# How come us old guys are knocking ourselves off? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122 "2014-09-10T22:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/1 "2014-09-10T22:51:24Z")
Googling up what I’d caught in a rather dull NPR spot earlier confirmed that men in the age range 50-54 are committing suicide at double the rates of 20 years ago. Of course some of the stories blared about Baby Boomer suicide. Excuse me, but 50 to 54 are not BB’s. We were Generation Jones: invisible in the BB shadow, and our brief heyday during Punk/New Wave quickly eclipsed by Gen X. But I’m not going to kill myself because I’m not a prime marketing demographic. We took it in the shorts during the Great Recession, but no more than everyone else did. In fact, guys in their fifties are at the height of their powers. I feel less stupid professionally than I ever did. Why are we killing ourselves? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/2 "2014-09-10T23:09:31Z")
I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the recession. If you get laidd off as a 60-something-old, you’ve got social security as a safety net. Maybe not now, but at least in the near future. Chances are you don’t have any dependents and maybe more mortgage has been paid off. But if you’re a 55-year-old guy and you lose your good middle-class job, you’ve got good reason to worry. Social security is a long way off, and you probably got at least one kid who is still depending on you financially. Even apart from economic woes, I imagine that mid-life crisis stuff is in full swing during this time. The fifties is when people start looking old. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/3 "2014-09-10T23:13:06Z")
Yes but…no offense: women lose their looks more dramatically than men, and their suicide rates have dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/4 "2014-09-10T23:18:40Z")
I’m gonna second **Monstro** ’s guess that it is probably primarily economic. 20 years ago was the 90s. Without researching, I’d bet that economy was a lot kinder overall to the demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/5 "2014-09-10T23:19:15Z")
Yes, but women have both looks and careers to fall back on :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/6 "2014-09-10T23:27:39Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Why are we killing ourselves? Because We are unhappy. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/7 "2014-09-10T23:31:00Z")
Baby Boomers is being applied up to 1964 birth year, [according to this Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers) I had previously seen 1963 as the cut off year. I don’t feel like a baby boomer, but some tables think I are one. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/8 "2014-09-10T23:44:55Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Yes, but women have both looks and careers to fall back on :rolleyes: Maybe women handle their old age in a different way than men do. They are used to seeing their bodies change in dramatic ways as they go through different phases of their life. And they will readily talk about their shit. At work, the ladies openly kvetch about menopause. They talk about wrinkles and gray hair and sagging, and trade beauty tips and sympathy. Do men do this? As far as careers go, the recession was hardest on traditionally male occupations. Women are more likely to be employed in service sector jobs, which–though low paid–are not as hard to find. Women are also less likely to be in management. Whose ego is going to be hit harder by the prospect of working a McJob for the next ten years? The person who has done service jobs for most of her career? Or the person who is used to giving orders, not taking them? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/9 "2014-09-10T23:56:43Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Baby Boomers is being applied up to 1964 birth year, [according to this Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers) > > I had previously seen 1963 as the cut off year. > > I don’t feel like a baby boomer, but some tables think I are one. Baby boomers are the offspring of post WW-II era parents. If your parents were adults at the beginning of the war then you came from a demographic group that lived through that and were children during the Great Depression. 1963/64 is the tail end of the fertile years of such parents. It overlaps younger parents starting their family. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/10 "2014-09-11T00:00:58Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the recession. If you get laidd off as a 60-something-old, you’ve got social security as a safety net. Maybe not now, but at least in the near future. Chances are you don’t have any dependents and maybe more mortgage has been paid off. > > But if you’re a 55-year-old guy and you lose your good middle-class job, you’ve got good reason to worry. Social security is a long way off, and you probably got at least one kid who is still depending on you financially. > > Even apart from economic woes, I imagine that mid-life crisis stuff is in full swing during this time. The fifties is when people start looking old. And when you lose that office job you are a bit old to go out and start laying blocks. Even those of us who laid blocks until reaching 50 are looking for something less stressful physically. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/11 "2014-09-11T00:01:10Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > I’m gonna second **Monstro** ’s guess that it is probably primarily economic. 20 years ago was the 90s. Without researching, I’d bet that economy was a lot kinder overall to the demographic. I’ll third it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/12 "2014-09-11T00:11:21Z")
Divorced, fear of facing the future alone? I only mention this because I personally know of a guy who was in his 50’s, got divorced a couple of years ago, was living in a little apartment all alone. No wife now, no kids, health problems starting up. All he had was his job to go to and come home to be alone. Recently found dead, suspected suicide, after no one had heard from him in a week! Depression killed him, really. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/13 "2014-09-11T00:38:27Z")
So why is the OP referring to men who are 50-54 as “us old guys”? I think my neighbor (who will turn 100 next month) would refer to them as “spring chickens”. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/14 "2014-09-11T03:15:31Z")
“…life goes on…long after the thrill of livin’ is gone…” ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/15 "2014-09-11T04:19:41Z")
First off the rise in suicide rates among those in their 50s, even the broader [35 to 64 group](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm), is not new. The male female difference is just where the peak is: for men the biggest increase has been 50 to 54s; for women 60 to 64. It’s been increasing for over two decades. The CDC’s speculation: > [@](#): > > Possible contributing factors for the rise in suicide rates among middle-aged adults include the recent economic downturn (historically, suicide rates tend to correlate with business cycles, with higher rates observed during times of economic hardship) (6,7); a cohort effect, based on evidence that the “baby boomer” generation had unusually high suicide rates during their adolescent years (8); and a rise in intentional overdoses associated with the increase in availability of prescription opioids (1,2). Additional research is needed to understand the cause of the increase in age-adjusted suicide rates and why the extent of the increase varies across racial/ethnic populations. This other cite is [from 6 years ago, the NYT.](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/19suicide.html) > [@](#): > > Just why thousands of men and women have crossed the line between enduring life’s burdens and surrendering to them is a painful question for their loved ones. But for officials, it is a surprising and baffling public health mystery. > > A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. (All figures are adjusted for population.) > > For women 45 to 54, the rate leapt 31 percent. “That is certainly a break from trends of the past,” said Ann Haas, the research director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. … The question is why. What happened in 1999 that caused the suicide rate to suddenly rise primarily for those in midlife? For health experts, it is like discovering the wreckage of a plane crash without finding the black box that recorded flight data just before the aircraft went down. … The lack of concrete research has given rise to all kinds of theories, including a sudden drop in the use of hormone-replacement therapy by menopausal women after health warnings in 2002, higher rates of depression among baby boomers or a simple statistical fluke. > > At the moment, the prime suspect is the skyrocketing use — and abuse — of prescription drugs. … The change, whatever it was, happened with the Boomers and is persisting into those who immediately followed. Notably, the male Boomers who did not kill themselves in their fifties seem to not be at continued risk later on: male suicide rates in that age group have not increased much as the Boomers have entered that cohort (although [a longer term drop has more than levelled off](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/trends03.html)) [Female Boomers](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/trends04.html) OTOH have waited until their 60s to off themselves. BTW, did you today (9/10) is [World Suicide Prevention Day](http://www.cdc.gov/features/PreventingSuicide/?s_cid=cdc_homepage_whatsnew_004)? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/16 "2014-09-11T05:03:49Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > BTW, did you today (9/10) is [World Suicide Prevention Day](http://www.cdc.gov/features/PreventingSuicide/?s_cid=cdc_homepage_whatsnew_004)? Did Obama know this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/17 "2014-09-11T11:20:25Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Baby boomers are the offspring of post WW-II era parents. If your parents were adults at the beginning of the war then you came from a demographic group that lived through that and were children during the Great Depression. 1963/64 is the tail end of the fertile years of such parents. It overlaps younger parents starting their family. My dad was in WW-II in the Pacific so I count myself as a boomer. I was born in 1962. My siblings are 9 and 14 years older than me so I also count myself as an ‘oops’. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/18 "2014-09-11T11:29:11Z")
It could be that we see ourselves as not having done as well as our fathers did, despite actually working harder. Further, we are forced to admit that if we haven’t “made it” by this age, we are never going to. For many of us, the economic problems of the last few years have made it so that our highest earning years are already behind us with years yet to go before retirement. This is not a happy feeling. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/19 "2014-09-11T12:02:09Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > The fifties is when people start looking old. I’m 56. To me, it’s more about _feeling_ old. Aches, pains, hypertension controlled by medications with side effects worse than the disease. I’m not sure where I’ll draw the line, but when life is no longer enjoyable I see no reason to endure discomfort. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122/20 "2014-09-11T12:13:10Z")
Why not? It’s all downhill after 18. How do we survive so long? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-us-old-guys-are-knocking-ourselves-off/698122.md?page=2)