CDC and suicide spike

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The Center for Disease Control reported that since 1999, suicide in the United States has increased by 25%. They are blaming it on a variety of things, more access to guns, spike in Veterans committing suicide, economic factors, among others.
Anyone want to weigh in on Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae and its emphasis on a contraceptive mentality that would increase broken homes, children raised in one family homes, the increase of elderly with no family, and other social factors.
A good article in a recent edition of the magazine “First Things” called “Prophetic Humanae Vitae” seems to hit the nail on the head.
Anyone agree???
 
the world changed with 9/11 and then we had the Great Recession (real estate recession, high unemployment, loss of jobs and homes), the breakdown of the family. our nation has been through 17 years of trauma. church attendance is down. our world is topsy turvy. people need hope.
 
Drugs might provide additional clues. There has been an explosion of drug use in the last couple of decades, and they’re involved in a lot of suicides.
 
yes, you are right. the opiod drug abuse is responsible for many deaths. are they classified as suicides though?
 
Wish you had included an article link, with some reference data.

Can’t see how gun availability is relevant and suddenly increased in 1999.
That explanation sounds like liberal pandering.

The economy was also good in 1999, if I recall.
 
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7_Sorrows said:
yes, you are right. the opiod drug abuse is responsible for many deaths. are they classified as suicides though?
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I think those who kill themselves by other means but whose suicide was drug-induced would be. Probably some suicides by drug overdose are considered suicides, but probably many are not.
 
Atheism is becoming increasingly popular, as well as nihilism. Nihilism breeds hopelessness. People say depression is a first world problem and they’re right. When we becoming privileged, materialistic, nihilistic, pleasure seeking beings, depression sky rockets as well as suicide. When we accept suffering and take on responsibility, we become much more hopeful. When we strive with a goal in mind, we are given some sort of meaning.

Environmental factors can trigger it, but at the heart of it, it’s a philosophical issue.
 
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I have said this before, but I’ll say it again. I highly recommend a book entitled “City of Joy”. It’s about the slums of Calcutta. While it’s largely fictional, it’s based on the actual experiences of a doctor who served there for some time.

The conditions people lived in were just horrific and the poverty was nigh onto unimaginable. But the suicides were almost nonexistent, and the people had a joyful, hopeful way about them despite the misery.
 
misstherese said:
Environmental factors can trigger it, but at the heart of it, it’s a philosophical issue.
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There are undoubtedly a lot of reasons why our birth rate is now below replacement. In some parts of the first world, it’s catastrophically low. One can think of a number of reasons, but one thing always sticks in my mind. Children are a sign of hope. One has them if one has hope for their future and, of course, salvation looms larger than anything in that.

Do people have no children or only one or two because they really don’t believe in the future anymore? One has to wonder.
 
Can you explain why you believe atheism and nihilism are the same thing?
 
Ridgerunner said:
Do people have no children or only one or two because they really don’t believe in the future anymore? One has to wonder.
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Maybe. I think it also has to do with laziness. Having some sort of responsibility, or vocation gives a sense of meaning to life. Marrying and then purposely having no kids is a way to ignore that vocation or responsibility and could even lead to nihilistic thinking.
 
Theo520 said:
Wish you had included an article link, with some reference data.

Can’t see how gun availability is relevant and suddenly increased in 1999.

The economy was also good in 1999, if I recall.
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The 1999 starting point was just an arbitrary starting point. I don’t think there is any intention to attribute the rise in suicide to anything that “suddenly” happened in 1999. The period stated, 1999-present covers 19 years. Many things happened during those 19 years, some of which have been stated here. Regarding guns, the percentage of households with guns actually decreased over that period, but the number of guns per person increased. I tend to agree with nothing changed on that score to explain more suicides. There enough guns so that anyone who wants to kill himself can easily find one. Small changes in the gun ownership stats likely have no affect on the suicide rate. If there is an effect, I doubt that it is linear.
 
I think the rise of the prosperity gospel also part of the problem. People are not being taught that suffering is part of life. Piper is not Catholic but I think this is a good explanation. The message is nowadays that Jesus suffered so we can always be ‘happy’. Then when people are not ‘happy’ they have no concept of how to handle it:

 
yes, Catholics have been taught from the cradle how to suffer through with their Catholic guilt,
good prep for a bought with depression.
 
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