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U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

news.gallup.com

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Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#141

Post by prottog »

thelopa wrote: post #40
kayodelycaon wrote: post #33

[flagged]

[flagged]

Please have some perspective ("touch grass", if you will). I live in one of the most socially conservative states in the union and there are openly married gay people here, gainfully employed and forming a part of society.

Meanwhile, in a full third of all the countries in the world, homosexuality is still illegal (sometimes punishable by death), and the majority of the world population still thinks homosexuality is wrong. There's about twenty in the world that are more friendly to "queerness" than the US[0] -- mostly monoethnic white countries with a couple of exceptions.

You may also be surprised by how socially conservative nonwhite people in this country are in general; even less than a decade ago, the majority of black Americans did not support gay marriage[1].

[0]: https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/28/5/967/4919666

[1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/10/07/blacks-ar...

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#142

Post by Mezzie »

NopeSlide wrote: post #134
olalonde wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a big fan of this comparison. Just because it was true of left-handedness doesn't mean it's true for other things. It also shows that hitting left-handed kids in schools was actually working, whereas it's not possible to "cure" depression or sexual orientation this way.

Actually sexual orientation is fluid and can be adjusted through acclimatization, it's how pedophilia is treated, it just doesn't work on unwilling participants. People who are straight occasionally do become bi or gay, and vice versa.

It's debatable whether that is true for everyone. I know I've tried to make myself like men on several occasions. I was definitely willing and not doing it out of self-hatred.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#143

Post by grumpy-de-sre »

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…

Wow those numbers are counter-intuitive and in stark contrast to the mainstream zeitgeist. I think it's fair to say rates are up somewhat in the US (along with many other social ills) but for many other western countries they have been stable.

Breaking down the US statistics into demographics makes for some disturbing yet interesting reading https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db433.htm. Seems like the bulk of the growth has been older men (trending down) and women aged 15-24 (a shocking 87% increase from 2007).

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#144

Post by pseudalopex »

olalonde wrote: post #48
petercooper wrote: post #11

The rates of people diagnosed with depression. Things that were once taboos, had stigma attached to them, or were poorly defined may once have been more often kept under wraps. See ADHD or ASD diagnosis rates, for example.

The observed increase could be attributed to two key factors: 1) The rate may have been constant over time, but we're only now observing the "true" rate because societal taboos have decreased. 2) The diagnostic criteria may have lowered over time. Thus, we may now be diagnosing people who wouldn't have previously met the criteria for diagnosis. I've been wondering the same about the notable rise in self-identified LG…

Young people now identify as LGBT+ at rates comparable to historic rates of same sex experience.[1]

[1] https://kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/historical...

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#145

Post by the_af »

NopeSlide wrote: post #133
the_af wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depression definitely still has a stigma associated to it. Both "it's not a real disease, you are not dying of something" and "it's not real, just snap out of it!".

There's a third option: depression is not a real disease, it is the correct response to what has been done to you, and there are people who should be held responsible for that.

I don't think that's a real option though, because many people suffering from depression haven't been "done" anything to by anyone, or if they have, it's not out of the ordinary or different to what's been done to other people who are not depressed. Like losing your job, or splitting up with your spouse, or simply just existing.

Some people react with depression to a serious grievance or ill inflicted upon them (this is the form of depression other people are most likely to understand), and some react with extreme depression to the most ordinary and mild of life's occurrences.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#148

Post by pseudalopex »

mc32 wrote: post #108
Silverback_VII wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think how easy life is has little to do with psychological wellbeing. If life is very hard but you are doing great relative to others you will feel good. Furthermore, a more demanding life often generates a deeper sense of purpose and meaning.

It has to be something else. Lots of people around the world live in dire conditions, in sub-modern conditions, picking garbage dumps bathing in ditch water. And they and their friends are equally poor and living under cramped tin roof dwellings. They're not doing "great" from an economic standpoint, but may be doing well from a social standpoint and mental health standpoint. They may not be individually tougher, but…

They didn't say doing great relative to others was the only way to feel good.

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#149

Post by danaris »

m_fayer wrote: post #138
ultra_nick wrote: post #94

People work twice as much for the same wage. Most households now have two full time workers. Strangers raise our kids. Affordable small houses are no longer built. There're few legal or free places to rest. The rich pay significantly less taxes than when America was in its prime. Poverty is the cause. The US will only get worse until citizens vote for corporations to pay their historical tax rates and reduce outsourc…

I support UBI but it’s not in the cards any time soon, fine. Then, we should aim for one overarching economic policy target: most people should be able to land a job that would enable them to generously house, feed and equip one adult and several children without working themselves to the bone. This should include a reasonable amount of leisure and luxuries, and a thorough safety net. How to achieve this? I’m not sur…

One absolute prerequisite for this would be making the minimum wage a thriving wage. Until and unless that happens, jobs traditionally seen as "bottom of the barrel"—things like fast food, grocery cashier, etc—will remain an important source of jobs for those in dire straits (very much including adults with families), while also still paying so little that even a teenager looking to make some money over the summer might think twice. And that's before seeing how the people working those jobs get treated.

Any non-mandatory "incentives" or "initiatives" to get people jobs that can keep them and their families fed, clothed, and housed will invariably leave tens of thousands to millions of people behind as companies just shrug and say "don't wanna".

Re: U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs

#150

Post by Mezzie »

account42 wrote: post #131
ultra_nick wrote: post #94

People work twice as much for the same wage. Most households now have two full time workers. Strangers raise our kids. Affordable small houses are no longer built. There're few legal or free places to rest. The rich pay significantly less taxes than when America was in its prime. Poverty is the cause. The US will only get worse until citizens vote for corporations to pay their historical tax rates and reduce outsourc…

> People work twice as much for the same wage. Most households now have two full time workers. It's really absurd how accepted/unnoticed this regression is. And of course it also makes the isolation problem worse as now single person households will be able to afford even less.

And those of us who have to be breadwinners are not in a good spot. I'm responsible for an adult who's bipolar and can't hold down a job. Supporting multiple people on a single income is absurdly difficult right now.

And many families with children are in a no win scenario where they either make due with a single income or one parents' income is completely eaten by child care.

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