An old skydiving friend shared a list of deceased South African skydivers with me, morbid I know 
. The list includes things like old age, so some were not active skydivers at the time. Thing is that 9% of them were suicides. Is that normal, or are thrill seekers more inclined? What is the suicide rate in a group of people?
I have absolutely no idea. But perhaps when thrill seekers get too old to seek thrills anymore (or quit under pressure from families), they get depressed? Or perhaps death is the ultimate thrill? Dunno, but a 9% rate seems rather large. How big is the sample? Perhaps lots of them were former parabats or policemen traumatized by war and crime scenes?
It’s only on 126, not a big sample, but 9% seems to be a lot.
It is high. The general suicide rate for Africa is measured in single digits per 100k, though worldwide it tends to be higher for men than women [1]. So that could be factor 1, I’ve met some female adrenaline junkies but anecdotally it seems to be more of a male thing. So the suicide should be higher in that group. BUT not that high.
I do suspect that the dopamine receptors of extreme sports participants lose a lot of their sensitivity and, since low dopamine receptiveness is associated with depression and suicide [2], it would stand to reason.
I do speculate here: the reason a portion of them could’ve been extreme sports fans in the first place was in a search for dopamine stimulation they weren’t getting otherwise.
I dont know the stats, but was in a conference about suicide rates a month ago and there has been a spike in the last 24 months locally. Could be the state of the nation.
It’s obvious. Suicidal people are more likely to skydive.