Wednesdays -- Not Just for Humping Anymore

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Apparently not everyone looks forward to Wednesday as the mid-point of the work-week anymore, according to a study in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

The study, conducted by Augustine Kposowa (University of California Department of Sociology) and Stephanie D'aura, studied suicide rates from 2000-2004 all over the United States. The goal was to find any relationship between "temporal" factors like day of the week and season of the year.

Surprisingly, the study found a much higher incidence of suicide on Wednesday (24.6%) than any other day of the week -- in fact, they were 99% more likely to occur on Wednesday than on Sunday!


Here's an actual chart from the study:

As you can see, Wednesday suicides are almost double nearly every other day of the week. Why is that?

Kposowa suggested in this MSNBC article that work stress may play a heavy role in this trend. I mean, think about it: you're on your third day of this damn commute, your annoying coworkers (not to mention that one particular crazy bitch who keeps pissing you off), your asshole of a boss...and don't even get me started on the kids and their last minute projects, after-school sports/band/glee club practice, parent-teacher conferences, etc...bills that are due before payday...that spouse/significant other who just won't pick up his pants off your livingroom floor and expects you to get his good shirt drycleaned for an important meeting tomorrow -- never mind the fact that you have projects of your own...

...Okay, I'm getting off track here, sorry...

The point is that everything seems to come to a head on Wednesday, of all days (and certainly not on Mondays, which is typically the most depressing day in the songwriting world). And the weekend (and any hope of a reprieve from it all) still seems so far away. So for someone who's already thinking about suicide, this overwhelming stress can be all it takes to push them into action.

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Why the sudden drop on Thursday? Well, I think that's pretty obvious if you accept the assumption mentioned above. By Thursday you've survived most of the week. Just one more day to go, and heck -- if it's really that bad, you can just start your weekend early.

How the internet and technology are fucking with suicide
trends

This study showed some major deviations from previous assumptions and findings regarding suicide trends. The first, of course, is that traditionally suicides were found to occur more frequently on weekends.

The second trend is that, contrary to previous findings that suicide rates increase in the winter, this study saw that -- if any seasons stood out at all -- suicides were lowest in the winter and highest in the summer.

Again, a chart pulled straight from the study:

No, the steadily increasing obesity rates aren't causing people to take the easy way out in avoiding swimsuit season.

Why, then, are suicides lower in the winter than in summer?

Again, Kposowa has a theory: email, social networking sites, and all those other annoying technological advances that intrude on my life (and yours too, no doubt) actually help people maintain a sense of connection with the outside world. They feel less isolated during those months when no one's going out because it's too cold. And where does everyone go? Why, straight to MySpace and other social networking sites, of course!

The same theory holds true for the weekend -- all those lonely people flock to social networking sites from Friday evening to early Monday morning, where they find mutual comfort in the cold, unloving arms of the internet and the artificial, asocial interaction it provides.

How this will impact your social networking comment postings

Don't put away those sexy images just yet, and don't abandon your pursuit of a really sweet sexual harassment lawsuit, folks.

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This is just one study -- one single study that refutes years of research on suicide trends. Yes, this could indicate a new trend in suicidal tendencies, but more studies are definitely needed before we replace those sexy hump day images with suicide hotline notices.

Which is a shame, because I'd rather see some creative suicide prevention comments.

Just because it's Wednesday...

Hey, call me if you get lonely,
ok?

Links from the blog:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/d236q44ut3582v91/fulltext.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31780455/ns/health-mental_health/?ns=health-mental_health
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html