I think often about my neighbor Larry Spitzer’s question, back during Aberdeen’s great library debate, about why South Dakota would want to be like Minnesota.
Gee, Larry, maybe so our kids wouldn’t feel like killing themselves as often?
The Legislature’s interim committee on mental health service access heard a presentation from our Health and Social Services departments back in September about suicide in South Dakota. Suicide is on the rise everywhere in the U.S., but it’s worse in South Dakota than in Minnesota:
South Dakota has the tenth-worst suicide rate in the nation, 22.6 suicides per 100,000 residents; Minnesota is back at 38th with 15.0 suicides per 100K, below the national rate of 15.4.
Just about four out of five suicides in South Dakota are committed by males:
South Dakota’s suicide rate has doubled since the 1970s:
The suicide rate among our tribal neighbors is more than three times that of us Euro-colonialist. But that’s not just something to shove off on Kristi Noem’s pick for Tribal Relations Secretary, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate chairman David Flute. We all need to work together to figure out why American Indians kill themselves at higher rates in South Dakota and in Minnesota than Indians do in the rest of the country.
And all South Dakotans need to figure out how we’re making South Dakota a less bearable place to live than Minnesota and how we can reverse that.
Suicide arises from personal pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret. People who’ve survived suicide attempts have reported wanting not so much to die as to stop living. If some in-between state existed, some other alternative to death, many suicidal people would take it.
America doesn’t look to South Dakota for much. You’re not innovative because new things invoke an aversion that’s highly uncomfortable to most Americans of German heritage. Living in SD is a daily struffle to keep yourself smiling and above water, let alone to help someone else.
So … if another mental state is needed to avert suicide, take this advice. If you’re having pain, guilt, anger and regretful thoughts that are becoming overwhelming, move the hell out of there. Things are better other places. Running away isn’t cowardly just because pig-headed Germans or tribal elders tell you it is. You owe it to yourself to put yourself first.
With Kristi Noem for governor, I project nothing so much as an uptick in suicides.
“Suicide arises from personal pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret.”
Porter, I think it may be more than that. Shame often plays a big role, as does hopelessness and fear. There’s a great deal of nuance that goes beyond our simple words.
At any rate, what makes a difference? I think the easy answer is ample mental health resources. Any SD mental health provider will tell you that SD is woefully underserved on all levels, from schools up to geriatric mental health care.
Looking at the first chart makes me think that isolation plays a role because Montana and Wyoming lead the way by a substantial margin.
I think the male culture of self-sufficiency probably plays a big part in the much higher rate rate of male suicides. I really want men to modify the toxic side of masculinity because I don’t want to see my friends and relatives die by suicide.
If SD would reform the tax system to a truly adequate level through a democratic and progressive income tax, there would be more $ and I’d want to see a steady stream dedicated to providing adequate mental health options throughout the state.
If the state can force it’s way into a perfectly healthy woman’s medical appointment, it ought to be just as eager to provide a complete range of health care, including mental.
….But is we Mississippi ?
Our state has the tenth-worst suicide rate in the nation because of our stedfast undying love for every detail within ‘our way of life.’ Just stay tough out there, and you’ll live through it just fine. Just remember, what ever you do, all you gotta remember is just don’t kill yourself. That’s all you gotta remember. Some people forget that life is really actually over when you kill yourself; and some people can really use a reminder now and then.
OR people can go try to make a better life for themselves somewhere else where life measures up to national standards.
One day, it might become appropriate for SD tax dollars to be dedicated to public health messaging like, “not that far away, they do happen to have more and different fun stuff and more different people to meet.”
Poverty? Manlove MD (RC) has good ideas but Republicans say not politically feasible. NGO Frontporch Coalition struggles for funding to prevent, and comfort survivors after, “successful” completions (usually guns). Gotta love NRA:(
Debbo, you have covered a lot of the causes. Poverty and societal expectations lead to a lot of depression. I’ve witnessed what happens when someone is battling Bipolar along with chronic pain with no healthcare. It took years to patch together some treatment through low cost and free treatment. He’s still often feeling like a burden because he can’t work or contribute to his family. Society needs to help people so they can function. If we provided more and better mental health care as well as health care in general, we’d put more people in jobs instead of prison and suicides would go down dramatically.