How Will You Face Life’s End?

Let’s help men end the trend

It is not unknown that many people who serve in the military were the first to be identified as having PTSD. Male veterans are almost four times more likely to commit suicide.

There are many factors in this and many theories. One is that most veterans are men. One is that most being male, men are more prone to depression when young. Then in middle age, they are most prone to feeling less accomplished by constructed measures of wealth and status.

One construct is that men are ‘naturally’ more violent, so suicide risk is more potentially lethal. Still, other assumptions are that social change, and things like feminism and women’s more independent modern ability are factors. Differences in how men identify in their assigned roles of masculinity also play a part in how men give up on life. Addiction as a means to self-medicate trauma and personal issues plays its part. Yet another factor is the uniquely USA view of having access to guns.

It is also worth noting that while many military veterans have seen much less live combat, suicide rates have risen dramatically. There is a big problem with former service members, but they are far from being the only victims. Their families and their communities suffer from everything from domestic violence to homelessness.

Let’s all help men end suicidal trends, and in doing so, we help women, too.

Autocracy and crazy myths of manhood

Putin is famously a “strong man,” meaning he will not betray emotions, show human feelings, respect women and minorities, climate activists, or tolerate LGBTQ+ people.

He invaded Ukraine as a display of how powerful Russia is. He continues to attack the most vulnerable there, because of a twisted view of manhood that does not take into consideration the incredible power of resilience.

This displays that our mistaken mindsets can circle

around the world, and into our hurting hearts.

India is a case study of patriarchy and male suicide costs.

Then there is Iran, and many other patriarchal systems and regimes.

The personal end and the planetary end

Weather-related disasters may not seem, at first, to be a reason to commit suicide. But when a drought or famine means you cannot support yourself or loved ones, your livestock is dead, and economic debt is also present, people more readily will give up hope.

Also to be factored in are deaths from zoonotic disease, grief from those losses, alienation, and desperation. Avian flu, for example, has destroyed not just millions of dead hens, but thousands of small scale farmers.

It is realistic, not alarmist, to note these have already begun.

In short, we will probably not live to see as many homes flooded or on fire as we will see a massive surge in suicide. Nor will we see massive cities burning and Mad Max style brutality and crime.

No matter where you live, you are likely to know someone in the next decades who just wants to opt-out.

People burn out. They get exhausted. We are human.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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