Talk:Suicide in the United States

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 March 2019 and 29 April 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bokyung0327, Laylaserna, Robertpark1999.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:24, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Mention of 9/11

Is the mention of 9/11 in this article appropriate? I somehow managed to wikicrawl to Suicide in Japan and thought I'd look up this article, and it seems that these "suicide" articles are intended to be be more about the internal culture. 9/11 was an external attack by non-Americans. It would fit more in a hypothetical Suicide in the Middle East article than here. Sarysa (talk) 02:42, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Subgroups Rewrite

The way this section reads is practically and advertisement for LGBTQ and subordinately, the Trevor Lifeline. Although undoubtedly a noble cause, wikipedia is not the place for it. Since the Trevor Project is already linked, let's leave it at that and go into more statistical and research data which is certainly out there. Speaking of which, how about we get some info that is less than 3 years old? If nobody minds, I might have a go at fixing this article. Bristus (talk) 15:45, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

It could be cleaned up to remove the celebrities but I think the issue is more that other information is lacking, not that this information is there. Insomesia (talk) 23:16, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

According to a query on the CDC website, there were 38,364 suicides in 2010. Of these, 30,277 were males and 8,087 were females. You can also do queries on method of suicide, age, ethnicity, state, etc. Want to update the article with this information? http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal_injury_reports.html ?Bristus (talk) 21:37, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Also why is it LGBTQ when the main page is still LGBT? I have no opinion on which it should be, but I strongly think it should at least be consistent. 173.30.226.248 (talk) 02:49, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

the LGBT commuity are a bit narcissistic and their mentioning is purely to advance a political agenda. Maybe a statistic, if genuine, could be left-anything more seems a bit superfluous. With Schizophrenia a claim has been made to be 50x more likely to attempt suicide, with Aspergers can experience "depression attacks" which is an overwhelming urge too commit suicide and autism itself is reported to have a 28x greater chance to attempt suicide, bipolar disorder (20% complete suicide), or as nimh points out borderline personality disorder with a 10% completion rate which is 400 times more than the national average. Obviously many of these deserve greater focus than the LGBTs, but none of the others are yet a political or protected class. It is likely that the LGBT community may be more prone to mental ilnesses: borderline comes to mind, depression may be a given if they cite bullying, perhaps OCD or autism for people with gender identity disorder, and substance abuse. Though the numbers cited are quick website checks, I assume that since this is talk and not an actual edit, someone could find the NIH, CDC, or other citation holding greater authority. 67.255.93.199 (talk) 13:56, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Calling the LBGTQ community "narcissistic" is of course purely to advance a YUUUUGE political agenda in and of itself. I really doubt if they should be mentioned at all, since the far bigger impact is about the Male/Female suicide ratio (3.85) rather than the non-LBGTQ/LBGTQ ratio (3). It isn't really mentioned at all. If you wanna talk about relevant significant differences that affect ALL people, not just the mere 3 percent that LBGTQs are, talk about the fact that men whack themselves 385% MORE than women. Keeping silent about that is of course ALSO pushing a huge political agenda.

The statistic I currently see is "Suicide rates for [LGBTQ] youth and adults in the U.S. are three times higher than national averages.[12]" The given reference, however, doesn't claim that. Instead - from the actual reference, we see that "This rate jumps significantly in LBGT’s, who are three times as likely to attempt suicide". Suicide attempts is the statistic given in the reference. I think this should be amended in the actual article text? 73.182.204.160 (talk) 14:11, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

Correlation between wars and suicide?

I think as it currently stands, the statement "War seems to have peculiar effects on suicide rates" adds more vagueness and questions than it clarifies or answers? It's cited with a book, but the statement definitely does not stand on its own. It needs to be either clarified ("what is this peculiar effect wars has on suicide?") or removed, in my opinion. Computer Guru (talk) 04:43, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Add the actual rates?

I came to this article when I was looking for the suicide rate in the US as of the latest sampling. I noticed that the article provides raw numbers, and it emphasizes changes in the rate in percentages, but I thought it might be helpful to include the actual rates. For example, where the article notes that the CDC gave the rate as 7 suicides for every 100,000 people, we should add "a rate of .00007%". I think that this helps counter any tone that implies, or lets readers infer, that there is an epidemic, which is how this topic is usually presented. While any suicide is a tragic case, when I look at the rate expressed as a percentage, I think it's a far cry from an epidemic. The article should inform, not imply.

Thanks, and best regards! TheBaron0530 (talk) 14:14, 13 February 2015 (UTC)theBaron0530

• Oppose: epidemic is defined by the relative increase in such rates of occurrence over time, not with the rate of occurrence itself. Second, whether suicide in the U.S. is more or less severe than elsewhere, you have to compare these numbers to other locations, and they will all have the same order of magnitude. Showing a small percent number might give a false impression. Fgnievinski (talk) 04:35, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

• "Showing a small percent number might give a false impression."

That's exactly my point. The current article tends to give a false impression, in this case, that there is an emergency or crisis. Is there, really? If there is not, the article should not lead readers to think that there is.

Also, by that definition of an epidemic, if on Day 1, no one has a cold, and on Day 2, two people come down with one, that's an epidemic. There is certainly a connotation to "epidemic" that implies rapid or large increases of occurrence over a short period of time.

Best regards TheBaron0530 (talk) 01:51, 15 February 2015 (UTC)theBaron0530

§71.107.70.203 (talk) 00:14, 9 December 2015 (UTC)== Statistics ==

Can someone explain how there is a specific number of suicides for 2015? It is also written in past tense. Kind of makes you wonder how valid this whole page is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.107.70.203 (talk) 00:12, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Article in serious need of update

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm The current table lists data that is ELEVEN years old Nuvigil (talk) 22:36, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Race

A chart shows that whites and Native Americans have suicide rates of over two and a half times that of blacks, Hispanics and Asians, but doesn't say why. Jim Michael (talk) 01:47, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

CDC. Latest state by state rates as of June 8, 2018 article

• State by state rates: Supplementary Table. Trends in Suicide Rates among Persons ≥ 10 Years of Age, by State and Sex, National Vital Statistics System, 1999 – 2016. June 8, 2018. CDC Stacks. Source: Vital Signs: Trends in Suicide Rates and Circumstances Contributing to Suicide — United States, 1999–2016 and 27 States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67(22):617-624.

• Suicide rates rising across the U.S. CDC Online Newsroom. June 7, 2018. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Suicide rates rise sharply across the United States, new report shows. By Amy Ellis Nutt, June 7, 2018. Washington Post.
• CDC: U.S. Suicide Rates Have Climbed Dramatically. By Nell Greenfieldboyce. June 7, 2018. All Things Considered.

--Timeshifter (talk) 14:38, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Total suicides in the United States 1981 2016.png

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:06, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Article appearance

The article is a mess, visually. Piles of graphs, an entire section with nothing but a single graph in the center, the infobox is at the end of the article not the beginning.

I'm not terribly skilled with adjusting the visual aspects of articles. Hopefully someone better skilled at it can take a crack. It would help significantly. I think there's too many graphs visually, but on the other hand, they all provide very interesting info. Not sure how to approach that. Anastrophe (talk) 20:39, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Nearly 5 years later it's still a problem. Better late than never. 2603:8080:2C00:1E00:7500:C0DA:1325:2A23 (talk) 12:32, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

By state

The states with the highest suicide rates are sparsely populated, predominantly rural states in the Western United States: Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico & Utah. The states with the lowest rates are densely populated, mostly urban & suburban states, in the Northeastern United States: New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland & Connecticut. The article should say why that is. Jim Michael (talk) 10:46, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Proposed additions and sections for this page

Hi, myself and two other college students are currently in the Wikipedia Education class, and we would like to add a couple of sections to the article. Since the article is about suicide in the United States, we felt that it would be fitting to add the following sections: The first heading we would add would be regarding the trends in suicide rates in the United States. We felt that this would be an important topic to discuss to add more statistical evidence to the article. Additionally, to go along with what is done in the article, we would like to add to the high-risk subgroups that are already discussed. We would like to add the college population as a subheading. Since suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students, we find it only fitting to add this as a section. Lastly, in order to end the page on a more positive light, we would like to add a section on what is being done to combat this prevalent issue in the U.S. Therefore, we will be adding a section that discusses the public health initiatives that have been pursued. Laylaserna (talk) 13:28, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Contradictory Graphs

The first graph shows the US rate increasing, the last graph shows it falling.```` — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulhummerman (talk • contribs) 11:34, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Errors in graph legends

There appear to be multiple errors in the accompanying graphs' legends. E.g. in the third graph, "Age-adjusted U.S. suicide rate, 1981-2016", total and male are switched in the legend (total cannot be lower than the male-only rate). The two graphs after that have the same problem, i.e total suicides is somehow lower than some of the subpopulations the total consists of. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.208.75.11 (talk) 19:44, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Noted, thanks. 2603:8080:2C00:1E00:7500:C0DA:1325:2A23 (talk) 12:37, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

Doctors

Doctors are much more likely to commit suicide than vets(veternarian or veteran) and many places shush it, including hospitals. Sources are therefore slightly harder to come by, but it is necessary to put them in still. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.64.101.203 (talk) 14:19, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

Should there be an reference to 988 in the opening?

Now that the 988 Hotline has fully started in the United States , should we add information related to that in the opening to the page? I would think so, but I'm a very new editor and I want to make complete sure before making any edits. I made a similar edit on Suicide legislation. Traanarchist (talk) 19:35, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Merging Pages

There are several other pages "Teen Suicide in the US" and "Youth Suicide" that would probably be better merged under a subheading on this page. Breeze04 (talk) 03:46, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Claims that there is a stigma associated with the term 'committed suicide'

There seems to be some issue now with using the most common term regarding those who kill themselves, "committed suicide". Advocacy groups claim that the term is "stigmatizing", but without any evidence to support it. Unless we're to decide that suicide is a good thing - something to be celebrated - it seems to me (which I understand is also unsupported by evidence) that it's just another case of the relatively recent drive to rename common terms to new terms that are allegedly more 'sympathetic', 'not stigmatizing', 'kinder' - without evidence that they cause harm, e.g., the term "homeless" is being widely replaced with "the unhoused", or "houseless", yet there's no meaningful difference between the terms (and I'd argue that "homeless" is actually the more sympathetic term). The problem is that these are generally driven by advocacy groups, and are arbitrarily generated, without even the most basic evidence to support them, and often used simply to provide a wedge used to stigmatize those who use the older terms - an ironic behavior.
Obviously, I'm sharing my "feelings" about the matter, however, it seems that - absent reliable sources (i.e. not advocacy groups), we should just stick with the most common and widely used terms. A quick Google Ngram of the two terms at play here shows rather dramatically how this change has come about - which argues against it being an organic change, but one that is being forced.
I'm open to other thoughts on the matter. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 21:36, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Separately but related, I don't see a need for every iteration of a term to be uniform top to bottom of an article. There are many euphemisms for suicide, ranging from the deeply empathetic to the cold and clinical. Acknowledging that there are a variety of responses to the problem of suicide isn't inappropriate to the topic. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 21:38, 12 August 2023 (UTC)