A two-decade suicide spike has given commentators and scientists time to formulate hypotheses. But the holes in their arguments actually make the crisis appear even more mysterious.
For example, Singer explained, for “a long time,” suicidologists believed that youth suicide corresponded with other risky teenage behaviors—drinking, having sex, doing drugs, etc. But as such behaviors have become less common, teen suicide has only risen—in other words, less risk now means more suicide, not less.
Andrews suggested that the spike has something to do with both cultural and economic changes. But the latter explanation highlights something equally weird: The suicide rate seems largely unrelated to the business cycle, growing just as quickly before, during, and after the Great Recession.
Other curiosities emerge when one more closely examines less-scholarly explanations.
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