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A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#201

Post by Ididntdothis »

virvar wrote: post #42
presiozo wrote: post #27

I wonder what's the correlation between this and people being underpaid. I'm fortunate enough to have my own house after graduation so I don't have to pay rent. But I have friends that don't have this luxury and man, they are struggling. Besides eating and rent they can't afford anything else in a month. No question here what's giving them these feelings

I live in Denmark, where we lift a lot of the burden of civilisation together, to give everyone access to education, health/elderly/child care as well as a solid security system for those who get unemployed. And here society is hard enough these days, pressing more and more people beyond their limits. I really wonder how you all do it in America.

A lot of Americans think they can make it themselves without help from others. Smart people don’t believe that and make the government subsidize their stuff left and right. Often while deluding themselves into thinking that they are “self made”. And then you have the people who constantly vote against their own interests while enduring the hardships the system imposes.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#202

Post by all2 »

seph-reed wrote: post #192
all2 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Attractive, fit, intelligent men By and large these are results of choices people make, not accidents. A guy with visible abs didn't just wake up one day and have abs. He put in the work. Same goes for attractive or intelligent. Taking time to find clothes that fit, discovering a flattering hair style, and generally not being a slob can put an average man into the "attractive" group. By intelligent, I mean "witty"…

Read these books: 1. How to win friends and influence people 2. The Art of Seduction 3. She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman They all seem like terrible/manipulative books, but read them anyways. Glean what fits your ethics. In terms of online dating: work out, buy nice clothes, get 2-3 good photos. Or don't do online dating and go out to the same (mixed gender) place over and over for a wh…

Two books that have been useful to me are "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "When I Say No I Feel Guilty".

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#203

Post by freeone3000 »

Exmoor wrote: post #3

>“What’s worrying is the effect this situation is clearly having on young adults.” I wonder if this is a perverse side effect of normalcy bias [0]? For me, a person in middle age, I can look back at my life and see a lifetime of fairly stable history with only a few traumatic events (9/11, 2008 crash). If you're 22, the current circumstances make up a much larger portion of your life. >The toll has also hit the poor…

9/11 happened to me in grade school. Iraq war happened thereafter. Then the financial crash. Then the subprime crash. And now covid. My life is shaped MORE by crises than by stability - not just the current one, but ALL of them.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#204

Post by freeone3000 »

watwut wrote: post #156
rjkennedy98 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stress is not just a matter of the facts of every day life. That's almost like saying all that matters is if you can eat and sleep. That is not what most people want out of life. They want meaning in their life, respect, and love. Those are all things that are way way way more difficult to get today than at almost any time during human history.

I really don't think so. The people in the past were not getting automatic respect and were not getting automatic love. The marriage was often economic transaction and you often had to live among people who did not respected you. The marriage happened after short time of knowing each other and if it turned out mistake, that was it forever, no love. Some people's lives had meaning, plenty of others were basically surv…

Personal contact is super important to people. Physical closeness is important. Being able to meet people in person is important for personal relationships. This stuff matters, and it's very hard to get right now.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#205

Post by 3pt14159 »

all2 wrote: post #179
3pt14159 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the internet and the constant FOMO and comparisons to people at their best points in life, or the fact that the social dynamics of dating have gotten crazy. Attractive, fit, intelligent men get a completely outsized proportion of the interest on apps like Bumble and Tinder, while even median men are mostly ignored. America is in the worst shape in the West, but these trends are getting worse here in Cana…

> Attractive, fit, intelligent men By and large these are results of choices people make, not accidents. A guy with visible abs didn't just wake up one day and have abs. He put in the work. Same goes for attractive or intelligent. Taking time to find clothes that fit, discovering a flattering hair style, and generally not being a slob can put an average man into the "attractive" group. By intelligent, I mean "witty"…

I didn't feel right about putting it in my original comment, since it didn't seem relevant and honestly it feels weird to type this out on HN, but I'm attractive. Before Tinder and Bumble I didn't have trouble dating but now it's crazy. It's effortless to get dates with attractive, successful women. Things didn't used to be this imbalanced and I don't think it is completely fair to say to someone with a less attractive face or to someone that isn't over six feet that they should learn how to dress properly and that will sort things out for them. Yes exercise and proper nutrition go a long way, and I tell multiple people a month about the basics of nutrition[0] or about how to exercise[1] but I don't pretend that this will fix everything. I think it is important that lucky people are honest about the current situation.

[0] Way more fibre, no refined sugar, more protein, no transfats.

[1] Bike to get around and http://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#206

Post by aianus »

3pt14159 wrote: post #160
JSavageOne wrote: post #131

As an American it's not surprising at all. Six figures of student loan debt, job insecurity, healthcare insecurity, rampant poverty / homelessness, the most despicable president to disgrace the white house (who didn't even win the popular vote), stay-at-home orders because the U.S. couldn't manage the crisis, lack of community (doesn't help that 99% of the country is sprawl), rampant obesity, and general lack of hope…

Don't forget the internet and the constant FOMO and comparisons to people at their best points in life, or the fact that the social dynamics of dating have gotten crazy. Attractive, fit, intelligent men get a completely outsized proportion of the interest on apps like Bumble and Tinder, while even median men are mostly ignored. America is in the worst shape in the West, but these trends are getting worse here in Cana…

> Attractive, fit, intelligent men get a completely outsized proportion of the interest on apps like Bumble and Tinder, while even median men are mostly ignored.

I exported my data from Tinder and I've had to swipe 25,000 times per successful long-term relationship.

That's a pretty terrible ratio but it only works out to ~10 hours of swiping and another ~10 hours of dating per successful relationship that lasts months or years (or maybe forever!)

As a result I've only been single for a small minority of my adult life.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#207

Post by coliveira »

Applejinx wrote: post #191
all2 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes. For the last four years I've been hearing about this orange cartoon character and what an awful impact he's had. There was something about Russia and the orange man, but that went away after about 3 years. Then the orange man was taking credit for some other guy's economic expansion. Now there's this virus thing, and I'm hearing the orange man is making a terrible job of it. According to my sources, the re…

That's a start. Also, this is the first I've heard that Russia went away. Where ever did it go? And who told you that it was gone? Seems like a pretty big (and historically well understood…) thing, and most unlikely to randomly disappear.

Justice decided they cannot/don't want do anything about it and the Republican dominated senate decided they don't want to hold the president accountable for anything.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#208

Post by freeone3000 »

rumanator wrote: post #20
username90 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A young person is building their life, lockdown is preventing them from doing that. For example a person looking to build a family will miss out on a few months they could find a partner, and the fertility clock is ticking

> A young person is building their life, lockdown is preventing them from doing that. I find this comment utterly mind boggling. The US's stay at home orders were issued when? Mid to end of March? That makes it what? About 1 month? Are we supposed to believe that "young people" suddenly get into a tail spin because they have to endure a whole month of not finding a partner, get to know each other, make life plans, an…

It's not that it's been two months, it's that it's been two months and no plan for the future. If I knew, ahead of time, that I'd be able to meet people again in another month? Sure, that's 3 months, that's no problem. It's the indefinite suspension of all activities! It's the suspected lockdown! It's not even the laws - people are scared, if you don't already have a long-term partner you're probably not going to go meet someone new! You can't even make plans for "after", because it's unclear when exactly "after" is. This is a huge roadblock to any sort of planning, much less a romantic relationship.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#209

Post by coliveira »

freeone3000 wrote: post #203
Exmoor wrote: post #3

>“What’s worrying is the effect this situation is clearly having on young adults.” I wonder if this is a perverse side effect of normalcy bias [0]? For me, a person in middle age, I can look back at my life and see a lifetime of fairly stable history with only a few traumatic events (9/11, 2008 crash). If you're 22, the current circumstances make up a much larger portion of your life. >The toll has also hit the poor…

9/11 happened to me in grade school. Iraq war happened thereafter. Then the financial crash. Then the subprime crash. And now covid. My life is shaped MORE by crises than by stability - not just the current one, but ALL of them.

Yes, the US looks increasingly more like a 3rd world country. One crisis after another.

Re: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression

#210

Post by adventured »

paulddraper wrote: post #158
virvar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Denmark, where we lift a lot of the burden of civilisation together, to give everyone access to education, health/elderly/child care as well as a solid security system for those who get unemployed. And here society is hard enough these days, pressing more and more people beyond their limits. I really wonder how you all do it in America.

The United States and Denmark are very different countries. The U.S. has nearly 4x as fast population growth, 2x as many immigrants, 10x the incarceration rate, much greater religious and racial diversity, 100x more billionaires, 17% less GDP per capita, and 3x as much debt/GDP. I'll refrain from opining as to what is cause and what is effect, but the differences are many.

> 17% less GDP per capita

US GDP per capita was 9% higher than Denmark for 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

> 3x as much debt/GDP

Denmark has a dramatically greater household debt to income ratio than the US, and is one of the most indebted countries in the world. They're in horrible debt shape. Their household debt as a percentage of disposable income is 282%, the worst in the world; that contrasts with 105% for the US, which is only slightly worse than Germany at 95%. Denmark's quality of life is coming at the expense of the future, as they load up massively on debt today to fake their standard of living.

Take a look:

https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm

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