Happiest Places Post Highest Suicide Rates

[scooby]

Happiest Places Post Highest Suicide Rates

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/happiest-places-post-highest-suicide-rates/

. . .

"The researchers cited Utah, which is ranked first in life satisfaction but has the ninth highest suicide rate. By contrast, New York ranks 45th in life satisfaction but had the lowest suicide rate."

I don't know if this study sheds any new light on the previously discussed issue of Utah suicides, but it does seem to indicate that unhappiness can become more pronounced in the presence of happy people. Or, in other words, unhappy people are more comfortable around other unhappy people.

Do you think that unhappy members of the church might suffer from this same phenomenon? Is it easier to be unhappy out of the Church than in it?

I think the Church does a good job of doing what it can to help unhappy people, but I can also see how unhappy people might feel stigmatized or out of place at Church. Maybe I'm imagining things.

Thoughts?

[Jeff K.]

I wonder how Jersey compares.

[BCSpace]

I wonder how Jersey compares.

Probably no suicides at all in Jersey, right?

[thesometimesaint]

Scooby:

As a general rule the further west one goes the higher the suicide rate. Probably has a close connection with the availability of guns.

[USU78]

As a general rule the further west one goes the higher the suicide rate. Probably has a close connection with the availability of guns.

Horse puckie.

CFR that firearms are the principal method of suicide amongst USmericans and, specifically, Red State USmericans.

USU "Some say the world will end with fire. Some say with ice." 78

[thesometimesaint]

USU78:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00049117.htm

http://www.ncgv.org/sp

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvintl.html

[Nathair/|\]

USU78:

http://www.cdc.gov/m...ml/00049117.htm

http://www.ncgv.org/sp

http://www.guncite.c...l_gcgvintl.html

[USU78]

USU78:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00049117.htm

http://www.ncgv.org/sp

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvintl.html

And none of those presents data on the question asked, which was

CFR that firearms are the principal method of suicide amongst USmericans and, specifically, Red State USmericans.

We know about the higher suicide rates in the Rocky Mountain region, but "availability of firearms" has, despite your attempt to impute a causal relationship, no connection to or causative effect upon, suicide rates.

If you're going to make such an outrageous statement, you'd better back it up.

[thesometimesaint]

USU78:

From the articles. Over half of all suicides involve the use of firearms. The west is more prone to commit suicide. It does not take a rocket scientist to add the two together.

In fact in a North Carolina study found that

# More than 50% of all firearm deaths are suicides (CDC)

# More than 60% of North Carolina Suicides are Committed with a Firearm (Violent Death Reporting System, Annual Report, 2006)

# A gun in the home triples the risk of suicide (Douglas Wiebe, "Homicide and Suicide Risks Associated with Firearms in the Home: A National Case-Control Study)

[Calm]

USU78:

From the articles. Over half of all suicides involve the use of firearms. The west is more prone to commit suicide. It does not take a rocket scientist to add the two together.

The problem with suicide stats is being able to take into account all methods of attempted suicide when some of those methods are much more effective than others. It is possible that over half of all reported successful suicides involve firearms, but that doesn't mean that over half of all attempted suicides are with the same.

I am not sure what USU is saying here---I'm reading it that he is arguing that the presence of guns has no affect of whether or not people attempt suicide.

If so, I would have to say in one sense I agree with him, the presence of guns in no way causes the desire to commit suicide, but having a readily available method whether guns or drugs or something else that the individual does not find distasteful (as some might see injuring themselves with a knife or jumping off a bridge) might give a person a chance to act immediately on a desire that might change if he had to take the time to purchase the gun or collect enough drugs or whatever. And using a method that is not only more 'immediate', but also violent will likely lead to more successful attempts since there will be less time for others to interfere and save the individual...and then hopefully get them into therapy and it is less likely that something will go wrong (drugs might be vomited up or not as effective as one thinks, etc.).

If USU is arguing that there are not more successful suicides with guns than any other method, I would like to see some data dealing with that because this is the kind of data I've been seeing since my days in college in psych classes...though since it is not something I have paid much attention to so there is likely data out there I am very unaware of.

PS: my connection is very slow right now so I can't do much searching on the internet beyond pulling up some sites on google (connecting to those sites is another thing) and the brief comments there suggests that the most common method of attempted suicides is poisoning (84%) so which method is most commonly used by those attempting suicide would depend on the total number of suicide attempts, which would be the combined number of successful suicides where the data may be that guns are the method in over half plus the number of attempted, but unsuccessful suicides where the method is 84% poisoning.

[Calm]

http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html

This has 400,000 ER visits from self-inflicted wounds in comparison to around 30,000 deaths by suicide.

Even if only 10% of those ER visits were suicide attempts and all the rest accidental, it would suggest that self-poisoning is the most common method used to attempt suicide (whether it is successful or not).

[thesometimesaint]

calmoriah:

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to suicide, but women attempt suicide far more than men and they generally use poison. While men are more far successful at suicide while using firearms.

[CQUIRK]

Utah's suicide rate is quite low when compared to neighboring states and Alaska. It's true that in the rural areas in Nevada that the suicide rate is perhaps the highest in the nation, percentage-wise.

-Not just because of the economic situation, but the sheer remoteness and the depressing landscape itself are factors to consider.