MIDDLE-AGED SUICIDE RATE UP SHARPLY IN US

US SUICIDE RATE ROSE
SHARPLY AMONG MIDDLE-AGED

http://abcnews.go.com - The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 % in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported. The trend was most pronounced among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide rate jumped 40 % between 1999 and 2010. But the rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was little change among blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic groups.
Why did so many middle-aged whites - that is, those who are 35 to 64 years old - take their own lives? One theory suggests the recession caused more emotional trauma in whites, who tend not to have the same kind of church support and extended families that blacks and Hispanics do. Another theory notes that white have always had higher rates of depression and suicide, when they come to middle age.

During the 1999-2010 period, suicide went from the eighth leading cause of death among middle-aged Americans to the fourth, behind cancer, heart disease and accidents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report, which was based on death certificates. People ages 35 to 64 account for about 57 % of suicides. For the entire U.S. population, there were 38,350 suicides in 2010, making it the nation's 10th leading cause of death, the CDC said. The overall national suicide rate has increased by 15 %. 
Suicide prevention efforts have tended to concentrate on teenagers and the elderly, but research over the past several years has begun to focus on the middle-aged. The new CDC report is being called the first to show how the trend is playing out nationally and to look in depth at the racial and geographic breakdown. The suicide rate registered a statistically significant increase in 39 out of 50 states. The West and the South had the highest suicide rates.

Suicide rates among middle-age Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm. Mike Stobbe, medical writer from AP, explains that this report contained information about how middle-aged people kill themselves: During the period studied, hangings overtook drug overdoses in that age group, becoming the No. 2 manner of suicide, whereas guns remained as the first instrument of death in nearly half of all suicides among the middle-aged in 2010. We should not commit suicide because we can use this human body to escape from this material entanglement and attain the highest goal of life divine.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

This human life is so valuable that with it we can take the path of the highest divine conception. ... If we can use this human life in a valuable way, we can acquire the key by which to become free from the whole chain of life in this troublesome world. We can get rid of the bondage of all sorts of physical and mental troubles. The key is here, in this human form of life. Jiva Goswami says that lower life-forms have insufficient understanding to realize the highest truth. And in the higher life-forms, such as demigods, because previously acquired energy or karma has accumulated on all sides, the chief enjoying elements are surrounding the living being. It is difficult to escape the charm of those influences and begin the prospect of a fresh life in a higher plane of consciousness.

Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Mahārāja :
“The Golden Volcano of Divine Love”
Part 3 “Conclusion - A Drop of Divine Love”
Section: “Let us Take Poison ...”
http://bvml.org/SBRSM/index.htm
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/