Why Do The Elderly Commit Suicide?
March 22, 2007 10:04 PM | Posted by : | Reply
First, I have to say: this blog is fantastic. Second, my grandfather committed suicide, and I became disabled in my early 20's by a debilitating chronic illness. With these two facts, I'd like to posit some theories about what you just wrote. First off, there's an ableist assumption in the notion that people who are old, sick, invalid, etc., would have a greater desire to die, and it's quite honorable of you to question your assumptions. In fact, physical frailty often places a higher value on the minutaie of life that, as youth, we fritter away uncaringly. So it makes people value certain aspects of life. Coupled with that are social horrors that can't be ignored: the disabled and elderly are treated with disrespect, outright neglecct, and often violence. These can make a person suicidal. Do these two forces balance each other out? Who knows. But I think the bias you're talking about exists to protect people from the social horrors that are inflicted upon the elderly and frail who want to live, but cannot muster up the means. Because we don't offer adequate help and care and income to these groups, they may easily swing from those clinging most tightly to daily moments to those buying their ammunition at WalMart.
Score: 9 (9 votes cast)
January 8, 2012 8:19 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Why is it that psychiatry conflates assessment with treatment? The sole "treatment" of incarceration in an inhuman and humiliating environment, while intentionally refusing to confront the distressors of the person who is distressed and having that distress manifest in suicidal ideation and/or intent, only exacerbates the distress. The biggest risk factor in suicides is having a previous attempt. As you would say, "duh."
Joiner has begun to identify the upstream correlating distressors - not so sure of causality, but C Fred Alford, has done a bang up job in describing the distressors confronting many whistle-blowers. No one, including Alford (I wrote him and asked), has any idea about how to mitigate these distressors without larger, societal and cultural supports. In other words, alleviating suicidality, in the absence of psychosis, extreme impulsivity or mania, can't be done as far as anyone has been inclined to investigate, by pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps.
Psychiatrists actually instruct patients with suicidality on how to answer the assessment questions so as not to distress the treaters and thus, trigger an incarceration - er - hospitalization. Which leaves patients nowhere. Wonder why treatment f/u rates are so low? Would any sane person subject himself/herself to intrusive, painful assessments which are distressing, knowing that the results will either be a) a denial of the distress and/or b) involuntary incarceration/humiliation/exacerbation of distress? In other words, another form of societally proscribed ostracism, which has been used as a lethal punishment across cultures from recorded history?
Suicide is frequently an act to put a permanent end to terminal unbearable distress.
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
April 14, 2015 9:54 AM | Posted by : | Reply
One element in passive attempts is the ability to break character. The capacity for instinct to over-ride emotion and say, "put the gun down". As people get older, they lose their self-control. This is why you have to remind your mother not to say "colored people". Perhaps a 65-year-old is just not as quick to change their mind as a 35-year-old. Or, maybe I shouldn't have said 'perhaps'.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
April 15, 2015 12:34 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I just noticed this post's URL. Look at it.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
April 15, 2015 12:37 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
(My last comment wasn't specifically directed to anyone.)
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
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