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Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

nytimes.com

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Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#131

Post by Izkata »

hnlmorg wrote: post #19
brigandish wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deaths from alcohol != deaths from lockdown. Have you factored in the deaths from cancer, for instance? In the UK, the Macmillan Trust, a cancer charity, have estimated that there are 50,000 missing diagnoses that will be a possible 17,915 deaths in the 12 months following the report[1]. Precision is often as important as accuracy. [1] https://www.macmillan.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/we-make-...

It’s a pointless argument because the only way to prove that lockdown resulted in more deaths is to spin up a parallel universe and see how many more people would have died if we didn’t go into lockdown. Since we cannot do that you are all comparing the COVID deaths despite lockdown (which is still an order of magnitude higher then any of the estimates provided for deaths resulting from the lockdown). So you’re not m…

> because the only way to prove that lockdown resulted in more deaths is to spin up a parallel universe and see how many more people would have died if we didn’t go into lockdown.

Orrr we could compare to the places that didn't have any measures in place since mid-2020. About half of US states, for example.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#132

Post by darthrupert »

ejolto wrote: post #74
darthrupert wrote: post #36

I'm more and more convinced that people who don't have kids should have double the tax burden compared to parents, at least for the first 5-10 years. The stress is unimaginable, and then some people have the gall to complain when parents try to do it well. Appalling behaviour. I would not tolerate such complaints as a manager, but thankfully I have never met such attitude in my life.

Would you then get those 5-10 years of extra tax refunded if you have kids at a later point? Or are you only going to endorse extra tax on sterile people?

Technically, parents would have 1/2 the income tax, so nothing needs to be refunded.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#134

Post by dang »

darthrupert wrote: post #36

I'm more and more convinced that people who don't have kids should have double the tax burden compared to parents, at least for the first 5-10 years. The stress is unimaginable, and then some people have the gall to complain when parents try to do it well. Appalling behaviour. I would not tolerate such complaints as a manager, but thankfully I have never met such attitude in my life.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30787874.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#135

Post by giantg2 »

sjg007 wrote: post #93
kaishiro wrote: post #44

My older brother is an alcoholic. I suspect it's somewhat cliche to say, but when he's sober he's the nicest guy I know - almost nobody else I'd rather spend time with - and when he's drunk, he's chaos. The past few years he's been really struggling with sobriety - on and off like a roller coaster. The pandemic was an absolute nightmare for someone like him - in between jobs, trying to stay sober, trying to find the…

Has he tried antabuse or something like that? Those pills make you vomit when you drink and are quite effective in harnessing the body's natural anti-poison response system to curb drinking.

Coprinus comatus mushroom has a similar effect. Just thought others would find that interesting as I do.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#136

Post by elliekelly »

sjg007 wrote: post #93
kaishiro wrote: post #44

My older brother is an alcoholic. I suspect it's somewhat cliche to say, but when he's sober he's the nicest guy I know - almost nobody else I'd rather spend time with - and when he's drunk, he's chaos. The past few years he's been really struggling with sobriety - on and off like a roller coaster. The pandemic was an absolute nightmare for someone like him - in between jobs, trying to stay sober, trying to find the…

Has he tried antabuse or something like that? Those pills make you vomit when you drink and are quite effective in harnessing the body's natural anti-poison response system to curb drinking.

For some reason we, as a society, have decided certain health problems are moral failures to be treated with shame and cured through willpower alone rather than modern medical intervention.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#137

Post by elliekelly »

dotancohen wrote: post #77
tyingq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment illustrates a large part of the problem. If society believes addiction is mostly a willpower problem, then effective services to help address it won't exist.

That service exists, though. The hospital specifically referred them to AA.

AA is a religious organization. Not everyone wants to be “saved”. Nor should they have to be in order to get treatment for alcoholism.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#138

Post by giantg2 »

dataengineer56 wrote: post #70
Cloudef wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly life isnt logical. Some people cant open up at all without alcohol. Alcohol may be their only way to connect with people. It can help them relax as it relives stress, some enjoy that it breaks the ice on social situations etc.. Human isnt logical being.

These are all misconceptions that the book addresses. Alcohol does not relieve stress, it deadens senses. To combat stress you need to solve the problem that is causing your stress. Alcohol does not improve confidence, it reduces inhibitions. Inhibitions are essential for being rational and making good decisions. See: people who have a drink and then injure themselves or get into fights.

"Inhibitions are essential for being rational and making good decisions."

I wonder if this is part of the reason high IQ individuals are more likely to binge drink and get drunk - to be less rational.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#139

Post by Broken_Hippo »

giantg2 wrote: post #83
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Church is only good if someone is already a believer: We shouldn't be pushing religion as a solution to addiction, though. That is one of many issues with AA (Yes, I know it works for some people, but it fails so many)

It's not about faith. It's about community and being part of one that at least gives a tiny crap about you (as opposed to the general population).

Lies. They don't exactly accept folks that are openly atheist and tell them their rules for life are crap. You have to act like the religion is correct, even if you don't believe it.

A lot of them won't accept you if you are queer in any form. I'm bisexual, and refuse to act like half of me doesn't exist.

Some of them won't accept you if you do not dress well enough, though I realize some are more lax.

Some consider me a sinner simply for being divorced: Others, because refuse to birth children.

I'm not in that group they care about, in other words.

Re: Alcohol-related deaths spiked during the pandemic, a study shows

#140

Post by sokoloff »

geden wrote: post #118

I stopped drinking during the pandemic. I think for good. I wasn't drinking much. A bottle of wine or two at the weekend with my wife. Never really liked beer that much. It's hard to articulate exactly why I stopped I think there was some sort of insight into how boring and mechanical it had become, how little I was gaining from it, the drip drip negative effect it had on my body and crucially, how my drinking enable…

I switched almost entirely over to non-alcoholic beer in pandemic. It wasn't particularly health or problem related, but just that I like the taste of beer, but don't need the alcohol and two real beers would leave me slightly hungover/tired the next day while NA beers don't.
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