More stuff to argue over!! (Las Vegas, Reno: renting, to live in, statistics)

[greatbasinguide]

Found this in the Reno Gazette

Clark County has the nation’s third-highest rate of fatal drug overdose for counties with more than 1 million people, behind only Bronx County, N.Y., and Cook County, Ill.

The state’s rate of death from alcoholic liver disease is 1.7 times that of the national rate and Clark County is ninth among counties with more than 1 million people.
Nevada’s suicide rate is about twice the national figure and Clark County is by far the highest among counties with more than 1 million residents.

[garth]

Heehee, are you trying to work-up olecapt, or are you woking on shaking RWF from the trees?

[olecapt]

I resemble that Garth...

Actually I think it is a pass on of a piece from the LV Sun...

Las Vegas SUN: Nevadans live hard, risk lives (broken link)

It is reasonably clear that Nevada goes as Clark County because of the huge population imbalance. But why would gun suicides be worse in Nevada than in Clark County? There are a few of those that seem to defy the conventional view that the rest of the state is more benign than Vegas.

I would like to see more comparisons to a blue collar state. I find the young folk death rate differential between Nevada and California really hard to understand.

[greatbasinguide]

Me troll?, Nevada, which to me is everywhere outside Clark and Washoe Counties, is small town, often dead end jobs, substance abuse, bad marriages, there are lots of novels and noveletts written about rotten lives in the small towns of the west. Nevada is often the last refuge of those who aren't making it somewhere else, jobs in the mines pay well and don't need many skills, low end jobs in Las Vegas are plentiful.

A lot of dead enders hit their personal dead end in Nevada.

[rawg51]

Hello all. Been browsing the Nevada forums since Feb '07 after landing my job in Las Vegas. Mostly looking for reviews on "good" (highly broad and vague in definition of course) areas to live in (will be renting for the meantime). I've just registered today for the forums and found this post interesting. Mainly because I'm a psychiatrist (in my 30s, married and with a baby in tow . Just to add my 2 cents on the topic, most of the statistical data on suicide rates that our profession would tend to rely on are those that belong to the CDC and can be found on ww.suicidology.org In fact, the "current" statistics on suicide rates on said organization is about 3 years old (e.g. 2004 statistics). Incidentally, and this has been known among many psychiatrists, the intermountain states (i.e. UT, NM, AZ, NV among others) are known to have high suicide rates.

Now, to examine why someone does something violently impulsive such as suicide..that is another issue and of course highly individualized.

P.S.
I'll be driving with my family in tow from Roanoke,VA to Las Vegas, NV this week and am very excited with the move!

[greatbasinguide]

Thanks for the insights. Utah has a high degree of female suicide I understand, has to do with pressure put upon them to conform to the dominant Utah culture.

Then again, the small town West can be very bleak, limited social outlets, limited escape, lousy jobs, drinking. These towns don't have to be that way, but many are. In the dominant Utah culture it is hard to escape the roles laid out for you.

[rawg51]

Hmmmm. There is an interesting old book by a famous colleague (at least from a psychiatrist's perspective/opinion) named Karl Menninger. Title of the book is "Man Against Himself". It has to do with his perspective on why man commits the act of suicide. The motivations behind a suicide act can be pretty varied, sometimes (maybe an understatement) surprising. Also, it is pretty difficult to get a grasp (e.g. know the "real" motives) of the motivations unless one really "knows" that person who intends to "do it". But of course (and why most "scientific research" on humans is an inexact "science"), humans are self-conscious and when subjected to self-consciousness activities tend to behave variably/differently/sometimes unpredictably (e.g. denial, passivity, resignation, self-effacement, etc.)

Ahhhh, don't get me started on those "scientific research" being spread about...oh my, I guess I started it on my own

[greatbasinguide]

You seem like a smart person, why Las Vegas?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

You seem like a smart person, why Las Vegas?

Could not resist could you?

[greatbasinguide]

ho, ho, ho.