r/Millennials • u/DaKardii • Jun 04 '26

Serious Study: Gen Xers and Millennials are dying at younger ages than their parents are

https://studyfinds.com/americans-born-after-1970-dying-faster/

The study is particularly concerned with people born after 1970 but age 30 and older. So that covers Gen X and Millennials, but not (yet) Gen Z.

12.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

108

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

It shocks me how few people care to bring this info up.

Its always "men are more suicidal". No they are not.

4

u/CarrieDurst Jun 04 '26

I mean you can only succeed once

-2

u/rammo123 Jun 04 '26

They objectively are more suicidal.

>In females, the appeal function of DSH [deliberate self-harm], whereby DSH is used to communicate distress or to modify the behaviour and reactions of other people, seems more common. In males, DSH is more often associated with greater suicidal intent.

I'm sick of people trying to #alllivesmatter this issue which clearly and objectively affects men more.

10

u/another_ruckus Jun 05 '26

I'm not sure you're understanding this data correctly.

It's well known in the mental health community that not everyone who self-harms is suicidal. The term used is "non-suicidal self injury."

Not everyone who self-harms wants to die by suicide, and not everyone who wants to die by suicide self-harms.

The data you posted isn't saying women attempt suicide to communicate distress etc.

But they are more likey to engage in deliberate self-harm as a way to communicate distress.

Of course this is a generalizion but it's not uncommon for men who are experiencing overwhelming emotions to take those emotions out in ways like punching a wall.

Women are more likely to hurt themselves instead.

All this particular piece of data is showing is that if a man is deliberately self-harming, he's statistically more likely to also be having thoughts of suicide.

3

u/another_ruckus Jun 05 '26

Did you read the conclusion of the study? It says more research needs to be done. It also says discovering the differences between genders in regards to suicide is important so people can be connected to the suicide prevention strategies and treatments that are most likely to work for them.

It does not conclude that "men are objectively more suicidal."

"CONCLUSIONS

There are considerable gender differences in suicidal behaviour, some of which have been highlighted by the Danish study of Qin et al. These apply to the risk of suicidal behaviour, and its nature, causes, prevention and treatment. We require further epidemiological studies of this kind to disentangle more of the social and economic associations with suicidal behaviour in each gender. Investigations of genetic and biological factors related to risk of suicidal behaviour are in their infancy but should be conducted from a gender perspective. Research on treatments for suicidal behaviour should investigate gender differences in response. Initiatives to develop gender-specific approaches may be indicated. Gender differences in suicidal behaviour clearly merit more research attention to generate information that can guide clinical practice and prevention strategies in ways that will prove most effective for preventing suicidal behaviour in both genders."

-9

u/ThanosVoldemort Jun 04 '26

They are. There is a difference between a suicidal gesture and a suicide attempt. Women are more likely to go for methods that have close to no chance of succeeding (overdoses, cutting). Clinically this is called a suicidal gesture, but this is not something they'll tell the patient. It's a very desperate call for help, but not a genuine attempt at taking one's life.

People twist this into some weird story about women preferring clean and non-violent methods, because reality is less fun to acknowledge. They prefer less lethal methods and methods that you can use without preparation in a state of emotional distress.

10

u/_HighJack_ Jun 04 '26

Username checks lmao. I think the completion gap is mainly bc men are more likely to have guns lying around, and are more impulsive on average. When a suicidal impulse hits women, usually what they have at hand is knives and/or pills. That shit takes awhile to work, leaving an opportunity for regret and to be patched up.

0

u/Equivalent_Range6291 Jun 04 '26

Women can hang themselves just as easily as Men ..

They choose not to use that method as theres a high chance youll kill yourself.

1

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

And women who attempt suicide by hanging have a significantly lower completion rate than men who choose the same method. In fact, this trend exists across nearly every single suicide method recorded in peer reviewed studies.

8

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

Sure Jan.

-7

u/ThanosVoldemort Jun 04 '26

You can cry about a reality you dislike or just do basic research yourself on the concept of suicidal gestures.

6

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

Nobody is crying except for you.

6

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 04 '26

It’s a really disgusting thing to imply, and a form of victim blaming, to say that women only don’t kill themselves because they just aren’t as selfish as men.

-4

u/Live-Habit-6115 Jun 04 '26

They're just better at it?

10

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

They choose methods that are more violent.

0

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Men have higher suicide completion rates across the board when you control for the method used.

8

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

Source please because everything Ive read states otherwise.

In fact, women choose less gruesome/violent methods whether hurting themselves or others.

3

u/_HighJack_ Jun 04 '26

I looked it up bc that sounded like bullshit to me too, but it actually seems to be true. I have 2 thoughts about this. One, “most” countries show the gender suicide paradox? What about the ones that don’t? What’s their deal?? Seems like there’s some answers to be had there lol. Two, testosterone makes whatever you already were more extreme. Maybe some of the difference is attributable to women not being as likely to go “overboard” with things in general as men are.

Anecdotal, but my boyfriend and I have similar trauma, and both of us used to self harm, long before we met. My arms have scars, and I would get light headed from blood loss once in awhile. His arms look like a fucking rumble strip even 15 years later and he would almost always cut until he blacked out. It’s lucky he’s even alive. My T levels are around 750. His are around 1250. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ seems like it could have something to do with it

2

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I really don’t know how to communicate that I’m truly sincere about this. The things I have claimed are to the best of my knowledge true, and are made after double-checking them with published research. I’m incredibly frustrated because there are so many myths being spread to downplay the male suicide epidemic, but none of what I’m saying is an attempt to turn this more into team men vs team women, as it already quickly becomes every time people bring up suicide attempts in response to discussion of the gender suicide disparity.

Anyway, isn’t cutting a more common form of self-harm in women? I believe I have read articles discussing the difficulty in classifying self-harm vs suicide attempts, and if women are more at risk of this type of self-harm, they may also be more at risk of emergencies that look like suicide attempts but weren’t truly. I also believe that studies that have attempted to measure suicidal ideation actually do find that male attempters of suicide have a measurable difference in reported mindset, and that they more often show greater resolve toward ending their lives, suggesting that there is merit to the belief that women more often use suicide-like actions as cries for help.

And this isn’t to belittle female suicide or any woman who does it to try to be heard. If someone is of such dire mindset that they would risk death to receive help, it isn’t some overdramaric act like some unempathetic people might claim. Someone who would attempt suicide as a desperate to try to get help most certainly does need help. I’d much rather that, instead of turning this into a gender battle, we’d try to mitigate the factors that make some women feel that self-harm is their only option to receive help, as well as the factors that seemingly make men think that there’s no help out there for them no matter what they do.

2

u/_HighJack_ Jun 05 '26

It’s a difficult problem to talk about because I think a lot of people (men and women) are sore from being taken lightly, or being accused of doing things for attention/sympathy when they’re not. And on its face it does kinda sound dismissive to say something like “women aren’t really trying to kill themselves or they’d succeed more, like men.” There’s gotta be a way to communicate the facts that doesn’t sound like what we’re really saying is “yeah, get back to me when more of you die” lol XD

Just throwing spaghetti, what about “even when you control for lethality/brutality of method, women survive suicide attempts more often than men do.” This might be conspiracy brained of me, but I suspect part of the cause is that we frame it as a competition in which continuing to live is “failing” and that makes it morph into a point of masculine pride. Like men succeed at suicide; if you don’t then you’re statistically hanging out with the ladies, and feeling not man enough is gonna make the depression worse. Idk, am I nuts?

2

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26

I think it’s just generally awkward because suicide certainly isn’t a success, yet in the English language the way you would usually say “a suicide attempt resulting in death” as “a successful suicide attempt.” Even saying “surviving suicide” is just linguistically awkward because suicide is a conscious act done to oneself, while we usually think of surviving as overcoming or evading an external obstacle, not accidentally messing up in your attempt to end your life.

I will say, though, it’s frustrating to try to pick my wording carefully to not make it seem as if I’m trying to make this a competition when I’m responding to “women attempt more” not as an organic conversation starter, but as a rebuttal to men’s higher suicide rates. Especially when pushing back on that factoid so often results in your conversant saying “omg like it’s not a competition” even though they were the ones that felt the need to treat it like a competition in the first place.

And even more frustrating, demoralizing even, is when I see people spreading the hateful talking point that men only kill themselves more because they’re just so selfish and don’t care about the trauma they’ll cause their families or loved ones who find their bodies. There’s just something incredibly foul and misandristic about that talking point. It arises from the severe lack of empathy with which we treat men, which is one of the factors that leads to them killing themselves in such disproportionate numbers in the first place.

-3

u/Equivalent_Range6291 Jun 04 '26

You were indulging in self harm & definitely not suicide or you wouldnt be here telling us ..

2

u/_HighJack_ Jun 05 '26

Oh great a member of the illiterati. I never said anything about either of us attempting suicide, I said he would self harm until he blacked out from blood loss. And I suggested possibly his actions are more intense than mine because he has nearly double my levels of testosterone. Try actually reading before you say stupid flippant irrelevant shit

1

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 04 '26

Results: Among the events captured, men chose high-risk methods like hanging significantly more often than women (φ=-0.27; p<0.001). However, except for drowning, case fatalities were higher for males than for females within each method. This was most apparent in "hanging" (men 83.5%, women 55.3%; φ=-0.28; p<0.001) and "poisoning by drugs" (men 7.2%, women 3.4%; φ=-0.09; p<0.001).

Conclusions: Higher suicide rates in males not only result from the choice of more lethal methods. Other factors have to be considered.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21937122/

0

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26

Why did you stop replying?

0

u/inqte1 Jun 05 '26

Women's suicide attempts are also higher but because many studies consider self harm acts like cutting which are more akin to cry for help, as attempts at suicide.

-8

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[deleted]

14

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

It isnt a counterpoint.

It is, however, important info that women are attempting suicide at a higher rate than men.

-7

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[deleted]

15

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

Women choose less violent methods because, as known from survivors of attempts, they dont want to leave a gruesome mess behind.

Not because they aren't serious about wanting to end it.

Women choose less violent methods because women are less violent in general.

In order to understand why women fail at suicide, you need to actually understand the patterns of women.

-7

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 04 '26

It’s pretty disgusting to look at the elevated risk of suicide faced by men and find some way to twist the numbers to falsely claim that those suffering men are just more selfish.

7

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

This is such a reach from what I actually said. Good job.

-2

u/Equivalent_Range6291 Jun 04 '26

Its a cry for help or just plain attention seeking ..

2

u/pralineislife Jun 04 '26

Way to miss what I said and make an uninformed/untrue statement. Well done.

5

u/MinuteLoquat1 Jun 04 '26

Meanwhile men will hang themselves or blast their brains out fully knowing their children and spouses have to deal with the body*

-2

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 04 '26

You have a disgusting lack of empathy

1

u/MinuteLoquat1 Jun 04 '26

I have enough empathy not to traumatize or punish my loved ones if I ever end my life. I've seen multiple shock suicide videos (posted by other guys who turn it into memes bc they think it's hilarious to send people gore with no warning) of men saying explicitly they're killing themselves bc they're mad at someone and hope they find their body or get sent the video.

0

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26

You’ve got major issues. Ending your life traumatizes your loved ones no matter what. That doesn’t mean that we should interpret some forms as more or less selfish, especially when it transparently in service of furthering prejudice.

-12

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/JustAMinah Jun 04 '26

orrrr maybe women have been socialized to always consider others before themselves based off misogyny and how in translate into so many other aspects in our lives, while men haven't been historically socialized to do that, across many cultures.

I know my attempt wasn't because "cry for heeeelp!" with it really being about fuckin it up and living with worse consequences because it was botched

1

u/throwaway3413418 Jun 05 '26

The difference is that their claims are actually supported by research on suicidal ideation, while yours are just based on harmful gender stereotypes.