suicide rate

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I was just reading online "Psychology Today," an article by Lynne Soroya. According to her, the suicide attempt rate is 28 times higher among our young people than for NTs' in the same age group. I knew it was higher than for NTs',but 28 times higher? I am so upset. People, we HAVE to do something, if not for ourselves personally, then for our people. Please, help our children. I would be thrilled if you were to come to our mini retreat in February, but if you don't, well, please, do SOMETHING. Every day.

Sometimes cats do hang together. It's called a clowder. [learned that on WP] There is so much we can do, if we only do it. together, we CAN change the world, and in a good way. NOW truly is the time [slightly off subject, but this could be part of the reason there are so few of us dinosaurs hanging around]

May I ask you one favor. Read Martin Luther Kings "I have a Dream," and insert autistics and our challenges where appropriate. I am autistic and I am emotional. I am not ashamed of it. Sometimes the most logical action is to allow our emotions to spur us on to do what is right. some say that Lewis Carroll was most likely autistic. That did not stop him from believing 6 impossible things before breakfast. And it did not stop Martin luther King either.

Good Lord: 28 times higher? Got a link for that?

I don't know why that's a surprise. If you're neurotypical, you aren't such a magnet for ridicule, bullying and verbal abuse - or at least, you're better equipped to deal with them when they do occur. When your brain processes sensory data inefficiently, all you can do when psychologically or physically assaulted is shut down and wait for it to be over.

Add to that the isolation of watching everyone else function smoothly and easily while you struggle to even understand what's expected of you; the bitter loneliness of not knowing how to make connections with other people and being paralyzed by fear, awkwardness and selective mutism when you even think of attempting it.

Then, of course, there's the pressure of being told repeatedly that you could overcome these handicaps if you only tried harder - as if we could repair the faulty wiring in our brains by sheer force of will. Its a recipe for low self esteem.

Multiply that pain and self-loathing over years and it increases exponentially with the passing of time.

28 times seems low. I'm surprised any of us survive into adulthood.

Link
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/asp ... nd-suicide

The study suggests that what Willard said above for the reasons is correct.

I am SOOOO technology challenged that I don't know how to link, but if you google, Psychology Today, Lynne Soroya, suicide rate for autistics, it should pop right up.

Martin Luther King reminded us not to drink from the cup of hatred and bitterness, but it is so hard. I am tired of making excuses for NTs', that they don't know any better, that it's an unfortunate part of the pack mentality wiring. Not while they are driving our babies to take their own lives

So often in the Haven here on WP, young people are feeling no hope, no reason to live.These are our children. These are many of you. These are our people. I KNOW that it's hard for us to work together, but, for most of us, there is also the "overdeveloped" sense of justice. Awesome! Let's use that!

PLEASE!

That doesn't surprise me. I was very suicidal in my teens due to the verbal abuse I got from my peers, teachers and parents. I felt that I only had two choices. Be a hippie or commit suicide. My hippiehood was a way of saying, "I'm not really here, so you can't really hurt me with your words and extremely low expectations. It also got some annoying bullies off my back and they didn't order me to embarrass myself in front of my peers by telling me to dance or put on acts. I didn't listen to those sad bastards anyways, even before I made those changes. My parents are still in the dark as far as my Gender Dysphoria and Homosexuality, because I don't feel that they can deal with any more of my differences. My mum attempted to castrate my imaginary penis by comparing me to the sensitive and unworldly Mick Avory in 1998. It's been much more of a compliment to me than girl, upon my facing reality four years ago online and in real life. I'm not suicidal anymore because of my values and beliefs that have grown over the past 7 years. My opinions about political, life and religion.

The memories are still there. They will always be there. I have a nerve that will always be triggered when I see an autistic or disabled child being chastised in public for things they can't help that their peers can, which I don't want to get into the dirty or painful details. I have the face to prove the hardships of ostracism - The Avory face as I like to call it, and I see it as a permanent war badge of honour. My face is my badge of honour.

I can get very hyper and energetic with memories and flashbacks ready to pop out at me against the backgrounds of streets and public places. If my nerve is triggered, I need to go for a brisk 2 hour walk or do an intense 30-50 minute aerobic workout that I've made up of different exercises that I've made up through the years.

Vicki just click on anything that is underlined. You should get to the webpage.
You could practice below. It should take you to Google's home Page
https://www.google.com/

Here's the link to the article by Lynne Soraya.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/asp ... nd-suicide

It's saying the rate of suicide ideation plus attempts that's 28 times higher, not the attempt rate.

I would fall in the category of someone who has ideated who is too hypersensitive to pain & fear of being in pain to ever carry out an attempt or self-harm.

During one period of ideation, I researched the quickest and least painful ways to die, with the serious intention of following up any good advice I found. The top two methods located in this search were:

1) Stand in front of speeding train
2) Hypothermia

I ruled 1) out because of the awful effect it would have on the train's driver (I wonder if there's ever been any clinical research into 'suicide train' drivers?), and I couldn't be that selfish.

2) Still sounds like a good bet -- but it was high summer when I was looking! By the time the weather had got anywhere near cold enough, I was feeling a bit better. I still reckon it sounds OK in principle.

Get yourself tanked up on a bottle of your favourite spirit, take all your clothes off and sit outside in the snow. Apparently (according to survivors) one of the first symptoms of approaching death is that you start to feel really warm (this is because the rapidly-cooling body releases high-temperature 'core blood' to try to revive your extremities), and just want to lie down, curl up in a ball and sleep. Only you never wake up, obviously. So that's how I'd do it --

-- not that I would be so selfish as to take my own life and destroy my mother's and my sister's lives. (Not sure what Dad would make of it). Well, perhaps if I'm the last surviving member of my family and old age is getting on top of me. But that's a long way off yet.

I remember the last (and only) time I was in London, I was talking to a friend of a tube driver who was off work with PTSD after someone had decided to jump in front of his train. Apparently he was in a very bad way.

From my understanding of NT suicide (which has been quite common in my extended family, sadly) - among the young age group, it's primarily the young men who are at risk, and an awful lot of it has to do with relationships, and struggling in them, or being dumped, or not having one. Now, I am not blaming young women, not at all, but I think there is less support for a young man, and generally less knowledge of relationships are given to them than a young female. Perhaps women, who tend to have greater emotional intelligence, are better wired to cope. Maybe younger men should be empowered in a positive way, which avoids misogyny and laddishness. I don't know.

Of course, one could argue that the r problem is just a catalyst for someone who doesn't feel good about themself, and of course there are different reasons why anybody would want to take their own life - so a 'lump everybody into one box' concept is best avoided.

http://news.sky.com/story/1068998/huge- ... rate-in-uk

This is a change - until recently, it was at the age of 20 or 21 when suicide peaked.

I don't know if any of this is useful for understanding Aspie suicide rates.

Having said this, I'm shocked it's 28 times higher for Aspies. Does the OP still think that 'herding cats' is achievable, though?

I am not surprised at all about this statistic. Knowing myself and m own life, it really does not surprise me.

I had hypothermia after a serious suicide attempt a number of years ago. I found a quiet spot in the middle of nowhere and swallowed hundreds of tablets - it took a whole bottle of whisky to wash them all down. I then passed out expecting the end. I awoke a number of hours later barely able to move. I'd vomited most of the tablets all over myself while I was passed out. I ended up in hospital with hypothermia. They thawed me out and released me 24 hours later. So much for that. I've had suicidal thoughts since childhood. It is a miracle I've lasted this long, though I suspect it is inevitable that I'll suicide (successfully) some time in the future, though hopefully not for a good few more years yet.

May I express my hopes for your long-continued and happy existence, O Wise TallyMan?

While it's always good to have an escape plan, in ideal (or acceptable, or even just about passable) circumstances it will never be needed.

I agree with most of your post. I haven't developed self-loathing, I'm more supportive towards myself than that; however the expectations of others to overcome our (my) handicaps by force of will just drags us down further and increases low self esteem.

I don't know what we can do to help the young. The first time I put a rope around my neck was when I was around 14 years old. The other end was attached to a tree branch that I was sitting on. I lowered myself off the branch so I was only hanging on to the branch by my hands... all I had to do was let go and it would have been all over. However, I was unable to let go so clambered back onto the branch and untied the rope - then went home and pretended nothing had happened... as usual.

How can we give hope to the young? I see young people posting in the Haven who are as miserable and close to suicide as I was at that age. We can try to blag it by saying their life will get better and they will be happy in the future but the sad thing is I'd be lying if I said that. Sure, life will work out good for some young people with Asperger's and maybe those people can be "saved". Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I think life will overall be a crock of crap for many of them. There will be good times and bad times, but overall I suspect the bad will outweigh the good. Maybe this is my own pessimism talking - I've had 53 years worth of crap thrown at me one way or another and if anything life is gradually getting worse; I'm now unemployed with little prospect of ever working again, I have no income and my health is deteriorating and diabetes is slowly damaging my brain and other organs. I'm the last person to be able to give hope to anyone. I'm the captain of the Titanic telling the young people onboard that they will be fine - it's just a block of ice.

I really don't mean to make this into about me - but I clash with most autistics IRL. Either because they're hard to get on with, or I am.

This has made it impossible for me to reach out and help them, whenever I've tried to. A lot of people with problems don't want to solve them. This goes for aspies and NTs. So I've given up. I'd like to think I've somehow helped people on here in the past, I'm sure I must've somehow.