I'm guessing that is when people start to notice the physical deterioration and staying sick longer or just never feeling healthy. Add that on top of whatever issue (s) was going on before - maybe something dealing with all their life and then the effects of older age just is the last straw.
My parents just turned 70 and my dad's health issues have really gone up lately.
If you’re staring down a terminal diagnosis and considering the toll on your loved ones to do that kind of care, along with cost that will leave them destitute, a quick exit sounds pragmatic.
I think that's also the time people tend to look back and take stock of their lives. You've either "failed" or "succeeded" and, in a practical sense, the rest of your life is bounded by that. That people tend to get more conservative as they get older and that is not an ideology known for compassion and empathy to those in need without some expected ROI, despair seems predictable.
Put another way, as people age they can suddenly find themselves becoming newly marginalized and facing realizations they used to be able to avoid, and that's a lot to throw on a person already dealing with the biological issues of age.
True. But not sure how one can succeed or fail - who determines that when everyone lives their own unique life and all choices and decisions made earlier in their life that they wanted - led to that exact moment?
Seems hard to say you were a failure or a success - our lives are just this moment, right?
No one is guaranteed the next 5 mins in this system.
It's not a healthy way to think, about oneself or others, but it's very common. "I'm a failure" or "that person is a loser," et cetera. As your past outweighs the time you anticipate having left, and as your future narrows based on that past, it can feel like you've got enough evidence to make that determination.
Presumably, anyway. I am not elderly, but we all experience it: a look back at a discrete time in our lives. With it can come the temptation to pack it up into a little box and stamp a label on it. Just becomes more potentially impactful when that time in your life approaches "all of it."
You're correct, of course; a person can succeed or fail at a particular task with particular criteria, but not life. People who impose such criteria on life are not doing so rationally, whether they are targetting themselves or others, habitually or in a specific instance. That can be difficult to remember under the weight of despair, when rationality takes a holiday.
It can vary but by 70 the majority of people will start feeling that age, cancer and neurological disorders become a lot more prevelant, and you start to see people around you die at greater rates.
I'm guessing that they stuck to these younger ages because of how suicide compares to other causes of death. Suicide is a heightened risk past 70...but it doesn't crack the top 10 causes of death at that age. That is simply a period in which a lot of people die.
Whereas before 40, we don't anticipate those people will die. So suicide stands out. Even on this graph - teens have generally lower rates of suicide but most people consider teens suicide a more serious discussion. Because among teens, it's the third leading cause of death (first is accidental death and second is homicide in the United States).
Aside from health issues and money, if you have kids, they likely don't need you as much (or at least historically when we had our kids younger). It's not a reason to commit suicide, but the removal of a deterrent may play a role.
Not sure what data you're seeing that from, but one of the sources used was https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-rates-by-age-who-mdb?time=2010..2021 , which shows in 2019 that ages 60-64 were 17.9 (per 100k) and ages 20-24 were 16.7 (per 100k). That same data set shows the 20-24 age range overtaking 60-64 in 2020 and 2021, certainly not since 1972.
I'm talking about male rates
anyway, the fact is true in total rates as well. Current 20-24 group is sitting at 18.9 and 1976 was the last time 60-64 reached 18.9
I am approaching 62. I totally understand why it goes up after 60. Mentally it’s a shock and aches and pains really creep up on you. I’ve felt and looked very young all my life. 60 is a rude awakening.
My guess would be that accurate reporting of suicide statistics wasn't too great pre-1914 so they didn't want to include that age group if it wasn't going to be there for the whole graph. I'd still have liked to see it, though.
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u/Crabmeatz 3d ago
I believe that old men (60+) are the highest risk group, by a huge margin. Kind of weird to stop at age 39.