Why no charts showing the differences between teen boys and teen girls suicides? Your article admits that it is basically an emergency to focus help on boys and men since they are by far the most likely to suicide but instead the article focuses on the increase in girls suicide. This is an important increase but let's focus on those who are most likely to commit suicide. Why no help there?
Why no articles there? Well, because gynocentrism. A woman's pain is a call to action and a man's pain is taboo. Until people realize their own bias men and boys will continue to be ignored.
I agree it would be useful to see the age 10-19 suicide data for males and females. Not sure why it is not included.
However, their thesis has been on smartphones and social media, and their deleterious effects on the mental health of young people. They are not investigating middle age male suicides. It’s not relevant to their topic of discussion.
I actually don’t find the rumblings of the critics of their work in this example(ie prevalence of middle age suicides) to be at all relevant. Even if middle age suicides are still the highest among age deciles (which maybe it no longer is), that has no bearing on the issue of social media effects on children. The point of their work has been to show the rise in mental health issues among young people; the issues befalling middle age folk are totally unrelated.
The point to keep in mind is that men outnumber women in suicides at EVERY age group. By lots. And people prefer to talk about women and girls. It is as if people simply can't muster much compassion for men and boys. If they could they would put them at the top of their concerns.
Imagine that White people started getting more Sickle Cell Anemia, a disease that is predominated by Blacks. And people started focusing on the increase for Whites and ignoring the majority of Black victims. Any sane persons could see that that would be wrong. But most people can't see the problem in focusing on girls and suicide.
That is a very good hypothetical you raise. I agree. If whites had sudden increase in sickle cell, that doesn’t change the fact that many more blacks are affected. It would be wrong to then ignore the overall burden of sickle anemia on blacks. Yet it wouldn’t be wrong for someone to want to study what has changed for whites, since that represents the new deviation from historical norms.
Likewise here, Haidt et Al have a specific thesis about youth mental health that affects females more, but should be unrelated to middle age events. There is nothing wrong with wanting to study this new phenomenon. It doesn’t mean middle age suicides is being ignored; it simply means this isn’t their focus.
And it should be acceptable that the non-dominant cohort that suffers from any affliction can still serve as a focus of study.
Yes, I agree with what you are saying. There is nothing wrong with studying any phenomenon. In fact it is a good thing to study even the most minute sorts of things. However, one needs to step back and look at the larger picture and see if some areas are getting ignored while other areas are popular and well funded. This is what is happening in today's world. Talk to suicide researchers about what will get funded for study. Most will tell you that there is money to study women and girls but nearly nothing to study men and boys. This is a small example of a huge bias that runs in our culture that no one sees. Men's pain is taboo while women's pain is a call to action. The moral typecasting research gives us some reason to understand why this is. https://menaregood.substack.com/p/understanding-men-10-moral-typecasting
If someone decides what topic to focus on by the strategy of looking at ALL topics in society, and then choosing the unpopular ones, great, that's a novel way to live your life. Most people don't do that. Most people pick what they're interested in, and effectively no one cares about a lonely man killing himself. It just doesn't move the needle. I agree most people should focus more on that, but they won't, because no one cares. Nor do they have to, as you admit yourself. People can focus on whatever they want, whether it's basketball, or sickle cell anemia, or suicidality in young girls.
Yes, pretty much agree with you. The question that is left is what reasons might people be less interested in the pain of men? I have been teaching these ideas to mental health professionals for a long time and they are usually shocked to find their own biases. It's a good step forward to understand our inner workings. Keep in mind that the early and mid 20th century there was a strong bias against Blacks. People simply didn't care about the pain of Blacks. We called it racism and people then didn't realize their own bias not unlike what we see now with men. https://menaregood.substack.com/p/old-hate-new-victim
Jonathan and this sub stack have been regularly pointing out issues among boys and writing articles about it, you should direct your ire somewhere else.
I am surrounded by professors who bash family, white men, white people, and teach feminism as “men bad”. Add to this the anti-colonialism hoo ha, climate “crisis” and children are like locusts — what’s to live for?
Wow....you put a whole lot of evil in one reply: White Nationalism, Misogyny, hatred of advanced education, and Climate Change denial.
I see your Sub Stack has exactly five posts. You're quite the literary figure.
Well-educated, too. I'm so sorry that your education didn't work out. Maybe you should have gone to Oral Roberts. Or Liberty University. Or some other school that values its standings in the NCAA AP sportswriters' rankings over its total number of Nobel Laureates.
You certainly have a penknife to grind. And a lot of anger and fury.
Well, if you think you have nothing to live for, you can do us the favor of stop whining about things and just leave...go on to the next world. I hear it's incorruptible.
However, you're a Trumpetoon, and a troll, so...
When I encounter Trumpetoons like yourself, I ask you fun questions, like:
1. What’s cooler, OAN or Prison Planet? Prove it.
2. How do you support a President who claims he speaks for “family values” but was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women in their private parts, cheated on his three wives, and now has to fork over vast sums of money to a woman he sexually assaulted?
3. As a good Conservative Republican, what do you think of the United States abandoning democratic allies of more than a century and supporting a dictatorship run by oligarchs and a secret policeman…the heirs to “Lovable Uncle Joe Stalin?”
4. How do you reconcile the idea that liberal and Democrats are “libtards” bent on destroying this country when they defeated the Great Depression, won two World Wars, put humans on the Moon, passed the Civil Rights Act, inaugurated the eight-hour day, created Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, the FDIC, stopped Stalin in Europe, empowered women, and even eliminated the use of company scrip?
5. With your hatred of and fulminations against “Communism,” do you realize that the only places left in the world that support it are North Korea, the History Department at City College of New York, and the London School of Economics?
6. You’re opposed to crime, especially when “libtards” commit them. What about white-collar crime? Do you bribe cops to get out of speeding tickets? Do you bribe housing, fire, and health inspectors to avoid making vital repairs on your businesses? Do you serve on juries or find ways to get out of it? How do you feel when your kid is busted for stealing TVs to support his drug habit? Do you try to get him out of jail? Better yet, do you fence the hot TVs to keep him out of trouble? Do you patronize drug dealers to fuel your parties? Do you patronize prostitutes because your wife “has a headache” every night?
7. Did you actually graduate from home-school or did you get flunked for passing a note to your buddy that read, “That lady teacher sure is hot!”
8. Since you think Trump will be re-elected, if he is, will you quit your job at the manure store to take a new one in his “National Police?” If so, when you get that shiny black uniform, do you plan to saunter down the main street of your town, brandishing a bullwhip, bottle of booze, and blonde, dispensing bonhomie and bullying as you go? Will you follow that by striding into the local diner, where you will collect your “protection” from the owner, and, upon seeing the eighth-grade math teacher who failed you, having lunch, blast his head around the room?
9. When you get sick from COVID or Measles or Pneumonia, and lie there dying in hospital, will you post on your Social Media accounts telling people to get their vaccinations or just beg for "Prayer Warriors" to save you? Here's a tip...the latter won't help, and it'll be too late for the former.
10. As a firm believer in small government, rugged individualism, and no handouts, will you cash your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Federal entitlement checks, or return them to the government, to help them reduce the deficit, and pay those bills on your own?
11. When your daughter turns up “in the family way,” are you going to point that double-barrelled shotgun at the guy who did it at the wedding, or make her go on that “three-month visit to Auntie Flo” that leaves her sullen and angry when she returns – without the baby?
12. When your son tells you that he got a girl “in the family way” are you going to point that double-barrelled shotgun at him at the wedding, or make the girl go on that “three-month visit to Auntie Flo” while he is required to join the Marines (and flunk out of boot camp)?
13. Is one of the requirements to be a Trumpetoon to troll the web pages and discussion groups of your opponents – particularly those who never bother you or troll yours at all – and hurl personal insults at them?
14. When you get into arguments with people in your internet discussion groups, and the flame war turns into detailed homophobic/homo-erotic statements, aren’t you really inviting that guy to join you for some “down-low” action at the Boom-Boom Motel for the WHOLE hour? (or maybe more if you’re both trying to do it)
15. If you are a would-be heterosexual, who have you been dating since your wife took the kids and fled after she got tired of you beating her? The stripper at the “gentleman’s club?” “Nut Gobbler” at the Boom-Boom Motel, hoping she doesn’t steal your wallet when you stiff her the wrong way? The girl with the webcam? Miss Polly Urethane?
16. In his campaign speeches, Trump denounces Biden as “Sleepy Joe.” But Trump keeps falling asleep during his trial, snoring and flatulating in front of the judge and his lawyers. What do you think about that?
17. After you receive “professional services” from your gay hooker in your car, do you prove to them that you’re really “straight” by beating them senseless and taking back the money you paid them?
18. I'm an eight-year Navy veteran. Tell me again how many years of service you have in any of the organizations that defend America's freedom: the Armed forces, any police, fire, or first response agency, or as a trailer-truck driver. Why are trailer truck drivers the ultimate defenders of American freedom?
19. One more thing...the Bloated Yam contested the election in 59 -- COUNT 'EM, FIFTY-NINE -- lawsuits, some led by the “Kraken,” Sid Powell, who later apologized for her lies in those cases. HE LOST EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. That includes the ones where Rudy Giuliani, "the racket-busting DA," dripping hair dye and all, pleaded his case. HE LOST EVERY SINGLE ONE. Tell me again the definition of insanity. Oh, wait. You don't know it. It's "doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting a different result each time and never getting it."
Notice that I am not blocking you. FILL THE ROOM WITH YOUR BRILLIANCE. FERTILIZE THE WORLD FROM THE TRUCK-GARDEN OF YOUR MIND!
Yikes, what a bigot you are! Instead of trotting out your anti-conservative caricatures maybe you should try and understand why some people think differently than you.
When people come over here and rudely call me stupid, a Marxist, hurl obscenities, and in your case, a "bigot," and ad hominem attacks....not only are they caricatures...
They are NOT. WORTH. A. RESPECTFUL. RESPONSE.
And since you have already read what I was going to send to you, I'm not going to bother to repeat myself.
I will ask this: what do you REALLY THINK about Jews....blacks...Latinos...Muslims...gays...women...
In a coherent, intelligent manner, to, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "place before mankind the common sense of the subject in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent?"
You should be FAR. MORE. CAPABLE. OF. DOING. SO. THAN. ME.
This trend requires more nuance. Here are the first and second leading age groups by suicide rate over the last six years:
2018: 55-59, 50-54
2019: 55-59, 45-49
2020: 30-34, 25-29
2021: 25-29, 20-24
2022: 50-54, 30-34*
2023: 55-59, 35-39*
*Suicide totals for 2022 are preliminary and appear 99%+ complete; totals for 2023 are preliminary and appear 98%+ complete. They may change, but probably not radically. (Source: CDC)
Unless some radical anomaly occurs in finalizing 2023-24 numbers, suicide rates appear to be returning to middle-aged high risk. However, age 30-39, older Millennials born 1980-1993 may be becoming a second node, for reasons unknown. For now, it appears that COVID may well have brought a spike in 20-29 suicides, not a long-term mental health trend.
Suicide is the main officially-determined form of self-destructive death, but there is another, larger one that also is self-inflicted and involves self-destructive behavior: overdose of non-prescribed drugs and of alcohol. Here is the same trend for the two leading age groups for overdose death rates:
2018: 35-39, 30-34
2019: 35-39, 30-34
2020: 35-39, 30-34
2021: 35-39, 40-44
2022: 35-39, 40-44
2023: 40-44, 35-39
Again, provisional 2022-23 figures will change when finalized, though probably not much. The above immediate overdose deaths exclude use of legally prescribed drugs, drug suicides, and deaths from long-term drug/alcohol abuse.
There are some good indications that both the suicide and overdose rates declined among the teenage and 20-age populations but rose substantially for the 30-age, 40-age, and 50-age groups after 2021. So, we might want to hold off declaring that young ages are taking over the self-destructive categories until we have better, longer-term data.
I look at what’s happening at elite universities and have a hard time believing the problems with young people are caused by smart phones. Smart phones are just equipment. This has always been about the content the smart phones deliver.
Hate to say this but the religion of Capitalism has finally got to our youth. Its creed of profits over people has been eating away at our social fabric for decades.
10 - 19 year olds don't have much of an idea of capitalism. Most younger adults don't either since they're dependent on parents. It's the hedonistic, anti-God, doomsday around every corner.
And *that* is the magic of secular capitalism. It gets to you before you can even spell your name. By the time you hear of the concepts it is too late, unless ofcpurse you also have a counter education as you are being raised.
I'd say the absence of traditional religion, that reminds a person that their worth is not based on their status, is a greater cause. That and family breakdown.
Europe is not as steeped in consumerism as we are here. But they have other issues. The youth there are also not alright. Though I am not privy to the suicide rates there, suicide is not the only metric of measuring mental wellbeing.
I don't claim to know the reasons for the increase in suicides, though I think our culture is in the dumper.
I did read a great article today from a Substacker who says that he was suicidal as a child because he felt he had no value because his father had abandoned the family. Forgive me if you are the person I already recommended this to:
I do think if one doesn't believe in a God one might be more prone to despair, because you are here for a while and then you disappear, and none of it seems to mean anything.
Very valuable work. One point I might add to illuminate this. Intervention in the UK with young women and girls focuses on managing self harmers on the basis this is somewhat predictive of suicide. The interventions (eg CBT) are calibrated based on success in managing the progression from self harm to suicide. What this completely ignores is boys and young men who do not typically show this progression as they are less likely to self harm in ways that are recognised as self harm. This places them totally outside the dataset. (An unusual case of standardised health responses being ineffective for males, when usually it's the other way round.) I would expect this intervention model and its statistical basis (approved by the UK's NICE) is used or referenced widely outside of the UK.
The data shows a very interesting but worrying trend. When are you going to add the data for 2022, which is now available on the WISQARS fatal injury database?
Doesn’t this counter the social media argument though, as from what I’ve seen you and Jon have been saying social media is primarily hurting young girls. If young boys have a higher spike in suicides, could it be a different issue causing this that is also causing the spike in girls, and it’s not social media which effects girls more but something that effects boys more?
you attribute the decrease in 40-49 and 50-59 suicides to covid, but it looks like it starts before covid. in like ~2018. it looks like it starts to decrease at about the same time 30-39 and 20-29 starts to increase.
if the general consensus is the increase in suicides is content/media/app content consumed + the phone as a delivery device, is there anything that currently exists that tracks the types of media/app/content that is being consumed on phones by the different age groups over the years?
or is your thought that is only relevant to younger girls?
Thank you Jean, for this and all your other work..
And it’s great to see the recognition that men and boys account for the vast majority of suicides. This is barely ever mentioned in the media. And this massive rise in the rates for younger men is truly shocking – but sadly not surprising. It shows the impact of societal attitudes towards men, which these young men have been ingesting in school and in the media their entire lives.
What is the message that has been pounded into them? That they, especially white cis men, are the cause of all the evil and oppression that exists in the world. So who would want to become one of those evil perpetrators?
What makes things worse, is that despite the fact that the vast majority of, not only suicide, but also incarceration, addiction and homelessness are borne by men, those men and their issues continue to be ignored by the political elite of the country and the political system as a whole.
When was the last time we had a discussion of a political issue that was specific to men the way reproductive rights, sexual abuse and assault, and pay equity, are specific to women – or affirmative action to women, people of color and the LGBT+ community.
Our identity politics centers around everyone EXCEPT men, especially white working-class men. And that is why Trump is likely to win another election.
It isn’t as though Trump is going to actually do anything for them. But there is one thing they can count on from him. And it’s one of the few rational aspects of Trump’s appeal to working-class men – he does not demonize them by calling them the root of all evil and oppression in the world. Plus he tends to bash those groups and individuals who do demonize them, like academia, the media and the Hollywood elite.
So maybe if the Democrats spent a little time trying to reach those men, they might be able to defeat Donald Trump – and save a few precious young lives in the process.
I don't understand what you're asking. Are you saying that you do not think that men are described as the root of all evil? Or is it that this idea has been ingested?
Loneliness might well be a huge factor. Maybe family breakdown and father absence plays in. Anti male attitudes might have a part as well.
Here's a link to a great post on this very topic, quite elegant, that I read today on Adam Coleman's substack. A quick read but quite relevant to this topic.
You’re right, there are so many reasons why so many boys would commit suicide, it is hard to know which one might be the main proximate cause. Because these boys are forced to spend their days being inundated with words and images that portray them as being stupid, misogynistic, violent, and generally repulsive. They then look to the identity politics that is so highly regarded by the world around them, and see that are they generally ignored – except when being blamed for ever problem of every demographic group that does have standing. So where are they supposed to turn for an escape?
That is why so many turn to drugs and video games and toxic social media and Donald Trump – and finally suicide.
I'm curious about why the two older decade cohorts - for both sexes and for men - decisively drop after 2019 in contrast to the other cohorts. Why? Seems counter-intuitive.
On the male-female suicide question: Yes, male suicides have always been significantly higher, in every age group. However, female suicide *attempts* have traditionally been higher than for males.
Men and boys are far more likely to use lethal means (guns especially). There could be more than one reason for this: first, males have much more ready access to guns. And there's a behavioral difference (caused in part by testosterone?) that we call "decisive" when we approve of it, and "impulsive" when we don't. The above is definitely true for teens and young adults -- I think it also goes for older age groups although I am not sure.
So it's not necessarily true that society values women more, or cares more about their pain, while regarding men as disposable. I mean, given all the preferences shown to males throughout history, how could that make sense? I do think that men and boys are trained not to admit weakness or call for help -- the stigma against that could be a real factor.
Suicide has now returned to being a middle-aged crisis. The newest CDC figures show claims that young people are now the primary suicide problem due to long-term mental health troubles appear baseless.
Suicide rates in 2022 and 2023 for ages 50-59 are 10% higher, and total self-inflicted suicide and overdose death rates 57% higher, than for age 20-29, the CDC now reports.
The CDC lists no more deaths in 2022 (out of 3,275,928 tabulated and reported) and only 53,117 deaths (less than 2% out of 3,088,494 reported) in 2023 remaining to be added. Totals will change slightly as a few more deaths from slow-reporting jurisdictions are added and provisional counts become final counts, but not nearly enough to shift the order of entire age groups.
The temporary 2020-21 spike in age 20-29 suicides coinciding with the COVID pandemic abated in 2022 as middle-aged suicides rose and appears to have continued to fall in 2023. That doesn’t mean these sub-trends should be ignored. Scientists should examine how pandemic stresses boosted young-age suicidality and post-pandemic factors increased middle-aged suicide.
Overall, as Gen Z grew up from 2000 through 2022, self-inflicted suicide/overdose deaths rose 68% faster among ages 50-59 (up 54.0 annual deaths per 100,000 population) than ages 20-29 (32.1). Among both age groups, self-inflicted death rates have risen faster to higher levels among low-education and conservative-state populations. Fixation only on social media and young people is obscuring these far larger trends.
I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's speech at Penn about suicide due to CTE among college students. He lamented the tendency for both individuals and institutions to continue to refuse to even consider change under the perpetual demand for "more evidence". However no one can say what threshold of proof needs to be met to even talk about what change is necessary. It is necessary to start pushing back on leaders and lawmakers to define what that threshold is to initiate action. Need more proof? What is the maximum suicide rate we will tolerate? How many young lives are expendable and what happens when we reach n+1?
Why no charts showing the differences between teen boys and teen girls suicides? Your article admits that it is basically an emergency to focus help on boys and men since they are by far the most likely to suicide but instead the article focuses on the increase in girls suicide. This is an important increase but let's focus on those who are most likely to commit suicide. Why no help there?
Why no articles there? Well, because gynocentrism. A woman's pain is a call to action and a man's pain is taboo. Until people realize their own bias men and boys will continue to be ignored.
I agree it would be useful to see the age 10-19 suicide data for males and females. Not sure why it is not included.
However, their thesis has been on smartphones and social media, and their deleterious effects on the mental health of young people. They are not investigating middle age male suicides. It’s not relevant to their topic of discussion.
I actually don’t find the rumblings of the critics of their work in this example(ie prevalence of middle age suicides) to be at all relevant. Even if middle age suicides are still the highest among age deciles (which maybe it no longer is), that has no bearing on the issue of social media effects on children. The point of their work has been to show the rise in mental health issues among young people; the issues befalling middle age folk are totally unrelated.
The point to keep in mind is that men outnumber women in suicides at EVERY age group. By lots. And people prefer to talk about women and girls. It is as if people simply can't muster much compassion for men and boys. If they could they would put them at the top of their concerns.
Imagine that White people started getting more Sickle Cell Anemia, a disease that is predominated by Blacks. And people started focusing on the increase for Whites and ignoring the majority of Black victims. Any sane persons could see that that would be wrong. But most people can't see the problem in focusing on girls and suicide.
I did a video a while back on male suicide if you are interested: https://menaregood.substack.com/publish/post/138421185
That is a very good hypothetical you raise. I agree. If whites had sudden increase in sickle cell, that doesn’t change the fact that many more blacks are affected. It would be wrong to then ignore the overall burden of sickle anemia on blacks. Yet it wouldn’t be wrong for someone to want to study what has changed for whites, since that represents the new deviation from historical norms.
Likewise here, Haidt et Al have a specific thesis about youth mental health that affects females more, but should be unrelated to middle age events. There is nothing wrong with wanting to study this new phenomenon. It doesn’t mean middle age suicides is being ignored; it simply means this isn’t their focus.
And it should be acceptable that the non-dominant cohort that suffers from any affliction can still serve as a focus of study.
Yes, I agree with what you are saying. There is nothing wrong with studying any phenomenon. In fact it is a good thing to study even the most minute sorts of things. However, one needs to step back and look at the larger picture and see if some areas are getting ignored while other areas are popular and well funded. This is what is happening in today's world. Talk to suicide researchers about what will get funded for study. Most will tell you that there is money to study women and girls but nearly nothing to study men and boys. This is a small example of a huge bias that runs in our culture that no one sees. Men's pain is taboo while women's pain is a call to action. The moral typecasting research gives us some reason to understand why this is. https://menaregood.substack.com/p/understanding-men-10-moral-typecasting
If someone decides what topic to focus on by the strategy of looking at ALL topics in society, and then choosing the unpopular ones, great, that's a novel way to live your life. Most people don't do that. Most people pick what they're interested in, and effectively no one cares about a lonely man killing himself. It just doesn't move the needle. I agree most people should focus more on that, but they won't, because no one cares. Nor do they have to, as you admit yourself. People can focus on whatever they want, whether it's basketball, or sickle cell anemia, or suicidality in young girls.
Yes, pretty much agree with you. The question that is left is what reasons might people be less interested in the pain of men? I have been teaching these ideas to mental health professionals for a long time and they are usually shocked to find their own biases. It's a good step forward to understand our inner workings. Keep in mind that the early and mid 20th century there was a strong bias against Blacks. People simply didn't care about the pain of Blacks. We called it racism and people then didn't realize their own bias not unlike what we see now with men. https://menaregood.substack.com/p/old-hate-new-victim
Jonathan and this sub stack have been regularly pointing out issues among boys and writing articles about it, you should direct your ire somewhere else.
They look at the world we're in and find it difficult to find things to live for.
My daughter doesn't even want to have a child.
They are also being told this by their malevolent teachers.
Could you explain this?
What do you mean, "Malevolent teachers?"
I am surrounded by professors who bash family, white men, white people, and teach feminism as “men bad”. Add to this the anti-colonialism hoo ha, climate “crisis” and children are like locusts — what’s to live for?
Wow....you put a whole lot of evil in one reply: White Nationalism, Misogyny, hatred of advanced education, and Climate Change denial.
I see your Sub Stack has exactly five posts. You're quite the literary figure.
Well-educated, too. I'm so sorry that your education didn't work out. Maybe you should have gone to Oral Roberts. Or Liberty University. Or some other school that values its standings in the NCAA AP sportswriters' rankings over its total number of Nobel Laureates.
You certainly have a penknife to grind. And a lot of anger and fury.
Well, if you think you have nothing to live for, you can do us the favor of stop whining about things and just leave...go on to the next world. I hear it's incorruptible.
However, you're a Trumpetoon, and a troll, so...
When I encounter Trumpetoons like yourself, I ask you fun questions, like:
1. What’s cooler, OAN or Prison Planet? Prove it.
2. How do you support a President who claims he speaks for “family values” but was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women in their private parts, cheated on his three wives, and now has to fork over vast sums of money to a woman he sexually assaulted?
3. As a good Conservative Republican, what do you think of the United States abandoning democratic allies of more than a century and supporting a dictatorship run by oligarchs and a secret policeman…the heirs to “Lovable Uncle Joe Stalin?”
4. How do you reconcile the idea that liberal and Democrats are “libtards” bent on destroying this country when they defeated the Great Depression, won two World Wars, put humans on the Moon, passed the Civil Rights Act, inaugurated the eight-hour day, created Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, the FDIC, stopped Stalin in Europe, empowered women, and even eliminated the use of company scrip?
5. With your hatred of and fulminations against “Communism,” do you realize that the only places left in the world that support it are North Korea, the History Department at City College of New York, and the London School of Economics?
6. You’re opposed to crime, especially when “libtards” commit them. What about white-collar crime? Do you bribe cops to get out of speeding tickets? Do you bribe housing, fire, and health inspectors to avoid making vital repairs on your businesses? Do you serve on juries or find ways to get out of it? How do you feel when your kid is busted for stealing TVs to support his drug habit? Do you try to get him out of jail? Better yet, do you fence the hot TVs to keep him out of trouble? Do you patronize drug dealers to fuel your parties? Do you patronize prostitutes because your wife “has a headache” every night?
7. Did you actually graduate from home-school or did you get flunked for passing a note to your buddy that read, “That lady teacher sure is hot!”
8. Since you think Trump will be re-elected, if he is, will you quit your job at the manure store to take a new one in his “National Police?” If so, when you get that shiny black uniform, do you plan to saunter down the main street of your town, brandishing a bullwhip, bottle of booze, and blonde, dispensing bonhomie and bullying as you go? Will you follow that by striding into the local diner, where you will collect your “protection” from the owner, and, upon seeing the eighth-grade math teacher who failed you, having lunch, blast his head around the room?
9. When you get sick from COVID or Measles or Pneumonia, and lie there dying in hospital, will you post on your Social Media accounts telling people to get their vaccinations or just beg for "Prayer Warriors" to save you? Here's a tip...the latter won't help, and it'll be too late for the former.
10. As a firm believer in small government, rugged individualism, and no handouts, will you cash your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Federal entitlement checks, or return them to the government, to help them reduce the deficit, and pay those bills on your own?
11. When your daughter turns up “in the family way,” are you going to point that double-barrelled shotgun at the guy who did it at the wedding, or make her go on that “three-month visit to Auntie Flo” that leaves her sullen and angry when she returns – without the baby?
12. When your son tells you that he got a girl “in the family way” are you going to point that double-barrelled shotgun at him at the wedding, or make the girl go on that “three-month visit to Auntie Flo” while he is required to join the Marines (and flunk out of boot camp)?
13. Is one of the requirements to be a Trumpetoon to troll the web pages and discussion groups of your opponents – particularly those who never bother you or troll yours at all – and hurl personal insults at them?
14. When you get into arguments with people in your internet discussion groups, and the flame war turns into detailed homophobic/homo-erotic statements, aren’t you really inviting that guy to join you for some “down-low” action at the Boom-Boom Motel for the WHOLE hour? (or maybe more if you’re both trying to do it)
15. If you are a would-be heterosexual, who have you been dating since your wife took the kids and fled after she got tired of you beating her? The stripper at the “gentleman’s club?” “Nut Gobbler” at the Boom-Boom Motel, hoping she doesn’t steal your wallet when you stiff her the wrong way? The girl with the webcam? Miss Polly Urethane?
16. In his campaign speeches, Trump denounces Biden as “Sleepy Joe.” But Trump keeps falling asleep during his trial, snoring and flatulating in front of the judge and his lawyers. What do you think about that?
17. After you receive “professional services” from your gay hooker in your car, do you prove to them that you’re really “straight” by beating them senseless and taking back the money you paid them?
18. I'm an eight-year Navy veteran. Tell me again how many years of service you have in any of the organizations that defend America's freedom: the Armed forces, any police, fire, or first response agency, or as a trailer-truck driver. Why are trailer truck drivers the ultimate defenders of American freedom?
19. One more thing...the Bloated Yam contested the election in 59 -- COUNT 'EM, FIFTY-NINE -- lawsuits, some led by the “Kraken,” Sid Powell, who later apologized for her lies in those cases. HE LOST EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. That includes the ones where Rudy Giuliani, "the racket-busting DA," dripping hair dye and all, pleaded his case. HE LOST EVERY SINGLE ONE. Tell me again the definition of insanity. Oh, wait. You don't know it. It's "doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting a different result each time and never getting it."
Notice that I am not blocking you. FILL THE ROOM WITH YOUR BRILLIANCE. FERTILIZE THE WORLD FROM THE TRUCK-GARDEN OF YOUR MIND!
Yikes, what a bigot you are! Instead of trotting out your anti-conservative caricatures maybe you should try and understand why some people think differently than you.
Know you won't, though.
When people come over here and rudely call me stupid, a Marxist, hurl obscenities, and in your case, a "bigot," and ad hominem attacks....not only are they caricatures...
They are NOT. WORTH. A. RESPECTFUL. RESPONSE.
And since you have already read what I was going to send to you, I'm not going to bother to repeat myself.
I will ask this: what do you REALLY THINK about Jews....blacks...Latinos...Muslims...gays...women...
Oh, and notice...I'm not blocking you.
I also see that you haven't posted anything.
Why don't you stand up and SHARE. YOUR. THINKING.
In a coherent, intelligent manner, to, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "place before mankind the common sense of the subject in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent?"
You should be FAR. MORE. CAPABLE. OF. DOING. SO. THAN. ME.
This trend requires more nuance. Here are the first and second leading age groups by suicide rate over the last six years:
2018: 55-59, 50-54
2019: 55-59, 45-49
2020: 30-34, 25-29
2021: 25-29, 20-24
2022: 50-54, 30-34*
2023: 55-59, 35-39*
*Suicide totals for 2022 are preliminary and appear 99%+ complete; totals for 2023 are preliminary and appear 98%+ complete. They may change, but probably not radically. (Source: CDC)
Unless some radical anomaly occurs in finalizing 2023-24 numbers, suicide rates appear to be returning to middle-aged high risk. However, age 30-39, older Millennials born 1980-1993 may be becoming a second node, for reasons unknown. For now, it appears that COVID may well have brought a spike in 20-29 suicides, not a long-term mental health trend.
Suicide is the main officially-determined form of self-destructive death, but there is another, larger one that also is self-inflicted and involves self-destructive behavior: overdose of non-prescribed drugs and of alcohol. Here is the same trend for the two leading age groups for overdose death rates:
2018: 35-39, 30-34
2019: 35-39, 30-34
2020: 35-39, 30-34
2021: 35-39, 40-44
2022: 35-39, 40-44
2023: 40-44, 35-39
Again, provisional 2022-23 figures will change when finalized, though probably not much. The above immediate overdose deaths exclude use of legally prescribed drugs, drug suicides, and deaths from long-term drug/alcohol abuse.
There are some good indications that both the suicide and overdose rates declined among the teenage and 20-age populations but rose substantially for the 30-age, 40-age, and 50-age groups after 2021. So, we might want to hold off declaring that young ages are taking over the self-destructive categories until we have better, longer-term data.
Well-said as usual, Mike.
I look at what’s happening at elite universities and have a hard time believing the problems with young people are caused by smart phones. Smart phones are just equipment. This has always been about the content the smart phones deliver.
Hate to say this but the religion of Capitalism has finally got to our youth. Its creed of profits over people has been eating away at our social fabric for decades.
10 - 19 year olds don't have much of an idea of capitalism. Most younger adults don't either since they're dependent on parents. It's the hedonistic, anti-God, doomsday around every corner.
And *that* is the magic of secular capitalism. It gets to you before you can even spell your name. By the time you hear of the concepts it is too late, unless ofcpurse you also have a counter education as you are being raised.
Most can spell their name by the time they're 6. And it's "crony capitalism" that you're thinking of for the US.
I know what I am thinking of, thank you :)
I'd say the absence of traditional religion, that reminds a person that their worth is not based on their status, is a greater cause. That and family breakdown.
Agreed, and it’s all intertwined. Secularist Capitalism.
Europe is not as steeped in consumerism as we are here. But they have other issues. The youth there are also not alright. Though I am not privy to the suicide rates there, suicide is not the only metric of measuring mental wellbeing.
Good question.
I don't claim to know the reasons for the increase in suicides, though I think our culture is in the dumper.
I did read a great article today from a Substacker who says that he was suicidal as a child because he felt he had no value because his father had abandoned the family. Forgive me if you are the person I already recommended this to:
https://www.adambcoleman.com/p/why-i-wanted-to-kill-myself-and-why
I do think if one doesn't believe in a God one might be more prone to despair, because you are here for a while and then you disappear, and none of it seems to mean anything.
Very valuable work. One point I might add to illuminate this. Intervention in the UK with young women and girls focuses on managing self harmers on the basis this is somewhat predictive of suicide. The interventions (eg CBT) are calibrated based on success in managing the progression from self harm to suicide. What this completely ignores is boys and young men who do not typically show this progression as they are less likely to self harm in ways that are recognised as self harm. This places them totally outside the dataset. (An unusual case of standardised health responses being ineffective for males, when usually it's the other way round.) I would expect this intervention model and its statistical basis (approved by the UK's NICE) is used or referenced widely outside of the UK.
Is anyone also considering the primary harm caused by wireless radiation?
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/techmyth
Thank you Jean for all the work you do.
The data shows a very interesting but worrying trend. When are you going to add the data for 2022, which is now available on the WISQARS fatal injury database?
Doesn’t this counter the social media argument though, as from what I’ve seen you and Jon have been saying social media is primarily hurting young girls. If young boys have a higher spike in suicides, could it be a different issue causing this that is also causing the spike in girls, and it’s not social media which effects girls more but something that effects boys more?
you attribute the decrease in 40-49 and 50-59 suicides to covid, but it looks like it starts before covid. in like ~2018. it looks like it starts to decrease at about the same time 30-39 and 20-29 starts to increase.
if the general consensus is the increase in suicides is content/media/app content consumed + the phone as a delivery device, is there anything that currently exists that tracks the types of media/app/content that is being consumed on phones by the different age groups over the years?
or is your thought that is only relevant to younger girls?
Thank you Jean, for this and all your other work..
And it’s great to see the recognition that men and boys account for the vast majority of suicides. This is barely ever mentioned in the media. And this massive rise in the rates for younger men is truly shocking – but sadly not surprising. It shows the impact of societal attitudes towards men, which these young men have been ingesting in school and in the media their entire lives.
What is the message that has been pounded into them? That they, especially white cis men, are the cause of all the evil and oppression that exists in the world. So who would want to become one of those evil perpetrators?
What makes things worse, is that despite the fact that the vast majority of, not only suicide, but also incarceration, addiction and homelessness are borne by men, those men and their issues continue to be ignored by the political elite of the country and the political system as a whole.
When was the last time we had a discussion of a political issue that was specific to men the way reproductive rights, sexual abuse and assault, and pay equity, are specific to women – or affirmative action to women, people of color and the LGBT+ community.
Our identity politics centers around everyone EXCEPT men, especially white working-class men. And that is why Trump is likely to win another election.
It isn’t as though Trump is going to actually do anything for them. But there is one thing they can count on from him. And it’s one of the few rational aspects of Trump’s appeal to working-class men – he does not demonize them by calling them the root of all evil and oppression in the world. Plus he tends to bash those groups and individuals who do demonize them, like academia, the media and the Hollywood elite.
So maybe if the Democrats spent a little time trying to reach those men, they might be able to defeat Donald Trump – and save a few precious young lives in the process.
I don't understand what you're asking. Are you saying that you do not think that men are described as the root of all evil? Or is it that this idea has been ingested?
Loneliness might well be a huge factor. Maybe family breakdown and father absence plays in. Anti male attitudes might have a part as well.
Here's a link to a great post on this very topic, quite elegant, that I read today on Adam Coleman's substack. A quick read but quite relevant to this topic.
https://www.adambcoleman.com/p/why-i-wanted-to-kill-myself-and-why
You’re right, there are so many reasons why so many boys would commit suicide, it is hard to know which one might be the main proximate cause. Because these boys are forced to spend their days being inundated with words and images that portray them as being stupid, misogynistic, violent, and generally repulsive. They then look to the identity politics that is so highly regarded by the world around them, and see that are they generally ignored – except when being blamed for ever problem of every demographic group that does have standing. So where are they supposed to turn for an escape?
That is why so many turn to drugs and video games and toxic social media and Donald Trump – and finally suicide.
I'm curious about why the two older decade cohorts - for both sexes and for men - decisively drop after 2019 in contrast to the other cohorts. Why? Seems counter-intuitive.
Thank you - I think the most important eplanation for the decrease of the suicide rate during COVID is missed in the article: in crises time, like WWII, suicide rates plumme, indeed likely due to a greater social cohesion https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296539307_Suicide_rates_before_during_and_after_the_world_wars
On the male-female suicide question: Yes, male suicides have always been significantly higher, in every age group. However, female suicide *attempts* have traditionally been higher than for males.
Men and boys are far more likely to use lethal means (guns especially). There could be more than one reason for this: first, males have much more ready access to guns. And there's a behavioral difference (caused in part by testosterone?) that we call "decisive" when we approve of it, and "impulsive" when we don't. The above is definitely true for teens and young adults -- I think it also goes for older age groups although I am not sure.
So it's not necessarily true that society values women more, or cares more about their pain, while regarding men as disposable. I mean, given all the preferences shown to males throughout history, how could that make sense? I do think that men and boys are trained not to admit weakness or call for help -- the stigma against that could be a real factor.
Suicide has now returned to being a middle-aged crisis. The newest CDC figures show claims that young people are now the primary suicide problem due to long-term mental health troubles appear baseless.
Suicide rates in 2022 and 2023 for ages 50-59 are 10% higher, and total self-inflicted suicide and overdose death rates 57% higher, than for age 20-29, the CDC now reports.
The CDC lists no more deaths in 2022 (out of 3,275,928 tabulated and reported) and only 53,117 deaths (less than 2% out of 3,088,494 reported) in 2023 remaining to be added. Totals will change slightly as a few more deaths from slow-reporting jurisdictions are added and provisional counts become final counts, but not nearly enough to shift the order of entire age groups.
The temporary 2020-21 spike in age 20-29 suicides coinciding with the COVID pandemic abated in 2022 as middle-aged suicides rose and appears to have continued to fall in 2023. That doesn’t mean these sub-trends should be ignored. Scientists should examine how pandemic stresses boosted young-age suicidality and post-pandemic factors increased middle-aged suicide.
Overall, as Gen Z grew up from 2000 through 2022, self-inflicted suicide/overdose deaths rose 68% faster among ages 50-59 (up 54.0 annual deaths per 100,000 population) than ages 20-29 (32.1). Among both age groups, self-inflicted death rates have risen faster to higher levels among low-education and conservative-state populations. Fixation only on social media and young people is obscuring these far larger trends.
I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's speech at Penn about suicide due to CTE among college students. He lamented the tendency for both individuals and institutions to continue to refuse to even consider change under the perpetual demand for "more evidence". However no one can say what threshold of proof needs to be met to even talk about what change is necessary. It is necessary to start pushing back on leaders and lawmakers to define what that threshold is to initiate action. Need more proof? What is the maximum suicide rate we will tolerate? How many young lives are expendable and what happens when we reach n+1?