Posted by:
NormaRae
(
)
Date: September 11, 2018 10:42AM
This article was linked to in one of my morning feeds for HR professionals. I found it so interesting but the disconnect kind of makes my head spin.
https://wallethub.com/edu/happiest-states/6959/#
So Utah is listed as the 2nd happiest state. Some of the good indicators are 2nd in sports participation, 1st in volunteer rate (I discount that one--we know it's skewed), 1st in fewest work hours, 5th in income growth, 1st in lowest divorce rate. All good, right? Then why do they have the 5th HIGHEST suicide rate?
From my own experience, I can say that the most suicidal I ever was was when I felt stuck in my marriage and thought I could never possibly get divorced and support myself. With Utah having so many families where they have more than 1 or 2 kids and the woman has very little education, could that influence the low divorce and high suicide rates? Could it be people answering "yes, I'm SO happy" because that's what they're supposed to be? I probably would have done that too. "Yes, this is happiness isn't it?" Until there are no amount of anti-depressants to cover up the fact that it isn't. Is the high "volunteer rate" (i.e., people being compelled to give hours and hours of their time to "charity") a driver in the suicide rate? I give a lot of my time to volunteer work now and nothing makes me happier. But it's 1) things I actually volunteer for, and 2) doing things that lead to improvement in people's lives or advancement of their civil rights. I'm sure that's the concept behind the "volunteer rate" tied to happiness level that they try to measure.
Or is it that there is a much larger than average rate of LGBTQ and teen suicide? Am I the only one who doesn't get this?