Suicide is the act of killing yourself. When a person puts their life to an end intentionally and all-knowingly, it is termed as a ‘suicidal act’. The great Wikipedia defines this act as “intentionally causing one’s own death”.
People who assume suicide even in the slightest of stressed-out times should not be deemed to have sound mental health. Instead, they must be kept a watch on and should be recommended for counseling.
Recent statistics have revealed that the suicide rate in the United States has taken steep levels in the past 30 years. The Federal data says that this increment has taken place in “EVERY AGE GROUP EXCLUDING THE OLDER ONES”. The increase was specifically great in the case of the female gender. The rise is also a considerable one in cases of middle-aged individuals.
So by how many figures has the suicide rate increased in the population of the United States? Let s take a look at the statistics:
The Rising Stats
It has been quoted from the data obtained from the National Vital Statistics System, Mortality that an increment by 24% has been observed in ‘age-adjusted suicide rate’ in the population of the United States from the year 1999 to 2014. The figure has elevated from 10.5 to 13.0 per 100,000 U.S. citizens. The greatest increment in the suicide rate was observed after the year 2006. More considerable rise was seen among females of 10-14 years of age and in men belonging to the age group 45-64 years.
Most Commonly Implied Methods Of Suicide
Now let’s see what the Federal statistics have to say in case of methods of suicide. According to the same agency from which we have quoted the rise in suicide rate in the U.S., data reveals that 55.4 percent of suicide cases among men were performed by the use of firearms. 34.1 percent of suicide cases in females were attributed to poisoning. From 1999-2014, suicide incidences via suffocation methods increased for both sexes.
It has been reported that in the year 2014, 42,773 individuals had died owing to suicide, a rate which is almost double of what was observed in the year 1999.
Katherine Hempstead, who is a health care senior adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations, showed her concerns for this elevating suicidal incidences by saying, “It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group.”
Girls belonging to the age group 10-14 years have been found to be much more susceptible to suicidal tendencies and attempts since 150 such subjects had ended their lives in the year 2014, which is three times the figure of that which was observed in the year 1999.
Suicide Rate Distributed Among Different Races
Taking into consideration the racial ethical groups, suicidal cases have been mostly found among American Indians, in whom the figure rose by 89% in females, whereas the rise among males of this race was observed to go up by 38%. Middle-aged white women exhibited an increase in the rate by 80 percent.
However, a fortunate decline was observed in the case of the Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks during their mid-life.
The mortality reversal owing to suicide was observed in groups of people aged above 65 years for all races.
Suicide Susceptible Groups
As indicated by a study factors that produce “mid-life” stress contribute towards this steeping incidence of suicide. Studies show that the act of suicide is more prevalent in groups who are affected by liver diseases, mental health compromises, whites who are less educated, and in people who take drugs in overdoses.
The author of “Our kids”, as well as a professor of public policy at Harvard, Robert D. Putnam says that “This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health.”
The chairwoman of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Suicide Research Consortium, Dr. Jane Pearson says that we have got several beneficial treatments but we need to evaluate how we can implement them into the healthcare system, so that they can be approached with more ease. According to her, “We’ve got bits and pieces, but we haven’t really put them all together yet.”
A fact that is indicated by the federal analysis is that, there has been a change in the methods of suicidal attempts. For example, in the year 2014, the rate of suicide by suffocation was one in four cases. However, this method appeared to be less than one in five suicide cases in the year 1999. Ms. Hempstead indicated that since it is a more feasible method, suicide by suffocation is tough to prevent.
A professor of sociology at Rutgers, Julie Philips, who has studied the case of suicide in Americans of middle age says that in the less educated groups, divorce incidences have overtaken marriage rates, which accounts for “increased social isolation”. This could be one prevailing cause that attributes to the impact of social changes on the rise of suicide cases. She says that unmarried men in the middle-aged group are 3.5 times more susceptible to perform suicide than married ones. This sensitivity in the case of females is 2.8 times.
References:
- U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High
- Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century
- Increase in Suicide in the United States, 1999-2014
Read Next: Prevalence of Suicide is More Common in the LGBT Community.