Suicide Rates at All-Time High

<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW10111966 BCX4"> <p><span data-contrast="auto">According to the</span> <a href= "https://apnews.com/article/suicides-record-2022-guns-48511d74deb24d933e66cec1b6f2d545?taid=64d5647d99e3c900016ccfd1&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter"> <em><span data-contrast="none">Associated Press</span></em></a><span data-contrast="auto">, nearly 50,000 people committed suicide last year, an absolute record in terms of raw numbers and the highest rate in nearly a century. Though, as</span> <a href= "https://time.com/5609124/us-suicide-rate-increase/"><span data-contrast="none"> one scholar noted,</span></a> <span data-contrast="auto">there’s always the chance that the numbers are up on account of better reporting, that doesn’t explain the consistent increase in these numbers over the last two decades. Something is broken in the United States, and it’s us.</span><span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="auto">Why, in the</span> <a href= "https://www.humanprogress.org/dataset/human-development-index/world-map/?the-year=2019"> <span data-contrast="none">most prosperous time</span></a> <span data-contrast="auto">to be alive in human history, do so many think that they would be better off dead? Nor do these numbers about suicide tell the complete story. Along with the dramatic increase in substance-abuse-related deaths, particularly opioids, deaths related to alcohol abuse and other addictions, and the suicide-by-slaughter of mass shootings, we face an outbreak of what is being called “</span><a href= "https://breakpoint.org/breakpoint-the-so-called-deaths-of-despair/"><span data-contrast="none">deaths of despair</span></a><span data-contrast= "auto">.”</span><span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="auto">Some of this could be the result of an increasingly vitriolic cultural environment. After all, it is hard to be hop