Suicide Rates Up in Rural America

[Ultralight]

Could this just be a matter of the survival of the fittest?

A friend from back in my hometown simply cannot fit himself into the world today with its educational, interpersonal, values, and skills requirements.

So he chose to become a drunken, drug addicted, and destitute person barely living on the fringes of our society. He is, truly, killing himself in slow motion. He could hit fast forward at any moment.

He can't adapt to our era.

[Gardnr]

I think suicide is tragic in most cases, and it's sad to see the rise in it.

TRAGIC indeed. My brother killed himself at age 45. Married 24 years. 2 healthy boys age 12/14. Business doing well. No outward reason for it. Depression likely the cause as he had a 20y history of treatment.

TRAGIC indeed. He has 5 grandchildren who will never know him. 2 boys who didn't recover for nearly 15 years. He is missing out on so much joy. I'm so sad he couldn't find the joy in life to live it.

[Gardnr]

Assisted suicide: Dad was actively dying of his lung cancer when my brother killed himself (post above). When Dad realized he would essentially feel like he was drowning (his description), he said "maybe that idea isn't so awful afterall. This is going to be bad." He died 4 weeks later.

[catherine]

TRAGIC indeed. My brother killed himself at age 45. Married 24 years. 2 healthy boys age 12/14. Business doing well. No outward reason for it. Depression likely the cause as he had a 20y history of treatment.

TRAGIC indeed. He has 5 grandchildren who will never know him. 2 boys who didn't recover for nearly 15 years. He is missing out on so much joy. I'm so sad he couldn't find the joy in life to live it.

I am so very sorry for your loss, Gardnr. Yes, the survivors never recover, yet when I once (ignorantly) told a friend of mine that I thought people who commit suicide are selfish, I wasn't aware her brother had committed suicide, and she told me that when you're in that much pain, it's just impossible to think about other people. Her own daughter committed suicde a couple of years later at age 33.

I think of the history professor and campus director of AmeriCorps that inspired two of my sons to community service, as well as countless others. He wound up depressed in his early 50s and was put on an anti-depressant and one day, while his wife and two children were out looking at a prospective college, he drove to the GWB and jumped off.

I think of the 3 high school friends of my children who committed suicide before they even graduated high school. Never had a chance to see that there can be something on the other side of the pain.

I think of my DIL, who told her ex-husband of her plan to marry my DS, and he invited her to lunch the next day and when she arrived at his house, she found him with a plastic bag over his head fastened with duct tape. She was 28 years old at the time and has had to deal with the trauma of that discovery as well as grief and guilt.


So very tragic, and again, Gardnr, so sorry for your loss.

[Float On]

my oldest son attempted while in college in NM. I didn't know about it till 2 years later. He considered it again this summer and self harmed and I got him to the ER and he spent a week on a mental health wing. Every day he is disappointed to wake up and find himself alive. It's exhausting for him and for the rest of us. He has counseling 2x a week. Dr appointments weekly. Balancing the med dose and vit D and sleep aid is a struggle. It's apparently going to be a life-long struggle. I just try to show him daily life is worth living.

[iris lilies]

These stories are so sad. It is tragic that not everyone can appreciate being alive. It is such a heavy burden to carry through life, being sad that you are alive.

[razz]

So sorry to read such tragic accounts understanding just a little of all the impact and sorrow associated with them. Hard to walk in another's shoes such as these.

[Teacher Terry]

Severe depression is hard to understand and extremely difficult to live with. I really feel for people that have that struggle.

[pinkytoe]

It is indeed sad that so many find it hard to be alive in this place and time.

[Teacher Terry]

It has always been a problem. I am doing genealogy research and my grandpa’s brother committed suicide on the last day of school at age 15 because his stepmom had been abusing him since he was 2. This was in the 1800’s.