[everforward]

Somebody else posted the overdoses, I think I stand corrected on the suicides. They're down overall, but up among adolescents and I think my brain extrapolated that out to a general increase. My apologies on the bad data!

I'm slightly suspicious of the claim that they fell, because it flies in the face of common sense and historical trends, but weirder things have happened. It just seems strange that amidst a period where people are self-reporting increases in mental health issues that the suicide rate would drop.

Suicide hotline calls were way up in 2020 [1] (Crisis Text Line was up 40%, SAMHSA hotline was up circa 500%). Major depressive disorder was up 28% in 2020, and anxiety disorders were up 26%. [2]

Perhaps there's a confounding factor here like telehealth increasing the availability of and participation in mental health treatment. Or maybe the abundance of death made people cherish life more.

The cynic in me wonders if the data was massaged to maintain support for lockdowns, but I don't have anything to substantiate that, so it's not a declaration of fact.

1. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/04/8478417...

2. https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/08/mental-health-covid19-pa...

[triceratops]

> It just seems strange that amidst a period where people are self-reporting increases in mental health issues that the suicide rate would drop.

Maybe the lockdowns brought people closer together with roommates and family. Long commutes are awful for mental and physical health - widespread WFH cut down on that significantly. Home cooking went slightly up[1] which improves physical and mental health because of healthier eating. People had to do more outdoor recreational activities instead of going to malls and bars, and maybe that made them healthier and less likely to commit suicide.

There are so many confounding factors that it's impossible to tease them apart.

1. https://www.fooddive.com/news/survey-7-in-10-consumers-say-t...

[everforward]

We're way into conjecture territory at this point, so I don't mean any of this as fact.

What confuses me about theories like that is that self-reported mental health issues were up in 2020 [1]. I would have thought if it was increased closeness to roommates/family or home cooking or recreational activities then people would report higher life satisfaction and lower rates of mental health issues.

That CDC report even indicates a 4.4% rate of suicidal ideation, which is higher than normal.

It might be something we never know, but it does make me curious and skeptical. If the data really is correct, there might be advances in mental health treatment hidden here somewhere, which would be great.

1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm

[DanBC]

There's a lag with suicide data. For example, in the UK, the data comes from date of registration not the date of death, and death registrations are delayed because of the huge numbers of people dying by covid.

And then there's probably a lag in deaths too - anyone working in suicide is being very cautious about the early data showing decreases or no rises, because we don't know what's coming.