"Lester and others suggests the opposite: suicide is more common among people with a higher quality of life. "If you're unhappy and you have something to blame your unhappiness on--if it's the government, or the economy, or something--then that kind of immunizes you against committing suicide," he says. "It's when you have no external cause to blame for your unhappiness that suicide becomes more likely. I've used this idea to explain why African-Americans have lower suicide rates, why blind people whose sight is restored often become suicidal, and why adolescent suicide rates often rise as their quality of life gets better."