[somesortofthing]

Depends on the time horizon you choose. If you look at US stats, we're only 1.5 suicides per 100000 people above a previous post-WWII peak in the early 80s. Suicide rates in the first half of the 20th century were downright apocalyptic by modern standards, sometimes reaching 22 per 100000 before sharply declining post-WWII. If you want to look outside the US, Japan used to(~2000-~2010) hover at ~20 suicides per 100000, compared to our current all-time high of 14.

The increase is significant, but I wouldn't call it definitive proof of an urgent crisis.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/suicide

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/lw/2.0/html/tileshop_pmc/t...

[benreesman]

If you roll in deaths from substance abuse (particularly opioids) and other “deaths of despair” the figures are a bit more striking. Zoom in on one a few gigantic demographic blocks and they become more striking still.

One would hope that people are feeling less desperate today than a period of time that includes two world wars and a Great Depression, that’s a really low bar for what many claim is a great time to be alive.

[RGamma]

Clear-cut suicide is incredibly difficult to pull off psychologically and represents the tip of the iceberg. Look at depression, addiction, overdose, homelessness, extremism.

It's supposedly the greatest time to be alive (as opposed to war times), but an increasing proportion of people are voting against that with their lives. And the damage of that accrues in those left behind, in families and communities.

[AnimalMuppet]

I don't think "all-time" means what you think it means...

[somesortofthing]

That's fair. It's more of a post-WWII peak. I've edited the post.