I don't believe, for one minute, that suicides were actually down during the pandemic. My experience at Fannie is that everyone was getting worked harder so that managers, lacking facetime with higher ups, could prove their value and receive reassurance regarding their job performance. Worked harder, nothing to look forward to, reduced social interaction, lost businesses, lost income, increases in domestic violence and other violent crime: And I am supposed to believe suicide rates went down? I don't believe it for a second.
All this bullshit about emotional support being more available during times of crisis and family togetherness does not explain this: And while many people would have had reduced "alone time" in which to kill themselves (hard to kill yourself with an audience) many experienced just the opposite---more time alone. The number of single people living in near total isolation has to account for more upward pressure on suicide rates than married or coupled people getting to spend more time with "pumpkin" (or insert vile pet name of your choice) does for reducing it. Married people were already at substantially lower risk. And add how insufferable it must be if you are in a bad marriage to spend that much time with your spouse without a meaningful break. The record keeping must be corrupted or inaccurate.
The strangest thing about this is that every racial group other than whites saw meaningful increases in their suicide rates during the pandemic---even Asians who probably have the same rates of being white collar workers as whites (or, rather, somewhat higher). If the CDC were outright lying, however, it is unlikely they would insert this into the data. But simultaneously, it simply doesn't make sense.
For this to make sense, whites would have to be in a goldy locks position between Asians and other minorities that caused them to experience a decrease.
The only way this pattern makes sense is if it has something to do with the rural vs. urban divide. But even here, how did the pandemic reduce suicides?
Maybe Euro males hate doing phony humiliating busywork more than other kinds of people do, and suffer more from social anxiety, so that being alone was on the whole better for them. They became sadder and lonelier than ever, but it's the feeling of pointless humiliating slavery, not sadness and loneliness, that makes them want to kill themselves.