Ted Rall: Isn't It Time We Talk About the Skyrocketing Suicide Epidemic?

March 27, 2014  |  As I waited for the body of a man who jumped in front of my train [3] to be cleared from the tracks — less than a week before another train I was riding struck a suicide victim [4] — it occurred to me that (a) I should check whether suicide rates are increasing due to the bad economy (they are, especially among men in their 50s [5]), and that (b) talking about suicide is long overdue.

 

With modernity comes depression; depression sometimes leads to suicide [6]. And it’s a global phenomenon. “The World Health Organization reports that suicide rates have increased 60 percent over the past 50 years, most strikingly in the developing world, and that by 2020 depression will be the second most prevalent medical condition in the world,” T.M. Luhrmann wrote [7] in The New York Times recently.

Why are so many people opting out?