Daily Thoughts

CNN Health Reporter, Theresa Tamkins writes that suicide rates in the U.S. are on the rise , especially among middle aged people.

White people age 40 to 64 have “recently emerged as a new high-risk group for suicide,” according to the study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Suicides increased between 1999 and 2005 by about 3 percent annually in white men and 4 percent in white women age 40 to 64, according to Susan Baker, M.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and her colleagues. Suicide rates remained the same in Asians and Native Americans, and declined in blacks.

This should come as no surprise, considering the recent economic conditions. This group is the one who has the most to lose. These are the ones who worked hard all their life, and are now losing their homes, their businesses, and their pensions. I’m among that group. I’ve considered suicide many times, especially during the last few months when I saw my income disappear and am in danger of losing my home.

Many people don’t understand this sort of desperation, because they have never experienced it. They are the ones who are likely to serve up lame platitudes when faced with someone who has reached the end of their rope. Their minds cannot wrap itself around why someone would want to die.

There comes a time in your life when you feel like you are too old to start over again. I’ve had to start over a few times, and this is the worse it’s ever been. I’m over 50, and I’m tired. I know others feel the same way. I get up in the morning with nothing to really look forward to, and no real hope of a brighter tomorrow. I work here at the computer, knowing that soon my phone may be disconnected, and I may not have a computer at all.

So I can relate to those desperate souls so have worked so hard for the American Dream, only to see it turn into The Nightmare on Elm Street. I hope that the medical community can do something to help these people before it’s too late.

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