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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

#281

Post by buran77 »

surfpel wrote: post #246
Applejinx wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's not that my state of life is that great: in many ways it's a side-effect of a nasty upbringing that did me harm, and I'd be better off without it and am actively pursuing repair of some of these mental issues. But given that I've spent my life with a set of challenges, this crisis has given me space to sort out what parts of it are ME and what parts are issues needing to be fixed. That's pretty valuable…

I also relate to this. My hope for cultural change post pandemic is that the shift towards remote work will persist after it's over. I love being an engineer but I can't stand working in an open office or commuting 2 1/2 hours a day.

For a while I wondered if I'm the outlier since I feel substantially better now than I did before going into isolation. Then some of my close friends who were on anti-depression or anti-anxiety medication told me the same. They actually stopped taking the medication for months with no signs that the symptoms are coming back.

It's anecdotal and I have no idea how widespread this is or why it happens, at least to people for whom self-isolation didn't work in the past. I can only imagine that the isolation may relieve some of the social pressure without leaving you with the feeling that you have to go to extraordinary measures to achieve it, it doesn't feel so self inflicted like self-isolation does under regular conditions. Now it's an external cause and applies to everybody.

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

#282

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#283

Post by eli_gottlieb »

rumanator wrote: post #20
username90 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A young person is building their life, lockdown is preventing them from doing that. For example a person looking to build a family will miss out on a few months they could find a partner, and the fertility clock is ticking

> A young person is building their life, lockdown is preventing them from doing that. I find this comment utterly mind boggling. The US's stay at home orders were issued when? Mid to end of March? That makes it what? About 1 month? Are we supposed to believe that "young people" suddenly get into a tail spin because they have to endure a whole month of not finding a partner, get to know each other, make life plans, an…

>The US's stay at home orders were issued when? Mid to end of March? That makes it what? About 1 month?

My state issued the stay-at-home advisory around March 15, and lifted it with precautions May 19. That's two months.

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

#284

Post by idoby »

mjayhn wrote: post #276
idoby wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 he…

I'm sorry you feel this way, but it kind of feels to me like you're linking everything back to a political landscape that you don't like, but which doesn't have a lot to do with the current state of things.

I'm not too happy with the govt in my country either, but I realize 90% of my situation would have been the same under most possible govts.

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

#285

Post by eli_gottlieb »

virvar wrote: post #42
presiozo wrote: post #27

I wonder what's the correlation between this and people being underpaid. I'm fortunate enough to have my own house after graduation so I don't have to pay rent. But I have friends that don't have this luxury and man, they are struggling. Besides eating and rent they can't afford anything else in a month. No question here what's giving them these feelings

I live in Denmark, where we lift a lot of the burden of civilisation together, to give everyone access to education, health/elderly/child care as well as a solid security system for those who get unemployed. And here society is hard enough these days, pressing more and more people beyond their limits. I really wonder how you all do it in America.

>And here society is hard enough these days, pressing more and more people beyond their limits. I really wonder how you all do it in America.

Oh, that's simple: those of us who survive the rat race are insane, and those who don't, you don't hear from.

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

#286

Post by munificent »

caleb-allen wrote: post #239
munificent wrote: post #198

I recently read "Man's Search for Meaning", written by a psychologist who survived several years in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Frankl's main thesis is that humans have a deep need for meaning in their life, which he defines as producing some kind of work, caring for others, or having enriching experiences. This strongly resonates with me. I believe America's consumer culture undermines this need. Many…

It seems that American culture and/or economics have, in recent decades, moved toward primarily consumption rather than primarily production. My point of view is that the backlash and anger against capitalism I perceive from younger generations is a result of how unfulfilling consumerism really is. I think individualism and personal liberty has been conflated with a selfish sort of consumerism, from the end consumer…

> I think individualism and personal liberty has been conflated with a selfish sort of consumerism

Yes. It's important to note, too, that this isn't something American people spontaneously decided to do. It was a deliberate strategy by rich business owners to sell the country on the idea of consumerism being great (because it was great for their businesses).

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

#287

Post by mjayhn »

idoby wrote: post #284
mjayhn wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 he…

I'm sorry you feel this way, but it kind of feels to me like you're linking everything back to a political landscape that you don't like, but which doesn't have a lot to do with the current state of things. I'm not too happy with the govt in my country either, but I realize 90% of my situation would have been the same under most possible govts.

> I'm not too happy with the govt in my country either, but I realize 90% of my situation would have been the same under most possible govts.

We are literally in the polar opposite government than we were from 2008-2016.

I don't think we'd be at 100k dead today if our government was different and responded properly. Is this what we're debating? Why did Hong Kong only have 4 deaths the last I looked a few days ago? The government and societal response?

Maybe we're miscommunicating. Yeah, 90% of my life is the same but we all have friends and family affected by some part of it (healthcare or unemployment typically). The most mutual thing right now is our combined stress (except for the people partying at the beach).

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

#288

Post by idoby »

mjayhn wrote: post #287
idoby wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry you feel this way, but it kind of feels to me like you're linking everything back to a political landscape that you don't like, but which doesn't have a lot to do with the current state of things. I'm not too happy with the govt in my country either, but I realize 90% of my situation would have been the same under most possible govts.

> I'm not too happy with the govt in my country either, but I realize 90% of my situation would have been the same under most possible govts. We are literally in the polar opposite government than we were from 2008-2016. I don't think we'd be at 100k dead today if our government was different and responded properly. Is this what we're debating? Why did Hong Kong only have 4 deaths the last I looked a few days ago? Th…

Sorry to read that, mate. FWIW I don't think your government had a course of action that would have made a lot of difference. It caught everybody on the planet off guard and exhausted already-provisioned healthcare resources pretty fast.

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

#289

Post by renewiltord »

wayoutthere wrote: post #279
renewiltord wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 g…

Yeah, that makes sense. It's hard to use the instrument of judgment itself to judge itself. I'm more wondering about a healthy individual.

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

#290

Post by _jal »

kitotik wrote: post #247
warent wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in a city? It sounds like you might enjoy living in a small town much more. Many small towns are very similar to what you just described all the time.

As a self-proclaimed weirdo and staunch individualist, small towns can be very difficult to just mind your own business in. Literally everything you do or don’t do tends to get noticed and talked about amongst the residents. There’s something to be said for the anonymity of large urban center.

Absolutely. I grew up in a tiny town, and loved the ability to get way out in the middle of nowhere with no humans around. And hated practically everything else about it.

Small towns make your business everyone's. There's a desperation for gossip that's just gross to me, and worse, if you don't play along, you're an outcast. Which worked fine for me, except it makes you a target for local shitheads.

I get why others might like it if they're social extroverts who fit whatever local majority-normal is, if not, a city is a far better place to live.

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