Between this, the spike in suicides across the US, and the opioid crisis, the US appears to be experiencing a kind of “die off” whose only analogue I can think of is post-Soviet Russia. I wonder if we’ll be able to correct course or continue to believe that things like rising GDP, unmoored from the material reality of most people, can paper over these trends.
U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
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Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#12The state of men in the US is really deteriorating. Men are drugging, drinking, and smoking theirselves to death. And sometimes the death is very explicit, being by suicide which is climbing to rates higher than ever. Prisons are filled with men, universities are increasingly seeing fewer men than women. Men are increasingly sexless much longer than females. Seems we have a big problem on our hands.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#13>The research shows that in 2017, alcohol proved to be even more deadly than illicit drugs, including opioids. That year there were about 70,000 drug overdose deaths — about 2,300 fewer than those involving alcohol, >Only cigarettes are deadlier than alcohol: More than 480,000 people die each year in the U.S. because of smoking-related illnesses. I didn't realise how much worse this is compared to the opioid epedemic…
It seems to me that nicotine, alcohol, and opiods are all related. The addictive personality traits that make you susceptible to one make you susceptible to the others. At a fundamental level, the willingness to do long-term harm to oneself for short-term pleasure is fundamental to all these problems. There are also a ton of cultural factors that make the problems interrelated.
> The addictive personality traits that make you susceptible to one make you susceptible to the others.
Maybe, but some people certainly have their "drug of choice".
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#14Alcohol is really weird. It's unquestionably a pretty hard drug and yet it's (ab)use is completely normalized in our culture. It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it.
> It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it. I don't think this is unique to alcohol. Nicotine and driving seems pretty okay, but I can't think of any other deadly drugs out there which wouldn't impair your driving. EDIT: As other users have brought up, nicotine kills plenty of people other than those using it, in the form of second-hand smoke.
Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively.
Opiates, benzos, and alcohol all affect technical driving skills in a negative way.
I’m not opening the THC and driving can of worms.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#15Between this, the spike in suicides across the US, and the opioid crisis, the US appears to be experiencing a kind of “die off” whose only analogue I can think of is post-Soviet Russia. I wonder if we’ll be able to correct course or continue to believe that things like rising GDP, unmoored from the material reality of most people, can paper over these trends.
The US is not experiencing a die-off. The net population growth in the US is still positive. More births and deaths. Combined that with a net positive immigration, the US is not susceptible to falling population levels like those of in Japan and Russia
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#16Full disclosure: both my parents are alcoholics.
Ive always been suspicious that alcohol in the United States is basically a thinly veiled means to privatize social interaction. I spent 16 years drinking regularly and certainly the dangers werent explained in LMFAO's song "shots" when i was young, or by James Bond's seven martini car chases. The industry is large enough to require more oversight in my opinion, but states dependent on alcohol and tobacco taxes theres very little incentive to wash the grease off that hand.
the WHO and NHS both strongly advise against consumption of any alcohol in 2020, but for my parents I guess it was more like cigarettes. No one knows/there are health benefits/its harmless are all excuses im sure they heard along with the reinforced masculinity tropes.
Alcohol turned my parents into miserable wretches. My mother now suffers from Wernekes encephalitis. at age 62 now shes suffered more than a dozen seizures and a fractured hip. When she was admitted to hospital she could not be given painkillers, as she had consumed eleven cans of beer before arriving. she spent 2 weeks in a nursing home and suffering from withdrawal symptoms was so insufferably aggressive and abusive they threatened to discharge her after a week. She cursed every member of the family with scathing vitriol and merciless fervor. Not as though it would matter, as she refused any and all physical therapy until she could go home and have beer again. she still drinks around 3-4 cans a day, and hobbles about in a walker.
my fathers developed chronic gastritis and cant handle so much as a warm cup of tea. He has had a section of intestine removed as chronic alcohol related inflammation had destroyed it. He seems completely blind to what alcohol has done to him.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#17Paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14239
A few notes:
- It's comparing absolute, not per-capita, numbers. The US drinking age population is up >20% since 1999, so that accounts for some of this rise.
- The paper spends a lot of time discussing the fact that alcohol isn't reported completely in death certificates.
- Alcohol-related drug overdoes are broken out separately from alcohol overdoses, and this is up 580% (!) from 1999
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#18Alcohol is really weird. It's unquestionably a pretty hard drug and yet it's (ab)use is completely normalized in our culture. It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it.
> It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it. I don't think this is unique to alcohol. Nicotine and driving seems pretty okay, but I can't think of any other deadly drugs out there which wouldn't impair your driving. EDIT: As other users have brought up, nicotine kills plenty of people other than those using it, in the form of second-hand smoke.
Sure, lots of drugs impair your driving, but alcohol seems to be the one that people drive after using most frequently. This could be just selection bias though given that alcohol is the most widely used hard drug and easiest to measure/detect on the side of the road. It would be interesting to see a "drug" vs "drives after using drug" analysis!
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#19The state of men in the US is really deteriorating. Men are drugging, drinking, and smoking theirselves to death. And sometimes the death is very explicit, being by suicide which is climbing to rates higher than ever. Prisons are filled with men, universities are increasingly seeing fewer men than women. Men are increasingly sexless much longer than females. Seems we have a big problem on our hands.
In this case though, most of the increases were among women.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#20Hey gang.
I've been an HN member for a long time, fairly prominent Bay Area tech executive, rich in the sense of both bank accounts and family.
Alcohol brought me to my knees in my late 20s / early 30s.
It started out as the typical "social lubricant" to help a natural introvert be better at connecting with people and was wonderful at that - I was the life of the party.
Over a decade it leaked into a "requirement" for just about anything and eventually drinking heavily 3 / 4 nights a week.
Eventually I sought paid help from therapists, coaches, natural remedies, medication, recovery specialists. Nothing worked. Eventually a therapist told me "you're screwed the only thing left to try is AA".
I was highly skeptical, an agnostic, still am more or less, but AA saved my life on account of the comradery i found in the rooms of SV meetings. People with the same story and same struggles who worked the steps and recovered.
One of the AA rules is attraction not promotion, this isn't promotion only my own simple testimonial. Statistics say that it doesn't work for a lot of people but knowing the general skeptical nature of HN and the crowd I want anybody struggling or who was in my situation to know that for this one skeptical / tech / entrepreneurial brain it was a lifesaver after trying basically everything else.
Now sober ~9 years and counting and wouldn't have it any other way.
I am happy to answer questions about the program if anybody is struggling, can give an anon email too if preferred.
edit: temp gmail account ohohuhunkjnuihuh@gmail.com