Altitude - Higher suicidal rate?

[haidut]

That's why I excluded Vegas. Throw Vegas out and Colorado Springs tops the list. Colorado Springs is known for its altitude.

What about Santa Fe, NM or some of the California towns up in the mountains?
One quick thought - higher in the mountains could mean less sunshine exposure. Mountain weather tends to be foggy, rainy and cold-ish. Lack of sunlight has a good track record of increasing suicide rates.

Colorado is known for it's abundant sunshine with over 300+ days per year. It's sunnier than 90% of
The USA.

I have definitely heard this about Denver. Not so sure about the entire Colorado.

 

[Milklove]

Maybe higher radiation levels at high altitude have an impact.

The effects of radiation are actually weaker at higher altitude.

 

[iLoveSugar]

"They have a very high military population, with various bases, and veterans have a high suicide rate. (Physicians and cops are other occupations with high suicide rates". -RP

 

[iLoveSugar]

That does not make sense though. How comes there are no other big military populations on the list such as places in Texas, the Carolinas, etc.?

 

[Such_Saturation]

I thought Bhutan had highest happiness level? Scandinavia seems like it would score fairly low.

 

[EnLilaSko]

I thought Bhutan had highest happiness level? Scandinavia seems like it would score fairly low.

Scandinavia scores high, actually, all of the three Scandinavian countries are in the top 5.
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publication ... port-2013/

 

[Such_Saturation]

I thought Bhutan had highest happiness level? Scandinavia seems like it would score fairly low.

Scandinavia scores high, actually, all of the three Scandinavian countries are in the top 5.
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publication ... port-2013/

But how is someone happier than me if he kills himself?

 

[EnLilaSko]

I thought Bhutan had highest happiness level? Scandinavia seems like it would score fairly low.

Scandinavia scores high, actually, all of the three Scandinavian countries are in the top 5.
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publication ... port-2013/

But how is someone happier than me if he kills himself?

What? ...
That makes no sense, please expand.

If you're talking about suicide, it's a common myth that Sweden (and by expansion, the Scandinavian countries) have the highest suicide numbers in the world. If we check the statistics, we're far down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate
First Scandinavian country is Norway at 35, 2 places behind the United States. Sweden is at 43.

 

[Such_Saturation]

I thought Bhutan had highest happiness level? Scandinavia seems like it would score fairly low.

Scandinavia scores high, actually, all of the three Scandinavian countries are in the top 5.
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publication ... port-2013/

But how is someone happier than me if he kills himself?

What? ...
That makes no sense, please expand.

If you're talking about suicide, it's a common myth that Sweden (and by expansion, the Scandinavian countries) have the highest suicide numbers in the world. If we check the statistics, we're far down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate
First Scandinavian country is Norway at 35, 2 places behind the United States. Sweden is at 43.

That makes sense now, thanks!

 

[sm1693]

I will venture another take on this issue and propose that possibly, suicide itself isn't the function of a completely disabled human being. Perhaps it is a typical response to really high, consistent, unavoidable stress when serotonin is absent.

I propose that a completely broken human does not even have the capacity to kill himself. The motivation and follow-through will not be there. I know from experience that very high serotonin nearly completely incapacitates a person from deciding to step outside, much less, the far greater decision of putting a gun to ones head and actually pulling the trigger.

Perhaps humans are simply protected from higher serotonin somehow at the higher altitudes.

I hate an emotionally unbalanced post, so I will end with a twisted joke (plagiarized):

I phoned the Islamic Samaritans today.

When I said I was feeling suicidal, they got all excited and asked if I knew how to fly a plane.