The Suicide Problem

For John, BLUF:  Both suicides and drug overdose rates are a symptom of social breakdown.  But why?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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America’s suicide epidemic

Here is the sub-headline:

On a problem that literally has life-and-death significance for a pivotal portion of his base, Trump has been AWOL.

From Nation of Change, by Author Rajan Menon 19 June 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

We hear a lot about suicide when celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade die by their own hand.  Otherwise, it seldom makes the headlines.  That’s odd given the magnitude of the problem.

In 2017, 47,173 Americans killed themselves.  In that single year, in other words, the suicide count was nearly seven times greater than the number of American soldiers killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars between 2001 and 2018.

A suicide occurs in the United States roughly once every 12 minutes.  What’s more, after decades of decline, the rate of self-inflicted deaths per 100,000 people annually — the suicide rate — has been increasing sharply since the late 1990s.  Suicides now claim two-and-a-half times as many lives in this country as do homicides, even though the murder rate gets so much more attention.

In other words, we’re talking about a national epidemic of self-inflicted deaths.

This is a serious problem.  I don't think the Author is willing to do the deep dive, which would reveal how the destruction of so many families, of all races and ethnicities and creeds, has resulted in more isolation and higher suicide rates.

Regards  —  Cliff