NPR: Isolated And Struggling, Many Seniors Are Turning To Suicide

[Cooked Crack]

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Across the country, suicide rates have been on the rise, and that rise has struck the nation's seniors particularly hard. Of the more than 47,000 suicides that took place in 2017, those 65 and up accounted for more than 8,500 of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men who are 65 and older face the highest risk of suicide, while adults 85 and older, regardless of gender, are the second most likely age group to die from suicide.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 47.8 million people over the age of 65 in the U.S. as of 2015. By 2060, that number is projected to reach 98.2 million.

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That concerns mental health experts like Dr. Jerry Reed, who manages suicide, violence and injury prevention at the nonprofit Education Development Center.

"It's likely that if we have a problem now, we may very well have a problem in the future if we don't pay attention," says Reed.

What's particularly worrying, say experts like Reed, is that when seniors attempt suicide, they are far more likely to die than those who are younger.

Research has found that one out of four senior citizens that attempt suicide dies, compared to one out of 200 attempts for young adults. While the precise reasons for these figures remain unclear, experts suggest seniors are frailer and thus more vulnerable to self-inflicted injury. They can also be more isolated, which makes rescues more difficult, and perhaps even plan their attempts more carefully.

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There are myriad reasons that elderly adults are more susceptible to the nation's 10^th leading cause of death.

One of the most prevalent is loneliness. Older adults often live in isolation and may be struggling with the death of a lifelong husband or wife, or with the grief of losing other close family or friends.

 

[PleaseBlitz]

I think I'll call my mom.....

[TheGoodBits]

I used faceapp to see what I was gonna look like in 40 years. I get it. 

[Springfield]

So, at 37, I hope to live a long and fruitful life.  80-90 would be nice.  I fear death.  I have two young kids, perhaps one day we will try for a girl (and get a third boy).  I still have both of my parents but my wife has neither.  Her father died in a murder/suicide and her mom died tragically due to complications from Parkinson’s.  I have many aunts and uncles who are getting long in the tooth, just found out that one uncle has brain cancer that will likely take him.

 

I guess what I’m saying is that:  The older you get the more you have to watch those around you succumb to the ills of life.  You see people die of accident, drug addiction or freak diseases.  Ultimately, you may be the last of your generation if you live long enough.  You’re lucky if you spawn a family that cares for you.  Kids who can care for you when your end is near.

 

I think about death a lot.  I fear death, but I also fear dying alone.

[Larry]

I don't think I fear death.  

 

I fear nursing homes.  

[LadySkinsFan]

I don't fear death. Like Larry, I don't want to live in a nursing home. When I am no longer able to live independently, I'll consider my options.

 

Edited to add: Suicide is on that list. 

[abdcskins]

Sad.  Could you imagine living in a nursing home at the age of 80 all by yourself?  With no one visiting you?  I could imagine that would be incredibly depressing.  As someone who hopes to work in the mental health field, I could see myself working with geriatrics.  They have lived their whole life, or most of it, and have tons of stories to tell.  All they want is someone to talk to.

[Destino]

I’ve spent so much of my life with family, believing that the bond matters, and it all fell to pieces the moment I walked into a nursing home.  It felt like a great big lie.  I visited my grandfather in one of those hell holes.  It hurt to watch him put on a brave face for me, in the room that smelled like piss and filled with other discarded old people putting on the same show for their visitors.  The ones that had visitors, anyway.  The ones that were alone just watched those that weren’t.  Some would avert their gazes in shame if I caught them staring.  Some would try to give me a convincing smile.  

 

I can understand why suicide rates are high.  Being discarded in a place like that at an age when just getting up and facing the day has never been more challenging, can’t be great for ones own mental health.   

[TheGoodBits]

40 minutes ago, Larry said:

I don't think I fear death.  

 

I fear nursing homes.  

 

My grandfather was devastated after my grandmother died a few years before him. He was living alone for the first time in six decades, and had a stroke the following year. Someone discovered him after about two days of lying facedown on the floor, unable to move. His prognosis when they got him to the hospital wasn’t good. Somehow he pulled through, albeit with severely diminished cognitive abilities. He “lived” for three more years in nursing homes... I still contend that at least on some level he was ready to die from the stroke. We just kept his body around for a few years after. He did get to meet his first great grandchild a few weeks before he died, we got a picture out of it that I’ll be grateful for forever, but I have no idea if my grandfather was aware of it for more than a minute or two after we left. 

[spjunkies]

Welp, this is the depressing thread of the year.

[bearrock]

We need to have a discussion in this country about how much freedom one should have in the last stages of life.  Many of my estate planning clients want to discuss what legal options they'll have if a time comes when they decide it's time to pass on.  Sometimes it's not about depression or illness, but the sense that they are ready to move on from life.  

[China]

When visiting my grandmother one time in the nursing home she told me she would rather jump off the roof than die a slow lingering death.  She was in relatively good health though (both mentally and physically) and lived to 103.  At that age she bemoaned the fact that all of her friends and the people that she knew of her generation were dead.  With the exception of her children and grandchildren she was alone.  And since we all lived out of state from her, she didn't get as many visitors as she would've liked.  Finally, she broke her hip.  The doctor said she was in good enough health to have recovered, but she just gave up mentally.  She'd had enough.  I don't blame her.

[TradeTheBeal!]

If old folks have had enough and wanna check out, who am I to judge?

[Corcaigh]

This book gave me some hope for my later years ...

 

https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Choice-You-Make-Lessons/dp/0374168180

 

 

[Koala]

On 7/27/2019 at 3:31 PM, Destino said:

I’ve spent so much of my life with family, believing that the bond matters, and it all fell to pieces the moment I walked into a nursing home.  It felt like a great big lie.  I visited my grandfather in one of those hell holes.  It hurt to watch him put on a brave face for me, in the room that smelled like piss and filled with other discarded old people putting on the same show for their visitors.  The ones that had visitors, anyway.  The ones that were alone just watched those that weren’t.  Some would avert their gazes in shame if I caught them staring.  Some would try to give me a convincing smile.  

 

I can understand why suicide rates are high.  Being discarded in a place like that at an age when just getting up and facing the day has never been more challenging, can’t be great for ones own mental health.   

Everything you said is profound and true.  As a society, the concept of family has dissolved, and with it, seemingly the soul of our society.

 

If you dont want to die alone, you have to raise your children with the understanding that the bond between parent and child is for life  -- it does not disappear at age of eighteen. 

 

As a muslim I was raised ito understand that my parents took care of me when I was drooling, pissing, and ****ting all over myself, and so I would have to do the same for them.  And I did, and there is no shame in that  -- ironically there was tremendous pride for both of us in that fact.  My father proud he had raised a son who was with him to his dying breath, and for me tremendous pride in having finally achieved his approval.  Years of a rocky relationship melted away in an instant, when after helping feed him, he whispered one of his last intelligible sentences; "Thank you.  You are a gentleman."

 

 

[twa]

I hope I'm lucky enough to go out like my dad, good meal, good company and drop dead after.

My mother and step father were much more complicated.