Shocking statistics regarding suicide rates among…

Transcript

Today's topic's a little less fun than most of my topics, but certainly no less important. I think it's really critical that we address the rate of suicides in retirement age people just based on how shocking the numbers are. So, people 65 years and older make up about 12% of the population, but they account for 18% of suicides, which is just a terrifying statistic. The other thing that's really dangerous for people in this age group is they tend to plan longer. And since their bodies aren't as sort of hardy as younger people, the combination of the longer planning and the fact that we're just older results in a much higher success rate. So, someone who's 65 or older has a likelihood of carrying out there so that they can do it. So, the significant factors that contribute to this are loneliness, grief and loss, loss of self-sufficiency, chronic illness and pain, cognitive impairment, and financial issues. So, why am I bringing this up on a channel that talks about retirement? It's because of that first reason I mentioned, which is loneliness. When people first retire, especially people like me who had a lot of work relationships, but not a lot of personal relationships, the loneliness is so abrupt and so unexpected that I feel like that is a huge risk factor for people who are in that retirement transition phase. Not me. I haven't experienced any of these thoughts or concerns or issues. But I have experienced the feelings that are always sided with reasons for people to consider taking their own lives. So, I know what it was like to go through those first few months. I didn't have a lot of personal relationships, but I have a really great relationship with my younger brother. I have a great relationship with my wife, my sister. I have a couple of friends. So, I had plenty of social connections to carry me through. A lot of new retirees don't. So, loneliness is a big factor in retirement. It's a big factor in suicide. So, I think it's important enough to bring up when we're talking about retirement and retirement transitioning. Another thing to think about is just because he considers himself sort of a loner curmudgeon who doesn't really like people and likes being alone, doesn't mean that he isn't lonely. Just because a person likes being alone, doesn't mean that he isn't lonely. Just because a person likes being alone, doesn't mean that he isn't lonely. Just because a person likes being alone, doesn't mean that they don't get lonely. Just because a person likes being alone, doesn't mean that they don't get lonely. And I don't know what you do about that, but it's something that you have to understand, like saying, I don't like being around people and I like being alone, isn't the same as saying I never get lonely. In fact, when they talk about disengagement, loneliness, and depression, they talk about how people that are sort of like curmudgeonly, have a tendency to drive people away. And that creates sort of a self-fulfilling problem. of a self-fulfilling prophecy where they're like, see, people didn't like me anyway. Good. I don't want to be around them. And then they're even more sort of grumpy and curmudgeonly and people react, you know, appropriately to that. And it's just like this reinforcement loop. So we have to watch even in people who say they like being alone and they don't really like people. We have to watch for loneliness in them as well. And you've probably heard most of these signs that we're watching for. Um, a big one is just a general loss of interest. And that is, um, unusually higher loss of interest, giving things away more so than usual, avoiding social engagement, a reduction in self-care and hygiene, a preoccupation with death, a lack of concern with personal safety. And a lot of us older guys are looking at this and we're like, well, shoot, those are just old dude standards. And a lot of them are, but some, of them are, um, at least among the people in the, in my age group that I know are not that common. Like, um, like the hygiene thing, like everyone that I know in my group is great at like personal hygiene. So if you see something like that slip, that's a pretty good sign. Um, but mostly you're just looking at, okay, of the old dude characteristics that he exhibits, how many of them is he exhibiting to a higher degree now? So you're looking for an increase or a change in these behaviors. That's why it's so important to ask if someone that you know, um, is starting to exhibit these characteristics. One of the most important things we can do is ask, just ask, are you thinking of taking your life or have you had suicidal thoughts? If you're a person who's in this risk group and, um, and you, and you don't have anyone asking, but you are starting to notice a lot of choices and schön you say, what do a lot of people think, what exactamente are these old stuff, and let me see, uh, how can I tell you specifically if that level is or this is why you shouldn't be starting at the top of the country, why shouldn't you be starting to have a social media feed? Sure. But you know, it's not, it's not, I would rather, um, you just have someone that you really want to understand that memory to download to the network, the network itself trying to, toуем Inner hindrance, to gain communities, but the learning process's the most oleum always so important. Oh, Every one of us fr slam, Just call or text 988, sort of calculated all of the variables and parameters, but we have blind spots and we, we take our stuff to somebody else and they might have three or four significant thoughts that we hadn't considered or considerations and it could actually help. So be aware that you've got blind spots and you haven't thought through all of the considerations and just bounce it off of someone else. And Suicide Prevention Hotline is a great resource because they deal with this all the time. They're going to have like, we always like, especially older people, like we love going to experts because we've realized, you know, we've got, we've got some time in, we've got some expertise and we think to ourself all the time, people should just bring this problem to me. I've solved it a thousand times. This is the same thing. Like the Suicide Prevention Hotline is a great resource because they deal with this all the time. These are people that do this all the time. They are experts in it. So they're going to have thoughts and considerations that we typically wouldn't have considered. So if someone or someone, you know, is exhibiting characteristics, ask them. If you're exhibiting characteristics, call.