Baby Boomers - Depression''s Toll

(September 28, 2009)  In the late 1970s, not long after coming out to his parents, Steven Schnipper left his hometown, Summit, N.J., for Manhattan and did not look back. By then he’d earned a master’s in graphic design from Yale and was excited to live in a city that so pleased his aesthetic sense. He loved museums, architecture, reading, first edition books, the theater, seeing four movies in one day with his friend Annette Williams; the clothes at Barneys, Bergdorf and Armani; cosmetics counters, face creams, spas, manicures and pedicures; travel; five-star hotels; Swiss Style design; Helvetica typeface; the simple beauty of a straight, clean line. …

Statistically, he was vulnerable. Boomers 45 to 64 have the highest suicide rate of all age groups, according to 2006 figures, the latest available, from the National Center for Health Statistics. Dr. Myrna Weissman, a Columbia psychiatry professor and member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said that starting about 20 years ago researchers noticed a higher rate of depression in boomers than the previous generation at that age.   

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