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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

#271

Post by guevara »

Miner49er wrote: post #248
[deleted] wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Or maybe the negativity of social media and the popularity of sad music isn't the cause, but the effect? People listen to sad music because they're sad. The news is negative, because the world is going to shit. People "glorify" depression, because they're depressed. A meme about depression might seem like glorification, but it's probably just be a way for depressed people to connect. What you call glorification, coul…

Never considered that. However, the question still remains: how did we get here and what caused this trend?

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

#272

Post by Havoc »

I find the direct linkage to corona to be a little misleading. My gut feeling says this is a broader sign of the times:

* Rising youth unemployment

* Gig economy & the uncertainty that comes with it

* Crushing study debt

* Little hope of owning property

* Rapidly increasing inequality

* Offshoring & automation

* Healthcare system where serious sickness can lead to financial ruin

* Debt fueled systems (or credit score if you prefer - a system that kicks people when they're down)

I'd venture that the sane response is anxiety or depression. But yeah sure go ahead and blame it on the immediate trigger - COVID

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

#273

Post by tjs8rj »

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…

All of these are extreme and very myopic takes. 6 figures of student loan debt? That's related to medical debt, poverty rate has been relatively steady since the 60s.

Sure a lot of people hate Trump (I think if the media stopped talking about him, and he stopped tweeting that'd help a lot of anxiety - it's more media spin than his actual policy that seems to anger people), the US ranks better than most countries in Western Europe in terms of death rate per 1000, lack of community I'd agree with.

My point is: if you shut off some of the news and social media, your perspective would likely drastically improve. Things aren't actually that terrible if you tune out all the alarmists.

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

#274

Post by jesperado »

HighlandSpring wrote: post #232
aszantu wrote: post #169

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…

Did you seek out carnivore/animal-centric nutrition in response to gut issues, mental health or something else? I keep stumbling upon anecdotes of significantly improved states of mind since going keto/carnivore. Have you found any discussions putting forward a proposed mechanism behind these reportings?

Not OP but I'm consuming a mostly carnivore diet, I struggled with gout for years and since I went keto and then pretty much carnivore I haven't had a flare up. I eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese and cauliflower (my stool seem fine with or without fiber but a little bit makes me feel more "flushed out", lol).

The biggest culprit for gout is definitely carbs (sugar) and dehydration in my opinion and the carnivore diet and/or keto pretty much takes care of that, it eliminates the carbs and meat in my experience makes you drink a lot of water.

It is also a lot easier to maintain your weight (also very important in the gout equation) on carnivore, I find it really hard to over eat, you hit satiety fast and I find that there is a lot less noise in the hunger signals. My stomach now days only makes itself reminded when I truly need energy, no "fake" cravings.

My mental state also seem clearer, I find fat to be a smoother source of energy then carbs. Fat is a slow stable burn while carbs is a violent explosive burn, which is cool every now and then but you pay a price for it.

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

#275

Post by cma »

fwip wrote: post #240
conistonwater wrote: post #177

Diagnostic criteria for anxiety and depression are very broad because they are necessary as tools for practicing doctors seeing patients (as opposed to applying them to a random selection of people). If you turn the process back, and just ask how many people in the population fit under them, you'll always, even in normal times, get an unexpectedly large number. That doesn't imply that anything is wrong or that anythi…

The article shows the rise in people that meet these criteria over time, based on the same criteria self-reported in the same way.

Aren't somebody the criteria overkill in extenuating circumstances? Usually they will have caveats like "not immediately after death of a family member", etc.

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

#276

Post by mjayhn »

idoby wrote: post #263
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…

As a non-American, why do you care about who is in the white house so much? How does it affect your life concretely? Try watching less talking heads/browsing Twitter less, maybe, and you'll feel better?

A lot of people didn't think the guy in the white house could matter that much until Trump. As a non-American a lot of Americans would likely be envious of your lifestyle right now. The 30 million currently unemployed for sure, the people who also can't get to a hospital if they need surgery or healthcare because they're closed because of our botched (guy in wh) response care as well. The essential workers with no healthcare who are making an extra $2/hour to possibly die.

This isn't a vaccuum in America. A lot of us have friends, family and coworkers affected by this.

Even if I ignore the president or the news I'm still trapped inside my house for the most part. If I leave my house it's an experience figuring out whether something is open or not, what their rules are, etc.

I mean I can go sit in my backyard and ignore the world but I still need to function day to day and right now I can't do half of my chores, errands, etc. So it's something definitely affecting my day to day.

And I'm on the lucky end, I can wfh and sit here and respond to you. I can't imagine having to go to work at some gas station to pay rent right now.

The guy in the white house isn't doing anything to calm anyones nerves or concerns. He's exacerbating them greatly. He has the largest microphone in the country, it's hard to ignore him or his affect on peoples mental health.

Everywhere we look is a reminder of our failure of a government. It's on everyones mouths. Now imagine going to work and fixing bobscars.com database while this stuff is in your face everyday.

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

#277

Post by tjs8rj »

idoby wrote: post #263
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…

As a non-American, why do you care about who is in the white house so much? How does it affect your life concretely? Try watching less talking heads/browsing Twitter less, maybe, and you'll feel better?

This is very true, as an American. There's almost no difference in the vast majority of daily life for most Americans if you just pretended like the president doesn't exist.

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

#278

Post by geggam »

coliveira wrote: post #209
freeone3000 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yet every crisis the 1% seem to make more... very opportunistic of them to leverage our society and not give back

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

#279

Post by wayoutthere »

renewiltord wrote: post #250
aszantu wrote: post #169

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…

It really depends! Some forms of mental illness come with an inability to understand the illness as one of the diagnostic criteria -- this is part of why so many people are internally resistant to diagnosis.

I was diagnosed as bipolar 2 a few years ago, and I just assumed the mood swings I dealt with were normal. Doesn't everyone occasionally get too enthusiastic during a meeting? Or call in sick because they can't get out of bed? Turns out no, everyone has mood swings from time to time but mine were more predictable and severe enough they were preventing me from doing the things I wanted to. Hence the diagnosis and medication.

This is why mental health professionals are important. It can go both ways -- sometimes folks are just neurotic and overanalyzing themselves, and sometimes they're oblivious to the mental illness they do have. Medication and life changes help, but the first step is to see a professional who can help you sort through whether your mood issues rise to the level of clinical or not.

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

#280

Post by wbronitsky »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #77
read_if_gay_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there’s good evidence that this is a substantial undercount. I don’t know about the US, but most European countries count anyone who died with corona as a covid death. No matter how clearly you died to something else.

If only people with symptoms are being tested, and 80% of people are asymptomatic, how are we not drastically overestimating fatality rate?

Where do you see the data that 80% of people are asymptomatic? You complain elsewhere in this thread of being dismissed even when you have data, yet provide none.

We understand that you think that the lockdowns are bunk and that this is a big non-issue cooked up by the world to ruin our lives; sure, maybe, but where is the data?

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