CDC Tracks Thoughts of Suicide in Adults, State by State
http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/21/cdc-tracks-thoughts-of-suicide-in-adults-state-by-state/?hpt=he_c2
1. Why do certain regions have higher percentages of people contemplating suicide?
2. What made scientists analyze people's thoughts about suicide apposed to actual suicide rates?
3. What audience is targeted in this article? How does this article effect the the targeted audience?
This article is intended to encourage people to help those with suicidal thoughts. The target audience would be those who may be dealing with someone who has suicidal thoughts. In reality, this article reaches out to everyone, since all of us are responsible for helping those that are hurting. Song most likely wrote this article with hopes of effecting the target audience in a way that she raises awareness of suicidal thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIt's impossible to really narrow down exactly why certain regions have higher percentages than others, but the article brings up the possible causes. I think one of the reasons the CDC took the poll of those who were contemplating suicide because it is more likely for someone to admit they thought about suicide instead of admitting they've tried to. I think the audience they're trying to bring in could be people interested in psychology, or it could be for people who are thinking about suicide to make them feel less alone since such there are such high percentages. This article could also work a placebo affect on the audience, that if they move to a certain state their thoughts of suicide and feelings of depression could lower.
ReplyDeleteThere seem to be several theories as to why there is such a large discrepancy between suicide rates in various parts of the country. I'm not sure I can take a concrete stance one way or another, but I will say that the theory stating that people who migrate to certain areas of the country are inherently more prone to suicide seems a bit farfetched to me.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I commend the scientists who deemed it was necessary to study those who have thoughts of suicide as opposed to those who have actually committed suicide. To be blunt, suicide is one of those things that once it,s done...it's done. Therefore it makes sense that we focus our efforts on prevention, and studying trends in suicidal behavior/thoughts may be the best way to go about that.
I don't think that there necessarily is a "target" audience in this piece. The numbers show that there is a good chance that each and every one of us knows someone who has contemplated suicide. Hopefully this research results in a better understanding of the behaviors that are a precursor to possible suicide attempts.
I also think that it is difficult to figure out why anyone is suicidal unless they tell you themselves. It is very interesting though that certain regions have various average numbers. I think that the article gives good reasons why some areas are more at risk, such as isolated places with more access to guns. Utah was mentioned as well. From my own mind, perhaps the pressure of defending a different religion (Mormon), and family practices (polygamy) get to people. I mention this because Utah are where these two factors are most prevalent.
ReplyDeleteCertain regions fall host to an unusually high number of suicides because of something the article describes as "selective migration" which is the idea that people with similar suicidal tendencies migrate to the same location. i feel like that is a serious stretch though and that it could be that people in similar areas are all suicidal because of various similarities in that area like weather and economics. the article also says that areas with high unemployment and divorce rates can play a factor in suicide levels which makes sense.
ReplyDeletethe article was probably written and published to create awareness for people who are not at suicide risk to be able to be more effective in preventing suicides
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ReplyDeleteI feel the article isn't targeting anyone specific and that instead, it's just trying to create awareness. The article has mentioned that suicide can be prevented a few times; I think that's the point the author is trying to make.
ReplyDeleteThe "selective migration" brought up in the article is a bit far-fetched in my opinion. I agree with Nikki. The rates might be higher in certain states because of the environment there, and not because of who moves there.
If scientists only focus on suicide rates, their research won't have any meaning in it. They're only giving us numbers on how many suicides happen but that won't really make a difference in the world. All we will know is how many people commit suicide. But if they actually conduct research on what people think of suicide, I feel suicides might be able to be prevented.
Some regions such as the West and Midwest areas have more ratios of suicide than South and Northeast. From the article the author explained about these phenomena. I explained that the people who have the greater at suicide have crowed in same region where the regions that have the socio problems.
ReplyDeleteSo far there only has been the analysis of actual rates of suicide not the analyzing the patterns of suicide. However, this Dr. Thomas M. Frieden make the new ways of survey to find out what are the common factors that suicides have as he hopes that these can acts as one of ways to prevent the people who are at risk of suicide.
In my opinion, broadly this article aim at the whole groups of people since it is the very useful information for each one of person. However, for more specific purpose, I think the author aims at the groups of people who are in risks of suicide such as those who live in the regions where have the high rates of social problems or high rates of suicide risks. Thus this article will tell the groups of people, for those who have intention to suicide or have thoughts having the suicide before, that the intention to be suicide can be fixed as what the author mentions in his article “suicide is a preventable tragedy”.
I think that this article is more to spread awareness and not targeting a specific group. Although the opening statement is referring to the adults that considered sucide, it still seems like a general caustion. I think scientist looked at the thoughts instead of the suicide rates because it all starts with the mind when considering suicide. If the scientist can get a sense of what is causing people to do this action (suicude) then they will gain better understanding of the situation.
ReplyDeleteI believe this article was targeted at people who have had suicidal thoughts and/or attempts.Because recent searches have been conducted about actual suicide cases, The CDC, in my opinion, believes looking at at suicide contemplation should be the intial solution. Thinking on a subject means, you havent made up your mind, in other words there is a chance for your thought process to become altered, for example, "This report highlights that we have opportunities to intervene before someone dies by suicide. We can identify risks and take action before a suicide attempt takes place," said CDC director Dr. Thomas M. Frieden in a statement.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article, certain regions have higher percentages of people contemplating suicide for a number different, yet, unverifiable reasons. I feel like the article doesn’t give concrete reasons why the percentages are higher in certain places. Maybe it’s because the region has bad things occurring in it? Well, that’s everywhere in my opinion. Maybe it’s because of “selective migration”? That seems a little strange to me...if a person wasn’t happy where they were in life, possibly contemplating suicide in, say, a hometown, is that person more likely to pack up their lives, get out of their hometown, try to better themselves, and move to a region where they’re even more likely to commit or contemplate suicide? That just doesn’t seem right to me. Even though statistically, some regions have higher percentages, those numbers don’t tell us what the reason for the suicide was. Someone from the West could have the same reason for committing suicide as someone from the Northeast did.
ReplyDeleteThe scientists probably analyzed people’s thoughts about suicide so they could infer how likely people were to contemplate/commit suicide from how they answered or reacted to questions about the issue.
I don’t think there’s one specific targeted audience in this article. It’s not a persuasive piece aimed towards changing the opinion of a specific group, it’s more of an informative article. It not only presents us with information, but also makes us think about it's content further, for example, why different regions have different suicide percentages.
I feel this article leaves out one other possible reason for the mid west to be in a higher suicide bracket. I know a lot of people who suffer from seasonal depression which means once the weather turns cold they get into a funk. This could be a large contributing factor in the mid west. Also this applies directly to the CDC in itself I have found out through research on my ARP that we can't always believe what the CDC puts out. They sometimes are persuaded to release exaggerated numbers.
ReplyDeleteThis article really opened my eyes big time. 8 million people? That is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. Everyone experiences a little hardship in their lives, but suicide should never be a thought that crosses your mind. Suicide effects more people than any average person can even comprehend. It tears families apart, causes unbelievable sadness and heartache, and is absolutely unwarranted.
ReplyDeleteI did find it interesting that more women contemplate suicide, yet most ate unable to pull it off. It's great that they don't ruin their lives by committing such a malicious act, but how many woman try, struck me as interesting. I've always felt women have it more together than men do, so this really surprised me.
Reading this kind of put me in a sad mood. Thinking of all the deaths and all those children that no longer have parents made a tear come to my eye. The level of sympathy I have for those families is not possible to put into words. I just hope that some of these statistics collected help eliminate as many suicides as possible.
-Collin
In the Midwest and West states, there's a higher rate of suicide than other states. After reading this article, I may agree with the author's opinion that a higher rate of suicide attempts and much more percentage of people have the thoughts of suicide in these states result in this difference, which a certain region has a higher percentage of people contemplating suicide. Also, due to the article, I think people who have a greater risk would like to migrate to the same area. And this is the other important reason that why the certain region has a higher rate of suicide. Additionally, the audience of this article should especially be the adult people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melody and Samantha in the fact that there doesn't seem to be a specific audience and that it's meant more as an informative piece.
ReplyDeleteI found the article really interesting and relevant to today's society. There are so many factors in society today that could drive people to think, or even go through with, suicide.
Going along with the first question, there doesn't seem to be an exact scientific reason why certain regions have higher suicide rates than others. There are just theories. The theory of sociodemographics, which states that certain regions may have higher suicide rates than others because there are more women and younger adults in those areas, makes the most sense to me.
In ROTC, they really stress how suicide is as Pam Hyde puts it "a preventable tragedy." They do multiple briefings on it, and make sure we're all watching out for each other.
Like Collin said, reading this kind of put me in a sad mood. It also makes me think a lot. It really makes you wonder what people are thinking around you and if they are really OK.
I think that certain regions have higher rates of people contemplating suicide for two reasons. One of the reasons is population. You have to take in account for the fact that rhode island is the smallest state in the U.S. so their ratio might be bigger than other states with more people. Another reason is due to regional climate. I think that weather affects the moods of everyone. Based on what I have seen in my own mood changes and others around me, terrible weather contributes to depression. With the sun being blocked out, our bodies do not receive the natural vitamin D that the sun produces. So the southern states would be less likely to have suicidal thoughts due to the favorable weather they receive. I think they focus on the contemplation of suicide because it is significantly higher statistically than those who commit suicide.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the article, one rhetorical pattern popped up. The author put red links to other related article between paragraphs that were grouped together. I thought the article was really just stating facts about a study and did not really take a side and go deeper to analyze the findings. The articles audience are people who follow what the CDC do and people in fields that are in the same fields of suicide, educated people and people who are thinking about suicide. This article lets people know the new info dealing with suicide and letting people know who are suicidal that there is help out there. The article explains what the study means and what people found analyzing the study but the article itself does not do any analyzing. I thought it was smart to survey thoughts not just deaths. This helps up prevent suicides. Another rhetorical pattern I observed was that the article throws a lot of facts at the audience and it is more of an informative article.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons that the scientists chose to start focusing on suicidal thoughts instead of suicide attempts, was to try to prevent suicides. This study of suicidal thoughts will help prevent suicide so that scientists can implement suicidal prevention programs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jason's post, although he seems to have more evidence than me to back up seasonal depression as a factor to midwest suicide rates. I know when the temperature starts to drop and the sun goes away for a few months people are less happy. I don't think there was a target audience for this piece. The author just wanted to get the facts out.
ReplyDeleteLike Jenny, and Jason said, seasonal depression influences the midwest incredibly. The article is geared towards people who are contemplating suicide (to know that they are not alone) and for people who don't realize what a large problem this is (to get more people involved in reducing these numbers).
ReplyDelete