What leads to suicide?

Not so much a complaint about my personal experiences, but a little reflection of the stresses of my line of work.
Divorce rate of 66%.
Suicide rate twice the national average.
Average lifespan after retirement of seven years.
Tells you something about the amount of stress we face.

 

I wonder what the alcoholism rate is among LEOs? No, I'm not picking.

 

Off the top of my head? Not good.

 

Politicians also have very high rates of alcoholism, divorce and suicide.

See, for example, this list of 136 U.S. politicians who committed suicide.

 

I am thinking it has a lot to do with the sisyphean task of getting people to do the right thing, or the smart thing, when it's so often contrary to human nature. Like seatbelts, or helmet laws. Only idiots think they don't save lives. But instead of the obvious thing, people try to turn it into a political battle of individual rights. As an elected politician or public servant, you can't say "you're a fucking moron, stop being dumber than a three year old."

 

What I'd like to know is if that figure for police officers is comparing police officers as a whole (primarily male) to society as a whole (barely significant female lead in population) rather than taking into account that virtually all completed suicides are men.

 

Funny you should ask that. After streetpattern's post, I tried looking up politician's suicide rates. Couldn't find any with a quick search. But then found an article discussing what you asked. According to that article, after adjustments, the LEO suicide rate was slightly less than the national average, and also less than the average for soldiers. Still, most of us do undergo psychological screening and background investigations. And suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

 

Well, not always. It's a dick move to suggest that someone continue on living if there is a 10% chance of chemo success or that they'll just find another wife to make new kids with after that horrible car crash.

 

Well cancer is often a permanent problem. Ask both of my parents. But they were still active and participating until the end. They just weren't strapped to life support.

Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I think about the Jews who survived the concentration camps. The ones who lost families in gas chambers and ovens. The ones who experienced the worst that humanity has ever wrought upon itself. And how many of those people came out on the other side, and put lives back together and still contributed to society. Who didn't give up. I'm sure many many were hurting, and lived with pain for the rest of their lives. But the world was better off with them.

 

Glad to hear that both of your parents were among the ranks that weren't strapped to life support. A lot of people are instantly crippled by their ailments and society expects them to suffer attached to machines instead of die with dignity.

Nothing like leaning over a loved one and telling them, "Nope, you've got to keep drawing ragged breaths in absolute agony because every moment alive is sacred. Continue shitting yourself and enjoying terrible full body muscle cramps."

And whenever I feel sorry for myself I avoid comparing myself to people who went through absolutely horrible things I can't possibly imagine and survived only by dumb luck and the mercy of their inhuman captors. It keeps me tethered.

 

For the record there are some arguments in the talmud for suicide under extraordinary circumstances such as the holocaust or circumstances of Yehareg ve'al ya'avor, but universal agreement that martyrdom is preferable.

See the thing isn't that we can't, it's that we won't.

 

And that's the whole point: Choice. Dignity. Acceptance.