RIP Anthony Bourdain

Some of the happiest people I know, despite relatively dire circumstances, are my extended family. My dad is from a small village in Wales. He emigrated with my mum and us to Canada. Everybody else, down to my last cousin, is still in the village. Some of them haven't been to London, which is a four-hour drive. They all see each other every day. They love life.

 

Might be worth asking if suicide rates are going up because people are living longer and deeper into an infirm old age, and the elderly are choosing to end things on their own terms.

Suicide rates are highest for age 65+.

NIMH » Suicide

 

That could/is definitely be part of it. But suicides are going up across age brackets, including the 15-34. So there are other significant contributors as well.

 

I wonder if there have been any improvements in the official reporting of suicides at the local, state and national level. Might account for some of the increase as well.

There's so much noise in these numbers over the years. And if I'm reading this correctly, for example, the suicide rate was higher in 1910.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_20/sr20_005.pdf

 

That was the year Halley's Comet scared the shit out of people.

 

1932 was a banner year too, for obvious reasons.

But even in the non-comet, non-crash years, we've seen rates this high without necessarily lamenting connections lost to social media, etc.

 

Great, now I'm going to spend my afternoon reading about Halley's Comet. Goddammit, @BTExpress.

 

A sheepman AND a prospector.

 

Just blame social media for everything. Seems to make people feel better.

 

drax metaphor scene - YouTube

(Sorry I couldn't embed it. For some reason, the site won't allow it.)

 

This story from few weeks ago touches on some things discussed here. About Yale's course on Happiness.

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet to Happiness