More Americans Died By Suicide In 2022 Than Any Year On Record
By: KFF Health News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The CDC says nearly 50,000 lives were lost in 2022 through intentional self-harm — up 3% from 2021's figure. The CDC data is provisional, too, and the final count may rise.
CNN: Suicide Deaths Reached A Record High In The US In 2022, Despite Hopeful Decreases Among Children And Young Adults More people died from suicide in the United States last year than any other year on record, dating to at least 1941, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 49,449 lives were lost due to intentional self-harm in 2022 - more than 14 deaths for every 100,000 people. (McPhillips, 11/29)
ABC News: Number Of Suicides In The US In 2022 Reaches Record Level: CDC The number of suicides in the United States has hit a record high, new provisional federal data shows. In 2022, an estimated 49,449 people died by suicide, which is 3% higher than the 48,183 people who died in 2021, according to a report published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. (Kekatos, 11/29)
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Suicides Reached A Record High Last Year America's mental-health crisis drove suicides to a record-high number last year. Nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives to suicide in 2022, according to a provisional tally from the National Center for Health Statistics. The agency said the final count would likely be higher. The suicide rate of 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people reached its highest level since 1941. (Wernau, 11/29)
If you are in need of help —
Dial 988 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.
More mental health news —
Financial Times: Internet Use Does Not Appear To Harm Mental Health, Study Finds A study of more than 2 million people's internet use found no "smoking gun" for widespread harm to mental health from online activities such as browsing social media and gaming, despite widely claimed concerns that mobile apps can cause depression and anxiety. Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, who said their study was the largest of its kind, said they found no evidence to support "popular ideas that certain groups are more at risk" from the technology. (Bradshaw, 11/27)
New York Post: People Born In The '90s Not Recovering From Mental Health Issues As They Age: Study People born in the 1990s have the worst mental health of any generation before them — and the millennials are not recovering as they age, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of Sydney found that there has been a noticeable deterioration in the mental welfare of each successive generation since the 1950s. (Donlevy, 11/29)
Politico: Newsom Embraces Controversial Mental Health Policies In Bid To Reform Care Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to finish the job Ronald Reagan started more than half a century ago as he seeks to transform California's mental health system — even if it means forcing some people into treatment. In the last few months, the state established a court intervention program for people with severe mental illness and passed a law making it easier for relatives and first responders to send people to mandatory treatment. (Bluth, 11/29)
The Baltimore Sun: Mental Health Hotline To Launch At Five Baltimore County Middle Schools Later This Month Students at five Baltimore County middle schools will soon be able to call a hotline for mental health services, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said at a news conference Tuesday. The 24/7 hotline, called the Cigna Student Support Line, is expected to launch later this month and be available for students at Franklin Middle School in Reisterstown, General John Stricker Middle School in Dundalk, Northwest Academy of Health Sciences in Pikesville, Perry Hall Middle School in Nottingham and Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex. (Price, 11/28)
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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The success of modern medicine can result in people taking their own lives to escape the pain and suffering that will never get better or end until death.
Most of us wouldn't make our pets endure the pain and suffering that we expect our fellow humans to endure until they gasp for their last breath.
We need to give people legal options to die without spending months, weeks or even days in agony. It is not fair to the dying person and it is horrendous pain for the person who finds their dead body.
“We need to give people legal options to die without spending months, weeks or even days in agony.”
Hear, hear.
The easiest thing to say is that the political state of the nation is responsible for this, but it is more than that. People today get too much information, about everything, including their own shortcomings, and some cannot handle it.
In a society which encourages kids to pick a gender of their choice and that drag shows are acceptable entertainment for grade schoolers, it's easy to say that many young people grow up confused about life and their roles in it and become depressed. Old time values are tossed aside today to accommodate what's new and trendy. Self reliance and self control are rarely taught anymore, and a vast number of young people end up with inflated sense of entitlement.
Add to this the daily deluge of gloom and doom from the mainstream media, political extremists of all stripes, and liberal academia, it's no wonder that so many are unable to cope with reality.
You're right John, it is more than the political climate. What we are witnessing is the culmination of false churches, bigotry and greed. Religion and money, both based on faith and have no intrinsic value.
People born in the ‘90s not recovering from mental health issues as they age: study
People born in the 1990s have the worst mental health of any generation before them — and the millennials are not recovering as they age, a new study shows.
Researchers at the University of Sydney found that there has been a noticeable deterioration in the mental welfare of each successive generation since the 1950s.
The results indicate that mental health challenges not only affect younger generations more seriously but are impacting each generation that is inching toward old age, according to the study published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
“Much of the focus to date has been on the declining mental health of school-aged children and adolescents, where we expect their mental health to eventually improve as they enter adulthood. But this study shows this pattern is changing and that it is not just the kids we need to worry about,” lead author Dr Richard Morris, senior research fellow in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health, said in a statement.
“Our data not only shows a continuing decline in the mental health of the current crop of young people but continues to affect older generations today heading into their 40s and 50s. We are not seeing the rebound out of young adulthood that previous generations saw as they aged.”
The study was initiated in an effort to uncover the mystery of why the mental health of Australians has been declining since around 2010 — and whether it was an effect only seen in the “post-millennium cohort” or was an indicator of a more permanent, worrying trend.
Researchers tracked the changes in the mental health of more than 27,500 Australians from 2001 to 2020, assessing each age group during the time frame.
The youngest generations are suffering the worst mental deficiencies, the study found.
And the mental health of people born in the 1990s is not improving as they age, unlike older generations.
“Population-level trends in mental health have been declining in developed nations for many years, especially among young people,” the study states.
“The findings from this study highlight that it is the poorer mental health of Millennials that is driving the apparent deterioration in population-level mental health.”
Researchers pointed to social media as a major driver for the country’s deteriorating mental health.
Experts have long decried social platforms and excessive screen time as a source of increased anxiety, depression and addiction in younger generations, as well as an increase in emotional abuse, toxic relationships and the sexualization of youth.
The study also theorized climate change could be playing a large role in dampening the hopes of the younger generations, as well as an overall lack of physical activity, poor sleep and the changing nature of work.
It was unable to account for how increased community awareness of mental health and decreased stigma may have impacted survey results.
Although it is not clear how the trends will continue as Gen Z and Gen Alpha grow, researchers at the University of Sydney are not optimistic.
“This represents important evidence that declines in mental health among young adults may not be expected to spontaneously recover or disappear,” they said in a statement.
The research team hopes to use the data as a launching point to better identify causes leading its young people to suffer mentally and to halt the trend before it can continue to worsen.
On balance, social media has been a disaster for this country.