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U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

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Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#121

Post by sieongioetnio »

colpabar wrote: post #111
sieongioetnio wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this concern about inflation. It was never that high, didn't last very long, and wages kept up pretty well (real wages are higher today than they were a year ago [1]). People are panicking over a problem that has done little real harm. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/05/economy/real-wages-inflation/...

Should everyone just eat cake then? Nobody cares what CNN or any other org says when they can see with their own eyes that milk and eggs and everything else cost more now than they did just a few years ago.

For most people, things cost less than they did a year ago. Real wages are up over the last year. Inflation hasn't been a real problem for most people.

I can't control what conclusions people reach based on incorrect or incomplete information. I can only suggest they read better newspapers.

(CNN is not one of those better newspapers. It just had the relevant numbers.)

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#122

Post by the_only_law »

rib3ye wrote: post #56

Probably a vastly unpopular opinion in HN but don’t we think sitting at home alone all day, working remote, could be related? Humans evolved to be physically social, is 100% remote really the right direction for American society?

My social life improved with remote work. Suddenly, I wasn’t mentally exhausted at the end of the day and could go out and hang out with people instead of passing out at 7pm.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#124

Post by AnimalMuppet »

nostrademons wrote: post #80
oh_sigh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does the US have higher depression rates than any country in Africa then? Aren't there a lot of people there under financial stress?

Usually people are more depressed if they had something and were forced to give it up than if they never had it at all and are working hard to attain it. Same reason that the American Dream is alive and well among immigrants at the same time that the former American middle-class is dying of despair.

> Usually people are more depressed if they had something and were forced to give it up than if they never had it at all and are working hard to attain it.

Third option: They worked to attain it, they got it, and they found that it was empty.

"I worked my butt off to get a bigger TicTok following. And I got it! Why aren't I happy? Why isn't my life any better?" Because happiness and a better life were never in a bigger TicTok following.

Both advertising and social media sell us on empty goals and rewards. We chase them. We're not just miserable because we can't achieve them; we're also miserable because even when we do, we find that we got nothing meaningful.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#125

Post by sieongioetnio »

GiorgioG wrote: post #92
sieongioetnio wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this concern about inflation. It was never that high, didn't last very long, and wages kept up pretty well (real wages are higher today than they were a year ago [1]). People are panicking over a problem that has done little real harm. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/05/economy/real-wages-inflation/...

Not everyone got a raise or changed jobs since last year. Everything is still expensive, and continues to get more expensive.

>and continues to get more expensive.

There still is inflation, but the idea that it's still terribly high is just not true. We are currently below 5% annualized inflation. This is an average over the last year; the rate for the past few months is lower still. The 10%-ish inflation that started this panic is long behind us.

https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0&output_view=pct_...

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#126

Post by ldayley »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #25

[flagged]

I think I agree with this in general. And my own experiences line up with this documented rise. But I also wonder if the rates for men, even white men, are undercounted here. My impression is they’re the group least well equipped to recognize some of the more subtle signs of depression or be vulnerable enough to seek help or admit it on record. Suicide rates for white, middle-aged men are the highest for all groups currently. Either they’re more effective at it (possibly?) or this methodology isn’t capturing something.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#127

Post by bobmaxup »

petercooper wrote: post #90
ndiddy wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is false, as the suicide rate has also gone up.

It's right in the article: "The percentage of U.S. adults who report having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime has reached 29.0%" To your point on suicide, though. The OECD has some data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States#/... .. It's hard to say. US is flat. Norway is up a bit. Most countries are down or flat. I don't see any particular upward trend over the past…

here is the last some years from wikipedia (WHO suicide + mental health per 100k starting @ 2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...)

16.4 16.9 17.3 17.1 17.2 17.1 17.5 17.7 18.1 18.1 18.5 18.9 18.9 18.8 19.2 19.9 21.2 22.5 21.8 22.4

and OECD (per 100k intentional self harm starting @ 2010 https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=9)

12.8 13 13.2 13.4 13.8 14 14.2 14.8 15 14.7 14.1

(USA, if not implied)

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#129

Post by themagician »

carimura wrote: post #62
boringg wrote: post #17

1. Media narratives and sites like reddit -> focusing on the extremes is robbing people of the qualities of the life around them. 2. Keeping up with the Jones per se in the world of social media really knocks people down.

i'm sure it's a lot of factors but to your point one could look at this problem from a dozen angles and there's almost no way to conclude that social media and 24/7 race-to-bottom engagement model of news has been a net positive on our mental health.

Social media is destroying society, particularly among those “new” to the internet which is a bimodal distribution of those 60. There’s nothing special about those in the middle other than the context they may have for how we got here.

You now have a situation where more than half the population doesn’t know what’s real and what’s fake. It’s an, “I don’t know what I don’t know situation.” You can easily identify individuals who don’t know, because they still have a positive view of social media and say things like, “It really depends on how you use it and who you follow.”

What has happened to the internet and social media sort of tortures me, because I spent about 15 years contributing to the current problem in not-so-insignificant ways. I feel dumb for not having had the foresight to see what was happening.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#130

Post by jazzyjackson »

ldayley wrote: post #126
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #25

[flagged]

I think I agree with this in general. And my own experiences line up with this documented rise. But I also wonder if the rates for men, even white men, are undercounted here. My impression is they’re the group least well equipped to recognize some of the more subtle signs of depression or be vulnerable enough to seek help or admit it on record. Suicide rates for white, middle-aged men are the highest for all groups c…

self-loathing leading to suicide strikes me as a different kind of mental health crisis. you can be depressed without wanting to die.
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