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Comment by bruceb | Hacker News Reader

"...the second-leading killer for those ages 15-34." I would have never guessed that.

Now I can understand why some are trying to use social media to detect who might be expressing feeling that are common with depression and suicidal thoughts.

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Well really, what did you expect the second leading killer to be? They are literally in the prime of their lives. In general, they are as physically healthy as they will ever be. The leading 'killer' is the 'unintentional injury' category. Take a look at these charts (Canada and USA both included for comparison).

http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/10lcid_all_deaths_by_a...

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/lcd-pcd97/table1-eng.php

Suicide only 'drops in the rankings' because peoples start dying of other things.

This is also a huge problem in Ireland with young males being most at risk. Its a complex problem with many factors but for sure. http://stopsuicide.ie/suicide-myths-and-facts/

It is all over the world. A large number of men are commuting suicide, mostly students and then married men. Yet if you look through pop media all you will see is how many women are 'attempting' suicide... :/

That is because men are seen as disposable, throughout the Western World.

~80% of those 40,000 suicides were men. I've a feeling if it were 80% female there would be a lot more attention given to it.

I found that 80% number strange and it seems the real numbers are much more complex than that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide

The entry paragraph gives a quick glimpse of the complexities but here's my attempt at a tl,dr of it:

- there are highly asymmetric rates of attempted and completed suicide between genders

- can vary significantly between different countries

- males die much more often by means of suicide than do females

- reported suicide attempts and thoughts are much more common among females than males

- females have a higher rate of attempted suicide than males earlier in life, which decreases with age

- for males the rate of attempted suicide remains fairly constant when controlled for age

- genders tend to differ in their methods of suicide and responses to suicidal feelings

One large factor is the prevailing gender discrimination against males in medical care. Those men who goes against gender roles and actually do seek help against mental health problems are often meet with disbelieve, and do not get the same treatment and support as women. Doctors are found to diagnose depression in women more compared with men, even when two patients have similar scores on standardized measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.

That reported suicide attempts and thoughts are much more common among females than male seem to have quite obvious reasons. Most men do not report it, and from those who still do it, many gets ignored and is thus not recorded into the statistics.

While I agree with most of what you say, I believe we should be more careful claiming there are "obvious reasons" for something without scientific evidence. What you are saying, which might be correct (and I kind of agree with) is not scientifically proved (that I know of), there might really be a gender imbalance for suicidal tendencies but having "obvious reasons" is not enough, at least for me, to claim it as a fact. I find it strange and I'd prefer more work to be done on this matters.

I think the OP's point stands. Society and the law isn't trying to understand and reduce the deaths of so many guys.

I would expect the demographic to shift soon, due the momentum that assisted dying is getting.

The demographic of "people dying by suicide variously defined" may shift, but that won't have any effect on the leading causes of death for ages 15-34. It's a safe world out there now; young people generally don't die.

My fault - I misread the grandparent as saying those ages are the most likely to commit suicide.

Thinking a little more about it, I'm not at all convinced it's a problem for suicide to be a leading cause of death in any demographic. Ordinal numbers are pretty useless for many purposes. I'd be pretty pleased to know that the only way for someone in my demographic (however defined) to die was by suicide.

And these are mostly males.

Life for males really improves after 30. Girls starting to hit on you a lot more, better jobs, more money, less stress.

You are right, BUT sorry, this is unpopular on hacker news

Try to show that there is no difference between woman and men and you may get upvotes.

Edit: And hey: Life for femals is much better between 16 and 35 (and deteriorates quickly after that).

Man,... I know a lot of grumpy old woman.

I'm only interested in 3/4 of these, and they're not happening[1]. When does the magic spell activate?

[1] At least, not as fast as I'd like. Turns out we aren't all on the same path.

Interesting, is this true for males of all species or is it limited to human males?

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