The following comes from an April 22 New York Times article by Sabrina Tavernise:
Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.
The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released its findings on Friday. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.
“It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser for health care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has identified a link between suicides in middle age and rising rates of distress about jobs and personal finances.
Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled. The number of girls who killed themselves rose to 150 in 2014 from 50 in 1999. “This one certainly jumped out,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the center and an author of the report.
The data analysis provided fresh evidence of suffering among white Americans. Recent research has highlighted the plight of less educated whites, showing surges in deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, liver disease and alcohol poisoning, particularly among those with a high school education or less. The new report did not break down suicide rates by education, but researchers who reviewed the analysis said the patterns in age and race were consistent with that recent research and painted a picture of desperation for many in American society.
Julie Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers who has studied suicide among middle-aged Americans, said social changes could be raising the risks. Marriage rates have declined, particularly among less educated Americans, while divorce rates have risen, leading to increased social isolation, she said. She calculated that in 2005, unmarried middle-aged men were 3.5 times more likely than married men to die from suicide, and their female counterparts were as much as 2.8 times more likely to kill themselves. The divorce rate has doubled for middle-aged and older adults since the 1990s, she said.
“The rise was particularly steep for women.” post abortion syndrome.
The cost of “choice.”
If you had read the article, you would see that the better correlation is with divorce and being unmarried, not with abortion. But I suppose that in a free country you can make anything up you like and put it out there as the truth.
I don’t see where being divorced or unmarried would preclude abortion from being a factor.
Unless Jesus is the center of one’s life, evil will conquer a person. Suicide is one of those evils. We Catholics need to evangelize His love in salvation history and in our personal lives, announcing the truth with compassion, His forgiveness, His love, His promise of eternal life to all who believe in Him.
There is a religious order of cloistered nuns who’s sole purpose is to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for all those who committed suicide. I read about them sometime over the past year; however, I cannot remember what their order is or where they are located. Has anyone else heard of them?
Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace. A bumper sticker from the past.