Financial crisis becomes a personal crisis for many

Financial crisis becomes a personal crisis for many

POSTED 10/22/2008 - Earlier this year, an Ocala, Florida resident killed his dog and his wife, set fire to his home and then killed himself. His home had just gone into forclosure.

In July, when police delivered an eviction notice at a Middleburg, Florida home of a former Green Beret and his wife, the couple barricaded themselves inside. Eventually, he was talked into surrendering and arrested.

A Pinellas Park resident, a 44-year-old disabled, single dad who lost his jobwas facing eviction. When police arrived, he was armed and pointed his gun at police. He was shot and killed.

Just over an hour before her foreclosed homes was scheduled to be sold at auction, one woman faxed a letter to her mortgage company, letting them know that "by the time they foreclosed on the house today she'd be dead." After that, she took a high-powered rifle and shot herself.

The faltering economy is affecting lives and families across the nation. Suicide hot lines calls are increasing and the number of stories like those above are troubling. While acts of suicide or violence are not usually based only on one event, many wonder if the country’s financial meltdown has been the catalyst for some people.

This is hardly surprising. Rates of stress, depression, and suicide invariably climb in times of economic turmoil. As Kathleen Hall, founder and CEO of the Stress Institute in Atlanta, told USA Today's Stephanie Armour earlier this year, "Suicides are very much tied to the economy."

And in a recent Associated Press report on the Georgia Crisis Line, 930 callers used words such as mortgage foreclosure, bank and debt when describing their problems to the hotline's counselors from July to September.

Researchers published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine report the suicide rate in the U.S. rose from 1999 to 2005, the first increase after a decline of more than a decade, fueled by a 17 percent rise among middle-aged whites.

"I don't know what's going on with this age group," said Susan Baker, a professor at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who led the analysis. "With the present economic crisis, I'm concerned we may be heading into a period where it's especially important for primary care physicians to pay attention to people in this age group."