The incidences of suicides among the generation are up, and there’s concern that the rate will climb higher in the coming years, prompting one psychiatrist to wonder if Boomers have a death wish.
Typically, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, those over the age of 80 have the highest rate of suicide. But the organization’s most recent statistics on violent deaths show that Baby Boomers aged 45 to 54 now have the highest suicide rate.
The stats show the 45-to-54 age group had a suicide rate of 17.6 per every 100,000 people. The second highest was the 75-to-84 age range, with a rate of 16.4, followed by those between 35 and 44, with 16.3.
The rate for 45-to 54-year-olds continues rise: it was 17.2 per 100,000 people in 2006, and it was 16.3 in 2005. As to the underlying causes, analysts point to high incidence of drug and alcohol abuse, and high rates of depression.
“Ninety percent of people who kill themselves have a mental disorder at the time of their death,” which can be aggravated by drug and alcohol abuse, Dr. Paula Clayton, the medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, told the New York Times.
Baby Boomers often encounter a challenging future as they turn the corner on completing their careers and raising their children. At this time, they look down a long road of aging.
Survey after survey has shown that most Baby Boomers aren’t prepared for the normalcy of a retirement defined by previous generations – most Boomers just won’t have the money to fully kick back. And they’re feeling quite stressed about it all – the finances, the aging, the feeling that some day they won’t be in control of what’s happening to them.
A survey from Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America showed that 61 percent of Boomers fear outliving their money in retirement more than death. Which means they’d rather be dead than abject poor?
All this has given rise to an observation by psychiatrist Mark Goulston. He wrote recently in Psychology Today that “an increasing number of white middle-class baby boomers, as they face the prospect of becoming old, enfeebled and a financial and emotional burden on their children,” take their lives before any of that can happen.
Baby Boomers are their own worst enemy when it comes to lack of patience, said Goulston. And that lack of patience has been passed on to their children. His fear is that the Boomers’ lack of patience to deal with some of the consequences of aging, combined with their children’s lack of patience, will contribute to a culture that fosters the idea that “checking out” is a better option than sticking it out.
But Goulston expressed hope for what he sees as the best outcome:
“Most likely, what will happen is that when the middle class Millennials grow up and are in the position of having to take care of their elderly baby boomer parents, they will find a way (as their baby boomer parents have) to help pay for their care and delegate their caring to third world caretakers who still retain God’s gift of patience towards those in their care (which is why many a middle class baby boomer declares such caretakers ‘Godsends’).”
Paul Briand, Journalist and Baby Boomer Expert
About the Author
Paul Briand spent 33 years in newspaper journalism. Based in New Hampshire, he now writes about issues of interest to Baby Boomers.
Read even more of Paul Briand’s published articles here.
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