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Showing Original Post only (View all)Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why? [View all]
Last spring, Frank Turkaly tried to kill himself. A retiree in a Pittsburgh suburb living on disability checks, he was estranged from friends and family, mired in credit card debt and taking medication for depression, cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure.It was not the life he had envisioned as a young man in the 1960s and 70s, when people were more in tune with each other, people were more prone to help each other, said Turkaly, 63, who owned a camera shop and later worked at Sears. There was not this big segregation between the poor and the rich. .?.?. I thought it was going to continue the same, I didnt think it was going to change.
Turkaly said he regrets his attempt to overdose on tranquilizers, which he attributes to social isolation. But in one grim respect he is far from alone: He is part of an alarming trend among baby boomers, whose suicide rates shot up precipitously between 1999 and 2010.
It has long held true that elderly people have higher suicide rates than the overall population. But numbers released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a dramatic spike in suicides among middle-aged people, with the highest increases among men in their 50s, whose rate went up by nearly 50 percent to 30 per 100,000; and women in their early 60s, whose rate rose by nearly 60 percent (though it is still relatively low compared with men, at 7 in 100,000). The highest rates were among white and Native American and Alaskan men. In recent years, deaths by suicide has surpassed deaths by motor vehicle crashes.
There are no large-scale studies yet fleshing out the reasons behind the increase in boomer suicides. Part of it is likely tied to the recent economic downturn financial recessions are in general associated with an uptick in suicides. But the trend started a decade before the 2008 recession, and psychologists and academics say it likely stems from a complex matrix of issues...
Perhaps a little more adversity in youth could have helped prepare them for the inevitable indignities of aging, Knight suggested, adding that the earlier-born cohorts are sort of tougher in the face of stress. Despite the hardships of life in the first half of the 20th century, he said, older generations didnt have the same kind of concept of being stressed out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baby-boomers-are-killing-themselves-at-an-alarming-rate-begging-question-why/2013/06/03/d98acc7a-c41f-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html
It's probably true that the previous generation is 'tougher,' because they were young during the Depression & war: that was their formative experience, and they aged into unexpected abundance.
It's the reverse for the boomers. but the article is written, as per usual, to kind of elide the real issues in those facts. it's not really about the 'inevitable indignities of old age'. it's about aging in an era when all the supports that make those indignities tolerable are being removed one by one.
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Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why? [View all]
HiPointDem
Jun 2013
OP
There are may psychological studies that point to the relative nature of wealth.
napoleon_in_rags
Jun 2013
#1
The thing that strikes me in your description is the tie between self-worth and work for some.
napoleon_in_rags
Jun 2013
#4
"We don't teach that" because it's not true. If it were, it wouldn't have to be 'taught'.
HiPointDem
Jun 2013
#6
in actual practice, life is cheap. fact. it's not a question of how we see it, it's a question of
HiPointDem
Jun 2013
#70
you're not getting my point. you're talking 'should be'. i'm talking *is*. the fact *is* that
HiPointDem
Jun 2013
#98
When most people are asked at a party "So, what are you?" They respond with a job title.
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2013
#44
I wish I could give you a hug. A beer out in the woods. But I won't lie:
napoleon_in_rags
Jun 2013
#17
I would love to have an ongoing conversation about this, napolean_in_rags...
OneGrassRoot
Jun 2013
#22
I measure wealth by the ability to provide the essentials ... and also luxuries
Babel_17
Jun 2013
#66
I suspect a lot of it is also related to the number of prostate surgeries....
Spitfire of ATJ
Jun 2013
#53
They aren't that old! To me its stressful to be young, or old old. But 50's is easiest (for me)
progree
Jun 2013
#7
I know its not paradise in the 50's in this economy, what I said was compared to other age groups
progree
Jun 2013
#52
I do understand, again, I'm saying the 20-somethings and the really elderly have it worse
progree
Jun 2013
#56
I said 3 times compared to other age groups, particularly those in their 20's and the really elderly
progree
Jun 2013
#54
Thank you. And I'm sorry to be overly sensitive / thinned skinned and all that n/t
progree
Jun 2013
#57
Eh, I don't know of another generation that sheltered under their desks from nuclear bombs
Fumesucker
Jun 2013
#26
Thank you. And while the economy for many people was good as the boomers grew up, it
raccoon
Jun 2013
#32
Not true, the silent generation had it much better in many ways than boomers
diane in sf
Jun 2013
#69
I'm a boomer, mid 50s, and frankly I don't see much hope for my golden years.
Sheldon Cooper
Jun 2013
#30
That may be your answer but that's not what most people ask the question for
Fumesucker
Jun 2013
#49
This has NOTHING to do with the aches and pains of aging and EVERYTHING to do with
duffyduff
Jun 2013
#47
I also think the deficiency issues (especially those caused by the lack of nutrients
dixiegrrrrl
Jun 2013
#94
It was not the life he envisioned. Bingo. I live with a granddaughter-in-law who fell for the old
jwirr
Jun 2013
#41
"Perhaps a little more adversity in youth could have helped prepare them"
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2013
#42
I agree, the job market started getting sucky in the 70s by deliberate design
diane in sf
Jun 2013
#71
The irony of this piece being written by a twit that is the beneficiary of the betrayal
Egalitarian Thug
Jun 2013
#74
"a little more adversity in youth could have helped": Yes, that VietNam thing was sooo cushy!
WinkyDink
Jun 2013
#86
It's tempting to create a profile of the writer for that one sentence alone. n/t
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2013
#93
The author seems to have forgotten that there were TWO recessions between 2000-2007
eridani
Jun 2013
#100
raise your kids to take care of you? how about them living their lives and reaching their
NRaleighLiberal
Jul 2014
#130