Suicide data and statistics

https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/suicide-data...stics.html

I'm kind of hoping the people who were posting when I joined the forum will still be posting when I leave. Stability, continuity. I like that sort of thing.

131 suicides every day in the usa

A year ago my brother’s wife killed herself with an overdose. When I talked with him afterwards I learned it wasn’t her first attempt. She was from a wealthy family but as my brother later told, a family with a history of suicide (uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.). Are people born with a genetic predisposition to suicide? Is it a trait passed on?

(Nov 25, 2022 01:40 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] Are people born with a genetic predisposition to suicide? Is it a trait passed on?

Whatever underlying conditions might contribute to it, anyway. Whether depression, a legacy of substance abuse, other mental illnesses, or even nutritional afflictions like hemochromatosis.

There's also the problem of a "family curse" just becoming a storytelling part of genealogical history. A kind of inevitable wish fulfillment or temptation to join the "club" of past members that offed themselves or tried to, when an individual starts suffering from a convergence of ailments, injuries, and hard times. The tribes of Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Cobain were plagued by that narrative. Even if psychological slash physiological problems were inherited, the family mythos might have been an added influence that tipped the scales.

(Nov 25, 2022 05:13 PM)C C Wrote:

(Nov 25, 2022 01:40 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] Are people born with a genetic predisposition to suicide? Is it a trait passed on?

Whatever underlying conditions might contribute to it, anyway. Whether depression, a legacy of substance abuse, other mental illnesses, or even nutritional afflictions like hemochromatosis.

There's also the problem of a "family curse" just becoming a storytelling part of genealogical history. A kind of inevitable wish fulfillment or temptation to join the "club" of past members that offed themselves or tried to, when an individual starts suffering from a convergence of ailments, injuries, and hard times. The tribes of Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Cobain were plagued by that narrative. Even if psychological slash physiological problems were inherited, the family mythos might have been an added influence that tipped the scales.

May be right about the family mythos CC. Can’t think of anyone within our family or my wife’s but my B-I-L’s
wife’s family has a history of suicides. They aren’t wealthy folk but live in a small northern Ontario village where many share the same surname.

I’m convinced that plenty of inbreeding has occurred in this village over the decades and again, could that bring genetics back into the suicide picture? Why would inbreeding create suicidal tendencies? Is it evolution’s response to a species’ threat…eliminate?

(Nov 25, 2022 07:05 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] I’m convinced that plenty of inbreeding has occurred in this village over the decades and again, could that bring genetics back into the suicide picture? Why would inbreeding create suicidal tendencies? Is it evolution’s response to a species’ threat…eliminate?

The Short Creek Community suffers from fumarase deficiency, as a result of inbreeding from decades of polygamous practices. ("The polygamous town facing genetic disaster")

But I don't know about any suicidal associations, with respect to even generations of the most egregious Colt clan type stuff.

Suicidal behavior can of course fall out of incest victims of sexual abuse, but that's a different context. 

If there was a society of people overtly sporting incest preferences, that were also reproductive (not just indulging in a recreational template), then it would be difficult to disentangle any genetic effects from the social stigma directed against them (in terms of causing suicidal impulses in some). Just as with the LGBT+ community being afflicted with high suicide rates for centuries, due to stress from the disapproving reactions, discrimination, and sometimes violent responses from the non-LGBT+ majority. Or just being tormented by one's own internal conflict if growing up in and programmed by a fundamentalist religious family.[1] 

- - - footnote - - -

[1] That kind of situation isn't always 100% what it is negatively portrayed as (especially historically). We indirectly or belatedly know of a Jim Nabors type exception. Where the guy grew up on a farm and remained in a conservative county, went to a traditionalist church all his life (was accepted by the congregation), taught as a schoolteacher, and had a Trump-loving medical doctor and others praising him in eulogies at his funeral (died in his 90s). He was known to be gay way back in the '50s and '60s.

Of course, had he been an activist and got in everybody's face about it, and wasn't easy to get along with or had anything less than a saintly reputation and pillar of the community status, little doubt his life might have been more complicated had he similarly remained there over those decades.

(Nov 25, 2022 01:40 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: A year ago my brother’s wife killed herself with an overdose. When I talked with him afterwards I learned it wasn’t her first attempt. She was from a wealthy family but as my brother later told, a family with a history of suicide (uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.). Are people born with a genetic predisposition to suicide? Is it a trait passed on?

Mental illness is contagious, especially within families. This includes everything from substance abuse and anger issues to obesity and suicide. Coping mechanisms and impulse control, or the lack thereof, are learned.

Quote: Zinjanthropos asked : Are people born with a genetic predisposition to suicide? Is it a trait passed on?

"There is growing evidence that familial and genetic factors contribute to the risk for suicidal behavior. Major psychiatric illnesses, including bipolar disorder, major depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism and substance abuse, and certain personality disorders, which run in families, increase the risk for suicidal behavior. This does not mean that suicidal behavior is inevitable for individuals with this family history; it simply means that such persons may be more vulnerable and should take steps to reduce their risk, such as getting evaluation and treatment at the first sign of mental illness."---
https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-healt...index.html

The Genetics of Mental Disorder
https://www.news-medical.net/health/The-...order.aspx

(Nov 25, 2022 10:43 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: The Genetics of Mental Disorder
https://www.news-medical.net/health/The-...order.aspx

Excuses to keeps people on drugs or for those people to avoid any responsibility for their own condition. The modern-day "the devil made me do it."