotionally resilient, this is an idea supported by both NY Professor Jonathan Haidt and Peter Gray mentioned in the OP. In general it's better to let children make mistakes on their own and sort out problems with their peers themselves (with obvious exceptions). This is the foundation of egalitarianism in hunter-gatherer tribes as well as a keystone of democracy. We need to be exposed to other people and to learn how to cope with disagreements and fights.

With that said, we do need to have a greater focus on mental health, especially among teens and young adults, but more importantly we need to create an environment that minimizes depression and (imo) we can really only do that if we address our modern school system (not just a shoehorned discussion on student debt, but the K-12 curriculum and teaching style in general) and societal expectations of young people.

Despite what your average boomer might think, childhood and adolescence has become increasingly authoritarian and the level physical, psychological and emotional dependency fostered by adults as well as the lack of real world knowledge being taught to them has led to young adults wholly unprepared for the world and very self-aware (and frustrated) at that fact.

[Vash The Stampede]

It's simple, we never left the 2008 recession. This is why you have Incels, this is why birth rates are plummeting, this is why you have more mass shootings, this is why there's more suicides, and this is why people are taking so many opioids. The parents are stressed financially and the children are effected as well. The economy is bad and the youth are struggling. We have to admit that nothing got better since 2008 and something drastic needs to be done. The only people benefiting from all this are the wealthy.

[Rasulis]

That correlation means very little though. We would need data on whether the individuals are conservatives or progressive. It could be that conservatives are more likely to commit suicide in a blue state that doesn't fit their values. And progressives are more likely to commit suicide in a red state that doesn't fit their values.

Regardless though I would be skeptical that any political parameter is even in the top 5 regarding which parameter has the most causal power.

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But yeah, blaming it on the left is wrong too.

Politics aside, it still pays to look at the rate on a state by state basis.

Teen suicide rate by states in 2018 in the US ranges from a low of 4.7 per 100,000 adolescents aged 15 to 19 to a high of 35.1.

Overall suicide mortality rate in 2017 in the US ranges a low of 8.1 per 100,000 total population to a high of 28.9.

The difference is too large to be simply explained away by population density or statistical noise. Keep in mind that CDC has been tracking some of these numbers for over a decade. CDC data on youth suicide in CA goes all the way back to 1995. So we can also compare trends.

Instead of playing politics, the states with high suicide rates should instead study the mitigation/preventive measures that have been established by the states with low suicide rates.

[PC2]

It's simple, we never left the 2008 recession. This is why you have Incels, this is why birth rates are plummeting, this is why you have more mass shootings, this is why there's more suicides, and this is why people are taking so many opioids. The parents are stressed financially and the children are effected as well. The economy is bad and the youth are struggling.

Yeah I tend to think the economy is the most important thing, much more than any purely social changes.

We have to admit that nothing got better since 2008 and something drastic needs to be done.

There's nothing 'drastic' that can be done. Economic progress relies on 'incremental' increases in income, wealth, and production. Any kind of short-term monetary tweaking would solely be for smoothing reasons and not because it can create new wealth and jobs.

The only people benefiting from all this are the wealthy.

No the wealthy don't benefit from recessions. If you want to say their personal lifestyle isn't impacted as much that would be accurate, but to say they actually benefit from this is a misunderstanding.

[Masark]

There's nothing 'drastic' that can be done. Economic progress relies on 'incremental' increases in income, wealth, and production. Any kind of short-term monetary tweaking would solely be for smoothing reasons and not because it can create new wealth and jobs.

No the wealthy don't benefit from recessions. If you want to say their personal lifestyle isn't impacted as much that would be accurate, but to say they actually benefit from this is a misunderstanding.

1. We don't need monetary tweaking, we need significant fiscal changes.

2. They sure as hell do, assuming they're competent enough to have sufficient liquidity. When everyone else is selling off everything to survive (or being foreclosed on), they can scoop up what they want for bargain prices and multiply their wealth on the upswing.

[PC2]

1. We don't need monetary tweaking, we need significant fiscal changes.

Incrementally testing out policies is good but you don't want any drastic changes because the odds of it drastically hurting the economy is higher than the odds of experiencing drastic benefits. I assume every change is "significant", otherwise why even implement something insignificant.

2. They sure as hell do, assuming they're competent enough to have sufficient liquidity. When everyone else is selling off everything to survive (or being foreclosed on), they can scoop up what they want for bargain prices and multiply their wealth on the upswing.

That only happens to a small amount of people who had good timing when it comes to selling high just before the market peaks and heads down to a trough. Rich people are actually highly illiquid because most of their money is in stocks(inc businesses) and real estate and not in the bank. They can't just scoop up everything cheaply after recessions because the majority of their wealth was in real estate and stocks when those markets dropped in value.

[Vash The Stampede]

There's nothing 'drastic' that can be done. Economic progress relies on 'incremental' increases in income, wealth, and production. Any kind of short-term monetary tweaking would solely be for smoothing reasons and not because it can create new wealth and jobs.

There are jobs but they pay very little of what an individual needs to survive. Most of the money people make goes towards rent. More people are in debt today than ever. The problem we have is that we determine the health of our economy based on unemployment and stock market. Those two things alone aren't what make an economy.

What we need are social safety nets. Healthcare for All, lower taxes for the poor and higher taxes for the wealthy. Universal Basic Income so people can move out of already crowded areas and into cheaper but more isolated areas. We've had 11 years of a recession and no small tweaks is going to fix this huge mess.

No the wealthy don't benefit from recessions. If you want to say their personal lifestyle isn't impacted as much that would be accurate, but to say they actually benefit from this is a misunderstanding.

Who benefited from the housing market crash? Who gets a bailout when they screw up? Who benefits from out sourcing jobs? Who benefits from an over inflated stock market thanks to stock buy back? They may not benefit as much during a recession but leading up to it they made out like gangbusters.

Worst part is that we've been lied to this whole time about the economy and we're suppose to act like nothings wrong. Go get a job at Walmart for $11 an hour, or Amazon where you work in a hot or cold environment where if you gotta pee you may lose your job.

[Aeula]

He who increases in knowledge also increases in sorrow. Or something wordy and pretentious like that.

With the internet you have access to the world’s vast amount of knowledge and can communicate with people world wide. Which is great, but you’re also made aware of all the bad stuff happening in the world. Not everyone can take it I guess.

[Puzzlesocks]

He who increases in knowledge also increases in sorrow. Or something wordy and pretentious like that.

With the internet you have access to the world’s vast amount of knowledge and can communicate with people world wide. Which is great, but you’re also made aware of all the bad stuff happening in the world. Not everyone can take it I guess.

I assume you are talking about "As the circle of knowledge grows, so too does the radius of ignorance." It had nothing to do with sorrow, and more that the more we know, the more questions we can ask. This leads to 2 outcomes:

1- It is harder for any single person to know the same circle of knowledge as someone else.
2- It leads to more possible questions/decisions a person can have in a single day.

The first one causes more misunderstanding between people, but that is mainly due to a faulty human habit of assuming that everyone else knows what you have already learned. Or assuming that because someone else hasn't learned exactly what you have learned, that they are stupid, or haven't learned anything themselves.

The second is indeed something that stresses people. While it is certainly causing change, it is hard to tell what the long-term effects will be. The oldest someone can be in the internet age is 28, though the internet 28 years ago was a far cry from what it was 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Smart Phones have only been around for 12 years. There is a lot of doom saying and speculation, but is it that much different than when the world transitioned to electricity? Most homes were still lit with candles until 1925.

[Unholyground]

I will say a lot of the issues with today's youth is no one taught them how to actually live and thrive in the real world and being addicted to social media and the pressures it brings.

[ParanoiD84]

I will say a lot of the issues with today's youth is no one taught them how to actually live and thrive in the real world and being addicted to social media and the pressures it brings.

Indeed I agree with the social media pressure part you can see that everywhere today.

[Rasulis]

I like numbers and graphs. So here are the numbers of youth suicide, numbers not rates, between 1995 and 2015 for CA and the US. The flat trend in CA does not reflect the increase in the US. Since CA’s population has gone up by 10M between 1995 and 2015, the rate has actually gone down.





If there is a universal force contributing to the rate of youth suicide, you would expect to see the impact reflected equally in the population of the US and CA which is the largest state in the US. However, that is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing is that although the rate has gone up in the majority of states, the largest increase is concentrated in the Mountain West states. You could draw a line enclosing all the states with the highest youth suicide rate.

Why? Not sure. Lack of access to mental health facilities and professionals? Ease of access to guns?