Shannon Neal can instantly tell you the best night of her life: Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003, the Hinsdale Academy debutante ball. Her father, Steven Neal, a 54-year-old political columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, was in his tux, white gloves and tie. “My dad walked me down and took a little bow,” she said, and then the two of them goofed it up on the dance floor as they laughed and laughed.
A few weeks later, Mr. Neal parked his car in his garage, turned on the motor and waited until carbon monoxide filled the enclosed space and took his breath, and his life, away.
Later, his wife, Susan, would recall that he had just finished a new book, his seventh, and that “it took a lot out of him.” His medication was also taking a toll, putting him in the hospital overnight with worries about his heart.
Still, those who knew him were blindsided. “If I had just 30 seconds with him now,” Ms. Neal said of her father, “I would want all these answers.”
Mr. Neal is part of an unusually large increase in suicides among middle-aged Americans in recent years. Just why thousands of men and women have crossed the line between enduring life’s burdens and surrendering to them is a painful question for their loved ones. But for officials, it is a surprising and baffling public health mystery.
A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. (All figures are adjusted for population.)
[blockquote] There is a scientific refutation of the Pig Philosophy: the statistical fact that suicide, the most in-your-face index of unhappiness, is directly proportionate to wealth. The richer you are, the richer your family is, and the richer your country is, the more likely it is that you will find life so good that you will choose to blow your brains apart.
Suicide among pre-adults has increased 5000% since the “happy days†of the ’50s. If suicide, especially among the coming generation, is not an index of crisis, nothing is. [/blockquote] -Peter Kreeft, How To Win the Culture Wars
Might it be that the use of Prozac, etc. is at the heart of this phenomena?
[b]FDA Issues Second Warning: Antidepressants May Increase Suicide Risk[/b]
http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/1199/0
A mid-life suicide would indeed be puzzling. One would think only end-of-life suicides were possible.
Very witty Wilfred! That gave me a big SMILE.
It’s difficult to measure the effect of Prozac, etc. on suicide rates, because it is being given to a population that is already pre-disposed to suicide. The most dangerous stage in depression is when someone who wants to die, but feels incapable of doing anything about it, starts to feel a little bit better–still wants to die,but now has enough self-confidence and energy to act. Anti-depressants can, of course, lift people from the lowest stage to the this second, more dangerous one, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say that they actually cause the suicide–for chronic depressives, the alternative may be to”live” in a state of abject misery for years, hoping for death.
One cause of mid-life suicide may be the fact that we now esteem youth over old-age. Not so long ago, the hardships of physical decline were partly compensated for by a society that accorded respect to its elders for their experience and wisdom, and for the sacrifices that they had made when they were younger. This is no longer the case.
In Newark, thanks for your thoughtful post. I would add that the financial stresses on mid-life folks (college for the ‘kids’, increasing job insecurity, repeated ‘down-sizing’ leading to one making less money than when one started 30 years before, the health insurance mess leaving so many in bankruptcy or close to it, now the housing crisis) is a major problem for this age group. Add that to other standard mid-life problems, such as a divorce, serious illness and the demands of caring for aging parents — I’m honestly surprised the suicide rate is not higher! It is very tough to be middle-aged in America these days.
#6 – [i] “It is very tough to be middle-aged in America these days.” [/i]
Go tell that to the pioneers.
Let’s keep a little historical perspective, please.
I think perhaps those “baby boomers” really, really, really don’t like getting old.
AP+
#7 and #8: Please stick to the thread. We were asked to comment upon the current scene, NOT history, as fascinating as it is. Plus: age 45 is well outside the Baby Boomer generation which has been so needlessly demonized. Again, please stick to the thread.
During my thirty-five years of getting paid for doing psychotherapy, I discovered that a great many of those presenting in my office with the signs and symptoms of major depression were souls without a spiritual core, basically confirming for me the occultic psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s observation. I’d go even further to say that just [i]any[/i] faith system provides neither prophylaxis nor effective treatment. The abundant life comes only through following the One who is the way, the truth and the life.
#9 Petit Chou – But #7 did thread to the stick. You said middle-agers were committing suicide because life today in America was so tough for them. My post says no, it’s much easier now than it was in the past. OK, I didn’t exactly [i] spell it out, [/i] but I thought everybody would get the meaning.
With one exception, I was right.