My grandfather was an alcoholic, which scared my dad to such an extent that he won't drink at all. I drink fairly often, but only beer. I wonder in these stats how much of this is liquor/spirits vs beer. I just can't see people drinking themselves to death (as in overdosing) with beer because it makes you so full feeling, where as liquor and wines require much less liquid to make you intoxicated that it's much harder to judge and pace.
U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
131–140 of 312 posts
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#132Between 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 appears to be experiencing a kind of “die off” whose only analogue I can think of is post-Soviet Russia.
Not even close. Russia's 1990s "die off" was so severe that the current russian population is lower than it was in 1990. 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia still has less people. In the same period, the US population grew from 240 million to 330 million. In 2010, the US population was 308 million. So even in this "die off" decade, our population grew.
To show how devastating the soviet collapse was for russia just compare that to the devastation of ww2. After ww2, russia's population recovered after 10 years. They still haven't recovered in 30 years after the soviet collapse. This is also true for the economy as well.
The soviet collapse was far worse for russia than ww2 by any measure. It is by any objective measure, the worst thing to happen to any country in the 20th century. Were it not for russia's nukes, they'd be a source of pity. They've fallen so far and haven't gotten back up. And it's been 30 years. 1.5 generations.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#133My father is an alcoholic. (in his case, he went to rehab and doesn't drink much anymore but he is still an alcoholic) I used to think that I was going to drink at one point. I remember thinking, "if I was of age I'd like to buy that lady a drink." But by the time I turned of age and could, I decided I wouldn't touch it. I'd never really been offered alcohol growing up - so maybe that helped settle in the habit. But,…
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Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#134Paper: 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% (!…
Are people also dying less of other things prematurely?
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#135Of course, frequently what this kind of headline actually means is, "We changed the definition of 'alcohol-related death' to encompass causes of deaths that were happening all along."
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#136My entire family, outside of myself, has struggled with alcohol. I watched it turn them from brilliant, creative people into miserable wretches that avoided living life like one would an allergy. For every single one of them, they started out drinking heavily at parties. Then they would have a beer after work to 'relax'. Then two. Then four. Then six. And then their livers, marriages, and careers started to fall apar…
Not everyone goes from casual drinking to full-on life destroying alcoholism. Just as not everyone who gambles loses their house to the casino, or even does a line of cocaine and starts turning tricks for their next fix.
We tried prohibition during an extremely prude moment in the USA. It failed so miserably that we passed a constitutional amendment to revert a previous amendment, which is pretty incredible.
The stories of people who let any vice ruin their lives are powerful and important to know. But don’t let stories restrict the freedom of everyone. If alcohol was so bad then we never would have legalized it after prohibition. Everything is a trade off, and it’s better to let people make their own decisions than to throw people in jail.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#137Hey 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" fo…
Given your success, I'm surprised that you feel the need to remain anonymous. Is it only social stigma, or do you think that there would be business or professional consequences if people knew that you are an alcoholic in recovery?
I’m not surprised at all. Why cause yourself trouble by airing dirty laundry? Zero upside for him to do so, and really no reason to. Knowing he is X person doesn’t add anything to the message, it would almost certainly have blowback for him.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#138Former heavy drinker here. I used to get very drunk about once a week (exclusively in social situations). I had to cut down on alcohol significantly few years ago, due to a health problem that came about unrelated to drinking. Now I get drunk maybe 2-3 times a year. I was disappointed that I didn't get any of the benefits I frequently found mentioned online. I didn't lose any weight, my skin didn't look better, my th…
I'm 2.5 months sober and this has been my experience as well. I'm now much more wary of getting myself into situations where I might be bored. I'm naturally extraverted so I still enjoy the social aspect of parties but I've cut back on the amount of dates that I go on since the risk of being bored is too high.
I've started meditating to try and raise my "boredom tolerance". It's too early to say if it has made any difference but I've met people who swear by it. I'm also trying to get more curious about other people and essentially rely on my extraversion to deal with boring situations.
In terms of substances to fill the niche I don't think there's anything that exists. Coffee is nice during the day but drinking it past a certain time leads to insomnia. I've mostly just taken to drinking a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages LaCroix and non-alcoholic beer.
Pharmacologically speaking the closest drugs would be GABA receptor agonists (e.g. phenibut, benzos, GHB) but those can be quite nasty and even more addictive than alcohol. I have not personally tried them and don't plan on it.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#139Between 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 appears to be experiencing a kind of “die off” whose only analogue I can think of is post-Soviet Russia. Not even close. Russia's 1990s "die off" was so severe that the current russian population is lower than it was in 1990. 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia still has less people. In the same period, the US population grew from 240 million to 330 million. In 2010, the US population was…
You have to give people something to live for. High taxes and starvation wages aren't it.
Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
> The net population growth in the US is still positive. By something like half a percent. Simultaneously birth rates are decreasing to near historic lows, immigration is being constricted, millennial life expectancy is on the decline, and suicides have spiked across all age groups. Yes, I’ll concede that we’re not at the level of Russia or Japan yet, but something has definitely gone off the rails and not trending i…
I really don't see the fucking problem. Useless people drink themselves to death, beats having to kill them off in a war. Individually, these are tragedies, I guess. Not my former brother-in-law who drank himself to death, his death was a liberation for my sister and her kids.