Live data from Hacker News

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

washingtonpost.com

251–260 of 469 posts

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

#251

As a person with a history of depression and social anxiety I really do feel calmer since the crisis started, as if my state of mind was made for this kind of life. Less people on the streets, it's quieter, no one breathing down my neck in the supermarket, home office, no expectations on how to pick my clothes, how to behave, no trying to hide the weird stuff I eat (carnivore, high meat, raw, cooked and aged whatever…

Not a response to parent comment, but does anyone know of studies of people that describe their self-assessment? My impression is that most people think they're weirder than they are, i.e. most people fall within a band of what everyone would call normal, but they often self-assess as weird in one way or the other. i.e. for parameter X which typically ranges between x and x' and for which people estimate themselves a…

I think I'm normal, and everyone else tells me I'm weird :)

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

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden's death rate is below Italy UK Spain and Belgium all of which enacted full quarantines. Not sure why you're giving incomplete and somewhat sensational fear inducing information.

Just barely below, if you look at the NYT per capita rankings [1]. The full quarantines were also enacted too late. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-m...

And?

The exponential explosion of infections that was used as the model to justify quarantine and flattening the curve did not happen in Sweden.

As a matter of fact it's on par with other countries that have full lockdowns which indicates quarantine is ineffective.

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

#253

As a person with a history of depression and social anxiety I really do feel calmer since the crisis started, as if my state of mind was made for this kind of life. Less people on the streets, it's quieter, no one breathing down my neck in the supermarket, home office, no expectations on how to pick my clothes, how to behave, no trying to hide the weird stuff I eat (carnivore, high meat, raw, cooked and aged whatever…

You're eating raw meat? Like high quality beef carpaccio? Or supermarket meat you don't cook, or?

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

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an important point about the role of priors — especially if one is using a statistical (correlation based) proxy for what is actually a causal question. But here’s a practical question: imagine a universal healthcare mandate which allows people to get a mental health check-up every year. What criteria should the doctors use? Would the diagnostics have to change significantly?

What do practitioners do in countries with universal healthcare?

You still need to actively persue the healthcare even if your country pays for it.

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

#255

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…

I can't say I share the same feelings as you, but it certainly would be great to see young Americans be more excited about the future and I think some big investment in infrastructure could be a way to make that happen. There are many people worse off in other Countries that are happy because they are seeing vast improvements year over year and their own value goes up proportionately to how much effort gets put in. W…

What future? What is there to be excited about? Can't actually spend money at the federal and state level aside from tax cuts and the military without being met with resistance and a subset of politicians and economists screaming bloody murder about super dooper hyper inflation that's totally going to happen any day now we promise (but don't worry about the last 40 years of us saying it, this time we're sure we're correct).

We have low interest rates now. We had low interest rates in 08 through the early 10's too but the ~i n f l a t i o n~ boogyman and super serious debt hawks said we couldn't do it, all while passing tax cuts and giving the military essentially unlimited money, while continuing to erode our rights.

American infrastructure is beyond saving and will require new deal levels of spending to even get it to a shape resembling the amount of wealth this country has, and we are never going to do it because we live in an oligarchic state and the billionaires are fine, so why do we need to do anything more?

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

#256
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a response to parent comment, but does anyone know of studies of people that describe their self-assessment? My impression is that most people think they're weirder than they are, i.e. most people fall within a band of what everyone would call normal, but they often self-assess as weird in one way or the other. i.e. for parameter X which typically ranges between x and x' and for which people estimate themselves a…

I think I'm normal, and everyone else tells me I'm weird :)

Haha, but is it the case that maybe those people (or perhaps even everyone) tell everyone else at some point that they're weird? i.e. one problem with this is that if someone calls lots of people weird, their calling you weird isn't significant. And I'm certain everyone has been called 'weird' at some point in their lives, so merely having been called weird is insufficient to actually be weird.

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

#257

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…

Dating is close contact with people from outside your household. Sometimes several in quick succession. I don't see that becoming safe or legal before full vaccination. The science-fiction timeline for full vaccination is two years. And I hope we in this industry know better than to take the "not physically impossible" timeline on an ambitious technical project as a commitment.

It's possible there will be some kind of compromise involving a longer phone/video-only period, earlier exclusivity, and public policy acceptance of having contact with a small number of people from outside the household. At least I can hope. But nevertheless, this is a uniquely awful time in history to be single.

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

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Europe was an even worse place crisis-wise for the majority of the 20th century. The sad thing about humanity is our living memory only goes back fifty years or so. Everything past that is just "back in the old days" and we forget how extremely recently all those things were even on a human timescale.

The US had its share of bad times in the 20th century too, including the largest depression ever, but at least it invested in economic development. Currently, the goal seams to be reducing all social investment and let the financial industry take control of everything.

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

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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.“ Is that even true? I am not very pretty (but fit and some level of intelligence ) . When I did online dating I had no problems connecting to women around my age and with similar attributes. Most guys who were complaining wanted a supermodel half their age. A…

Yes, OkCupid did a study awhile back which they unfortunately took down. You can still find archived versions of it.

Is this the one? https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/okcupid/yourlooksandyo...
Post reply on HN