Baby Boomers Killing Themselves At Highest Rate Ever
We’re killing ourselves. The number of baby boomers committing suicide has almost doubled in the last 11 years. “From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent, to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 people, up from 13.7,” Tara Parker-Pope writes at The New York Times. She notes that, although suicide rates are growing among both middle-aged men and women, far more men take their own lives – 27.3 deaths per 100,000, while for women it was 8.1 deaths per 100,000. Most at risk are men in their 50s, whose suicide rate doubled during this time period. Experts believe it’s a combination of tough financial times and the availability of pain killers like Oxy Contin that people take to feel better. And some think it’s greatly underreported. “It is the baby boomer group where we see the highest rates of suicide,” the C.D.C.’s deputy director, Ileana Arias, told Parker-Pope. “There may be something about that group, and how th...