Living at a high altitude may make people 30% more likely to commit suicide

boing
21

As you allude to, Las Vegas has it’s own set of social ills, and at an altitude of 2000 feet is not what this Colorado native would call “high altitude”.

For that matter, Salt Lake City at 4300 ft, and with about 1/3 of Utah’s population, is not exactly high country either.

This study is bullshit, pure and simple.

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This one works in reverse. The states that have less population density and more rural open space generally tend to be leading indicators.

More social isolation? Less work opportunities if things go south? Greater firearm ownership? Or just an immaterial metric? Maybe all of the above.

\ Vermont is always towards the top of these per-capita lists because the population is so low. The 2004 graphics in the article have VT in the range between 12.34-and 14.93 suicides per 100,000 – 93 total, ranked #12. For comparison, Rhode Island, with 85 suicides, was ranked #47.

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What’s wrong with Oregon, then? Most of the population there lives at low elevation.

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One word: weather

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I’m from Oregon, and I like the weather just fine. It’s way worse over here on the east coast. Also, if that’s the case, why is Washington doing better? The weather’s pretty much the same.

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This explains why the Mormon invasion of Los Angeles in the 20s lead to the flattening of many of our landmark hills Downtown. They know trouble when they see it.

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Well, I’m sitting here in Northern Utah. From personal experience I blame 3 things:

  • The weather spends 4 months every winter and 2 months every summer doing it's best to kill us. And, everybody tells us to enjoy it instead of complain. For the last week, every day has been worse than the one before it. I am looking outside at below 0F with winds gusting up to 30MPH. I'm afraid to go to sleep for fear of how it's going to top that tomorrow. Instead, I'm reading the BoingBoing backlog.. If I'd wanted this, I could have moved to North Dakota. If I EVER find the bastard that came up with that "Greatest Snow on Earth" slogan, there WILL be blood..
  • Utah isn't actually a rural state. All the population is huddled around a handful of water sources. It just looks rural due to the vast stretches of dry, deadly space. If you try to move away from all the crazy monkeys, the thirst will kill you even faster than the weather.
  • Our local culture strongly represses outward displays of depression and unhappiness. If we are actually depressed and unhappy, we have little opportunity to address it until it overwhelms us.

If the altitude is causing us to not be able to think clearly about our problems, it is more likely to be helping, instead of hurting…

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28

Low population and isolation seems a more plausible explanation to me. That plus the weather maybe.

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