What do you think is driving increased suicide rates?

Lack of adequate mental health treatment for one. They stabilize the patients and kick them out with little to no followup.

Opioid addiction is another cause.

People can be cruel to one another.

Jesus said 'Love one another as I have loved you'!

Many things! Parents are incredibly materialistic, not nurtiring to their children, give out more criticism than praise, parents are angry and tired, children only find friends who live in similar situations, children become addicted to alcohol and drugs, people are cruel (even one's own family).

etc!

tall73 said:

Suicide rate in US continues to rise, new CDC data shows

Numbers released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 48,344 people died by suicide in 2018, up from 47,173 the year before. While the increase was small, just two-tenths of a percent, the rise in deaths over time has been steady. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 35%.

Suicide is the nation's 10th-leading cause of death, with 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, though that rate alone belies the scope of the problem. While thousands of people die by suicide each year, millions think about it. In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted it, according to the CDC.

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I believe that it is fundamentally a sense of hopelessness. Many people use drugs and alcohol to cope. That can result in depression and that can lead to suicide. The 60's were the rebellious generation that was going to change the world. Except it didn't change anything. Slowly the West has been turning away from God and that also breeds hopelessness.

Suicide is also more acceptable. Satan is the murderer and the destroyer. He's happy to drag as many as possible into the pit with him.

The church generally has lost the plot. Of course, there are exceptions. But the compromised gospel leads to a weak church that does little to help the lost and hopeless. We need reality and truth and revival. Then the church will have something to offer the desperate and dying - new life.

Diet. We have access to more food than ever but this is leading to increased rates of obesity, depression, anxiety and is the perfect example of less is more.

Your question set off a chain of thoughts here, Tal73. Here's what came to mind.

Our brains were designed to work well with proper nutrition. Americans have been doing the equivalent of putting soda pop in their gas tanks and expecting the car to run when they eat food that is calorie dense and nutrient poor for long periods of time. One can hardly expect anything other than disease, distress, and mental illness. Combine that with the fact that everyone doesn't have adequate access to health care or behavioral health care, not that health care or behavioral health care can fix the nutrition problem, and add in the fact that we've all become a bunch of self-centered snobs living within yards of each other without even caring about the person next to us, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Have I mentioned enough factors yet? I suppose I could come up with a few more. We raise our kids in front of screens and many of them don't know what it means to sit on the warm lap of or snuggle beside a caring adult and hear stories read, maybe stories with good meanings of what makes life work. Few kids are given any tools to make sense out of life these days. Kids don't work alongside adults and learn what they will need in order to relate to the world at large and be successful, then we toss them out to figure it out on their own - with dire consequences. The role models out there are making a mess of their own lives so they can't help the kids figure out how important this gift of life is. The kids who have little think the answer is in having more, but the kids with everything are also killing themselves.

Kids aren't the only ones killing themselves. Sadly we all know of more suicides than we care to admit, people we still miss.

I'm curious the reason behind your post. Just curious, or is there more to this story?

Lack of proper mental health care coverage for the most vulnerable people in our society ("because they don't deserve it because they don't have any money to pay for it"), combined with a hostile aura of "anyone who doesn't agree with my political views is an enemy of the state worthy of constant ridicule and disdain"

tall73 said:

Suicide rate in US continues to rise, new CDC data shows

Numbers released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 48,344 people died by suicide in 2018, up from 47,173 the year before. While the increase was small, just two-tenths of a percent, the rise in deaths over time has been steady. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 35%.

Suicide is the nation's 10th-leading cause of death, with 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, though that rate alone belies the scope of the problem. While thousands of people die by suicide each year, millions think about it. In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted it, according to the CDC.

Click to expand...

There are procedures for a scrape, a burn, a cut, a broken bone
a bruise, a sunburn, a rash, a sore muscle, and a pimple.

Name one standard procedure for treating an insult, or loneliness,
or any mental bruise. Other than "Walk it off!"

It is a spiritual problem. People do not understand how valuable they are to our Father. So, they try to fill the hole in their souls with anything and everything except Him.Solomon in Ecclesiastes pt his finger on the problem and concluded that everything we do under the sun is a meaningless chasing after the wind.But serving God pays off and gives hope.
Ecc. 12:Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.

Also, people indulge in drugs that causes them to commit suicide. Have you heard of deaths of despair?

it's a large increase, but half of that increase is just from population growth, the us has grown by 18% since 1999

.

Don't forget the whole "us vs. them" mentality that so much of the world has descended into. If you're on the "wrong" side of a dispute or part of a group that has been "othered" then you can expect a constant bombardment of insults, mockery, and hatred. That wears on people.

Ironhold said:

Don't forget the whole "us vs. them" mentality that so much of the world has descended into. If you're on the "wrong" side of a dispute or part of a group that has been "othered" then you can expect a constant bombardment of insults, mockery, and hatred. That wears on people.

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well people talk about this, but I think people forget that many of these issues are right and wrong, abortion, gay rights, gun control and such, and other things are these things that don't really have a middle ground. Where is the middle ground for abortion? Or gay marriage and such? it's like people that complain about democrats and conservatives never compromising, well on many issues there is no place to compromise, what compromise on abortion would the right accept?

loveofourlord said:

it's a large increase, but half of that increase is just from population growth, the us has grown by 18% since 1999

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The OP says were talking about a rate, not a raw number.

loveofourlord said:

well people talk about this, but I think people forget that many of these issues are right and wrong, abortion, gay rights, gun control and such, and other things are these things that don't really have a middle ground. Where is the middle ground for abortion? Or gay marriage and such? it's like people that complain about democrats and conservatives never compromising, well on many issues there is no place to compromise, what compromise on abortion would the right accept?

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I'm talking about things like "being called a Nazi or alt-right because you prefer this movie over that one".

Yes, that's a real thing. The more left-wing elements in entertainment media whipped up a feud between fans of the "Alita" and "Captain Marvel" movies, leading to fans of "Captain Marvel" frequently declaring fans of "Alita" to be alt-right.

The consensus of those who know how these things work is that this was done to artificially destroy "Alita" so that "Captain Marvel" could be the "girl power" film of the year so as to keep in line with the marketing Disney put out.

tall73 said:

Suicide rate in US continues to rise, new CDC data shows

Numbers released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 48,344 people died by suicide in 2018, up from 47,173 the year before. While the increase was small, just two-tenths of a percent, the rise in deaths over time has been steady. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 35%.

Suicide is the nation's 10th-leading cause of death, with 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, though that rate alone belies the scope of the problem. While thousands of people die by suicide each year, millions think about it. In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted it, according to the CDC.

Click to expand...

Differences between reality and expectations for certain demographics, such as white men. Status anxiety in particular.

ThatRobGuy said:

Lack of proper mental health care coverage for the most vulnerable people in our society ("because they don't deserve it because they don't have any money to pay for it"), combined with a hostile aura of "anyone who doesn't agree with my political views is an enemy of the state worthy of constant ridicule and disdain"

Click to expand...

Psychiatric care is not a panacea for all social and personal problems. The rising suicide rate has more to do with problems that are greater than the individual, and won't necessarily be solved by Eli Lily and Pfizer.

Take it from somebody that has used a fair number of psychiatric drugs in my younger years, before I got a real therapist who did not believe that depression was due to a "lack of chemical X in the brain".

Ironhold said:

Don't forget the whole "us vs. them" mentality that so much of the world has descended into. If you're on the "wrong" side of a dispute or part of a group that has been "othered" then you can expect a constant bombardment of insults, mockery, and hatred. That wears on people.

Click to expand...

One reason among many that historically gays and transpeople have had higher suicide rates than the general population.

Any minority group is going to tend to have more suicides without strong social support.