Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says • Hacker News Board

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#141

Post by pdimitar » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

dools wrote: post #137

pdimitar wrote: post #102

I'll join the chorus of the other sibling commenters here by expressing skepticism that any medication will at all help with anything. Psychiatric medication often simply numbs your brain so it stops being worried about things that legitimately and truly torment it. It reduces your sensitivity, it knocks off your normal brain chemicals balance, and it turns you into a robot. I've had a family member go through this a…

Ironically it is this sort of arm chair anti science bullshit that increase suicide risk among the mentally ill y contributing to a stigma of being medicated for a mental health condition.

Not at all ironically, you didn't present anything scientific either. And I don't stigmatize people for seeking help. I am skeptical if medications help because I haven't seen them work for the several people I know who tried them.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#142

Post by tzs » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

fny wrote: post #41

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bad take. At most, Covid was a wealth transfer from governments and middle-class to many lucky corporations and wealthy investors. But in reality, everyone is suffering. Let's say the opposite reaction happened and we prioritized heathy youths over vulnerable seniors. There would have been orders of magnitude more deaths by now, society would have collapsed in some places temporarily or permanently as healt…

There is no evidence society would have collapsed. Many countries do not have the health infrastructure the US has and have not undergone societal collapse. Yes more elderly would have died. More people with comorbities would have died. But societal collapse? The shutdown lasted for far too long. Mock Florida all you want, but they weathered the pandemic far better than many states with strict lockdown regimes (Calif…

California did way better than Florida [1].

[1] http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/?chart=states-...

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#143

Post by kzrdude » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

adnmcq999 wrote: post #91

sodality2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that it's too easy to forgo all of that and scroll through tiktok for 12+ hours a day, per day (school days included). I'm not exaggerating with that number, either. When you literally have nothing else to do, you'll find something enriching to do. But when there's an easy, lazy outlet, kids will go to that. We literally cannot say the same about kids a few decades ago, either. No one spent every waking…

So will adults. We’re here on hn

And it's not great. The loss of attention in general.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#144

Post by ibejoeb » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:48 AM UTC

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #71

fny wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masking is fine! Prolonged shutdowns aren't. Anyone who wants to go to work should have been allowed to, others are welcome to isolate. Special times could have been reserved to allow the elderly/unhealthy/fearful to go shop and take care of themselves. (Costco senior hours?) There are a lot of options.

When has there been a prolonged shutdown? I am in one of the heights of the Covid epidemic and we only shut down once in early 2020. Schools are still in person now at the height of omicron. What’re you talking about?

Quebec, Ontario, Australia, France, Italy, Ireland, South Africa...

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#145

Post by chrissnell » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:48 AM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #123

dagmx wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shows a gross misunderstanding of viruses. 1. Children don't exist in a vacuum. Even if they don't become symptomatic, they can still be a carrier and they can still infect adults that they're in contact with. Should teachers be sacrificing themselves? Should families isolate their children within the house? 2. It's a low risk to healthy children. What do you do for children with other health complications? Amer…

> Should teachers be sacrificing themselves? I want to directly address this one - I think the answer is yes. I still get in the engine and answer 911 calls. My wife still goes to the hospital and attends patients. Why shouldn't teachers go to work? Sure, some teachers are old and/or have health issues, and even with vaccination might be at unreasonable risk. Those people need to do something else (sure, with a lot o…

This. Millions of workers, "essential" or not, went to work day in and day out in 2020. The only reason that so many teachers did not is that they have strong unions, who turn out in droves to donate and vote for politicians that do their bidding in return. The teachers unions openly advocated for policies that were terrible for our kids.

I will never forget how the union in my district fought us at every step as we tried to restore normalcy in our children's lives.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#146

Post by pdimitar » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:49 AM UTC

R0b0t1 wrote: post #140

pdimitar wrote: post #102

I'll join the chorus of the other sibling commenters here by expressing skepticism that any medication will at all help with anything. Psychiatric medication often simply numbs your brain so it stops being worried about things that legitimately and truly torment it. It reduces your sensitivity, it knocks off your normal brain chemicals balance, and it turns you into a robot. I've had a family member go through this a…

To offer some explanation in defense of this, though I can't cite it right now: There's two major tests for the efficacy of depression-treating drugs that I am aware of. One is a "willpower" test, which in one incarnation is attempting to drown a mouse. A compound more likely to be efficacious in humans if it makes a mouse attempt to swim longer before ultimately succumbing to exhaustion. Taken by itself this test se…

Glad that there are studies and inquiries. We desperately need them yesterday because the culture of "take the magic pill and let's pretend you're OK" is not helping anyone.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#147

Post by dagmx » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:50 AM UTC

nradov wrote: post #133

dagmx wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just about death though, it's about hospitalization and long term effects too. We've had multiple major variants. Also what number of orphans is acceptable? 30% of the US won't vaccinate. Delta has a mortality rate of 3+%(1) by the most charitable takes. Rough math would show that could add somewhere under 1 million orphans to the system. Do we also ignore medical costs for those who get sick? What about the…

Please stop spreading misinformation about a serious subject. The CDC estimated the infection fatality rate at 0.6%. There is no credible evidence of a 3% rate at the population level. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...

I was estimating based on NHS numbers that showed a CFR of 1.9% for alpha and the estimates showing delta at being double the CFR. Not trying to spread misinformation, but I'm specifically talking about delta in a fully unvaccinated group in the case that everyone gets it (which is the colloquial talking point for people who say "everyone will eventually have covid" used to dismiss the precautions)

EDIT: HN won't let me reply to the comment below me until the cool down period. They say my argument is not in good faith, which is an odd assertion to make. Their comment assumes a higher case count than reported, which while likely, is not an assumption I'm making because it's hard to discern whether there is also therefore uncounted mortality.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#148

Post by bpodgursky » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:51 AM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #138

bpodgursky wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but the urban centers were the places where playgrounds were taped off, malls were closed, coffeeshops were takeout-only and there's no other good place for kids to aggregate. Suburban areas with yards and neighborhood playgrounds not owned by the city are were kids actually could and did socialize during the pandemic. > #2 kept their infection waves in check with early quick nuanced NPI instead of waiting until…

Urban centers used to have kids congregating in non-purpose built places all the time, before that was all stratified away. That's precisely what GP was saying I think. #2 wasn't about suppressing the virus to zero (true, no place succeeded at, not even China), it as about avoiding long stretches of strong countermeasures by applying lighter countermeasures earlier. They still required some escalation for maybe a few…

I understand what you are claiming, but it's a narrative not based on what actually happened.

The places that locked down earlier stayed locked down, and the places that locked down later re-opened earlier. No state stayed locked down to "dig themselves out of a hole"; that's not how any of the waves played out.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#149

Post by nradov » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:52 AM UTC

aemreunal wrote: post #47

spookthesunset wrote: post #36

Quoted post unavailable.

> [...] a virus that was nowhere near a risk to children. People continuously forget about (or maliciously omit) even a single step beyond someone's infection. One infected person can spread it to others . Even if the individual's risk may be low, soon, you start spreading it to people that are more at risk. Schools can thus become superspreader locations that put their parents and teachers and whatnot at risk. Wheth…

Closing primary schools was hysterical overreaction. Some countries like Sweden kept those schools open and they did fine.

Re: Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says

#150

Post by aogaili » Sun, Jan 09, 2022, 5:54 AM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #102

I'll join the chorus of the other sibling commenters here by expressing skepticism that any medication will at all help with anything. Psychiatric medication often simply numbs your brain so it stops being worried about things that legitimately and truly torment it. It reduces your sensitivity, it knocks off your normal brain chemicals balance, and it turns you into a robot. I've had a family member go through this a…

The point of medication is not to always numb your brain but temporary ease the pain until you can stand on your own feet again. When life goes so wrong for some people and their brain pain signal is so high that you can't even get out of bed, those medications help. It helps them to sleep and think less until they start to think correctly.

The issue today, is that people are expected to be productive all the time despite the isolation, low wages, lack of ownership, purpose, meaning and the raising inequality. And it is often those who are perceptive enough that tend to suffer more. If you don't want medications, then people need to have enough safety net to be unproductive for at least 3 to 6 months with some basic care, and this is luxury few people have.