Posted on 01/14/2024 5:47:43 AM PST by dennisw
A disturbing number of suicides are sweeping America's party-obsessed ski towns, raising the alarm over why so many residents in vacation hotspots are taking their own lives.
Often dubbed the 'paradise paradox' by mental health experts, high-altitude party towns in the Rockies are seeing record numbers of suicides that stand in stark contrast to the picturesque lifestyle they claim to offer.
Factors leading to the rise include the transient way of life on the slopes, financial instability, isolation from cities, and a lack of decent mental healthcare investment from tourism-focused local governments.
As Victoria Mendoza, a 17-year-old resident of Grand Junction, Colorado, put it to NPR in 2018 after seven teenagers killed themselves in her town that year: 'It feels like there's this cloud around our whole valley.'
'I lost five people in 18 months': Chilling mystery behind America's ski town 'Suicide Belt' - and why FOUR out of the six states with highest suicide rates are in the Rockies Ski towns across the Rockies are seeing an alarming surge in suicide rates
The 'paradise paradox' sees party hotspots become sad places to live Experts note transient mountain lifestyles and a lack of services as the cause
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“’I lost five people in 18 months’: Chilling mystery behind America’s ski town ‘Suicide Belt’”
Throw God out of your country and guess who shows up.
Oh, and leave it to NPR to think that grape growing, dusty dry and Grand Junction is a resort ski town.
You’re onto something there. Nihilism, I think we used to call it... Not a good way to live.
Good riddance.
Is this a new phenomenon ?
Did they look at elevation ? Mountain towns. Not only ski areas. That isn’t enough alone but obviously impacts all mountain states and has a higher statistical correlation with suicide than any other geographic condition.
He said most of the other workers there were from Australia and at the end of the season, they return to Australia and return to jobs working at the ski resorts there.
He and the others are in essence professional ski bums who have worked at resorts all over the world.
Resorts relying on these workers typically provide them with free ski passes as well as low rent dormitories for the season.
Being a ski bum seems like a great idea when you’re in your twenties. Then one day you’re in your thirties or forties and realize you’re still making almost nothing working in a restaurant or running a ski lift and now have few prospects for a better life. Plus, drugs and alcohol are a big part of the ski bum lifestyle, which is certainly not good for long term mental health. The author of the piece wants to blame it on anything other than poor decision making.
KevinB NAILED IT !!
Reminds me of the song IMAGINE that was so popular in the 1970s. Imagine there’s no (fill in blank).
Well stated, spot on.
“ experts, high-altitude party towns in the Rockies”
Like cities in the clouds
Could people possibly be any more ignorant about the difference between altitude and *elevation*?
Everyone knows that it is because of 2 things: global warming and Trumps fault.
You’ve never skied until you’ve skied down the Book Cliffs!
“and a lack of decent mental healthcare investment from tourism-focused local governments.”
Yeah, it’s that lack of free (to them) services in isolated small towns causing it all. High percentage of drugged up, empty, drifters has nothing to do with it.
Like we trust anything said, by the admitted liars, CDC ... lol ...
FTA ..
According to the CDC, four Rockies states made up six with the highest suicide rates in 2021 - with Wyoming’s rate over 4.5 times higher than that in New Jersey.
The region, notably New Mexico, Colorado and Montana, has earned the nickname ‘Suicide Belt’, with towns designed for a vacation away from the city becoming epicenters of the crisis.
🙄 🙃
Maybe because this trash finally realized there’s nothing for them beyond the next puff, snort or injection? All the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll won’t make them a better person. And, they realize there’s no one to blame but themselves? They also realize they only have two choices left...get help or die. They chose poorly.
"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name".
It’s not the same town but I saw a lot of druggies in Leadville several years ago.
I went to a emergency room 2 months ago because my wife had congestive heart failure. We waited over 5 hours for her heart condition. Others were being escorted right in. We asked the doc once we got in. Why the 5 hour wait? he said 20% of the patients that come in are ODers. They get priority. I told him I couldn’t believe it. How can they do this knowing the next time might mean death. He said they don’t care.
DrHF Even the successful end up in a challenging lifestyle. Ski instructors start at over $25/hr and quickly move into the $40+/hr range (my numbers are a few years old) at Aspen. This doesn’t include tips which can be $100s a day. Then there are the perks. The goal was to befriend several wealthy families who then requested you every time they were in town. It wasn’t really for lessons so much as a “rent a local” deal. You would be invited to their home for dinner. Take the kids up when the folks had other plans. Run errands. Sometimes get a summer trip to their Hawaii home for a couple of weeks. Everything paid but you were expected to help out with things. In return you got lots of hours, big tips, all expenses, and maybe a cast off ten year old Porsche. Meanwhile when they weren’t around you lived a regular ski town life. You probably were out of the employee housing but that down valley two bedroom house costs $5000/month. And you had reached the peak.
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