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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

#71

Post by samdamsamm »

crocodiletears wrote: post #49

The nation's been psychologically wrong-footed during an election year where the incumbent is the most controversial president in decades (one who's been impeached, even), the challenging party's primary process has been subjected to accusations of corruption and favoritism (at best) by the presumed nominee's opposition, and been riddled with suspicious errors. That alone would be a memorable storm and a half for our…

America has a profound ability to diagnose individual problems, and an active inability to diagnose social problems.

The American psychological industry cannot be let off the hook. DSM-5 is a handbook for how to blame society’s failures on individuals. We need scientific doctors capable of considering not only the realities they are allowed to accept but also the realities of the actually existing world in which their patients live.

We desperately need legitimate mental health institutions, but for-profit healthcare and for-profit education cannot provide that.

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

#72

Post by DanBC »

spicyramen wrote: post #37
Pfhreak wrote: post #12

I've dealt with depression and anxiety for many years. I just want to tell anyone who happens to read this: it's ok to ask for help, it's ok to go to therapy, it's ok to use antidepressants. Find the tools that work for you and keep asking for help when you need it. (Believe me, I know how hard it is.)

Isn't antidepressants in America one of the reasons of the opioid crisis...?

Some medications used for mental health can be addictive, and some can have "discontinuation effects" (these are important and unpleasant but are not really addiction). The addictive medications are the benzodiazepines and the "z drugs" (zopiclone, zolpidem, etc (sleeping meds)).

I think mental health medication is good and useful, and I think SSRI / SNRI / NASA type meds are very good, but useful questions (for any medication) are "What happens if we do nothing?" and "what are the side effects of taking it, or stopping taking it?"

These medications are not linked to the opioid crisis. The causes for that are complex, but they include over-prescribing of strong opioids for mild pain over many years.

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

#73

Post by ck425 »

dgzl wrote: post #69
Pfhreak wrote: post #12

I've dealt with depression and anxiety for many years. I just want to tell anyone who happens to read this: it's ok to ask for help, it's ok to go to therapy, it's ok to use antidepressants. Find the tools that work for you and keep asking for help when you need it. (Believe me, I know how hard it is.)

I'm always ignored when I ask for help. Being a person who "takes it like a man" in a sense, as in absorbs these problems for greater overall execution, I'm always ignored when I bring up my problems. "Tough shit" is the general attitude. Unless I'm highly expressive or emotional nobody takes it seriously. But if I'm being that emotional it's already too late.

It's worth looking into make support groups. There's various movements starting up support groups for men run by men, who are trying to break that stigma. I don't know where you are based but have a Google and you may find a local one.

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

#74

Post by ck425 »

asdff wrote: post #34
Exmoor wrote: post #3

>“What’s worrying is the effect this situation is clearly having on young adults.” I wonder if this is a perverse side effect of normalcy bias [0]? For me, a person in middle age, I can look back at my life and see a lifetime of fairly stable history with only a few traumatic events (9/11, 2008 crash). If you're 22, the current circumstances make up a much larger portion of your life. >The toll has also hit the poor…

This is a stressful stage of life for a lot of people. The quarter life crisis is very real. Young people tend to have young kids, or roommates, or tiny apartments, and working from home is a larger strain, especially at the entry/junior level which is a stressful rat race in many fields. Plus you don't have much wealth built up if you do get laid off, and little experience on your resume to justify being rehired qui…

Even if you don't have those living alone is a different but also difficult situation.

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

#75

Post by ck425 »

tayo42 wrote: post #46
username90 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't just put family building on ice, it puts almost everything on ice. Everyone who hasn't already built a life they are reasonable happy with will be feeling horrible right now, and most young people are in that stage. I'm already above that age so Corona doesn't affect me much, but I know that if I were younger I'd hate it.

All of that plus the unknown end of it. Sure its been 2 or 3 months but its not like its ending tomorrow. Any one who wanted to make a major life change in the next two years is probably rethinking it.

This is an issue I've had. I've been reconsidering and exploring career options over the last year. Atm I can't act on anything but I've all the time in the world to dwell on it. It's incredible frustrating and causing me a lot of anxiety. And I'm one of the lucky ones with a secure job that's not terrible. I can't imagine how rough it is for others.

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

#76

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

samdamsamm wrote: post #71
crocodiletears wrote: post #49

The nation's been psychologically wrong-footed during an election year where the incumbent is the most controversial president in decades (one who's been impeached, even), the challenging party's primary process has been subjected to accusations of corruption and favoritism (at best) by the presumed nominee's opposition, and been riddled with suspicious errors. That alone would be a memorable storm and a half for our…

America has a profound ability to diagnose individual problems, and an active inability to diagnose social problems. The American psychological industry cannot be let off the hook. DSM-5 is a handbook for how to blame society’s failures on individuals. We need scientific doctors capable of considering not only the realities they are allowed to accept but also the realities of the actually existing world in which thei…

I think you mean the American psychiatric industry, rather than psychological industry.

DSM is produced by both, but the over-medication of America is 100% driven by the psychiatrists (as they can actually prescribe drugs).

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

#77

Post by nickthemagicman »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #51
entee wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly 100,000 people have died of COVID19 and there’s good evidence that this is a substantial undercount. All this in a context where we shut down transmission vectors (being indoors, with lots of people). Most estimates I’ve seen suggest we’ll hit 150k-200k deaths by end of year. 2017-2018 flu season killed about 80,000 with no mitigation efforts. Just on the face of it, this virus is far more than 2x deadlier tha…

> there’s good evidence that this is a substantial undercount. I don’t know about the US, but most European countries count anyone who died with corona as a covid death. No matter how clearly you died to something else.

If only people with symptoms are being tested, and 80% of people are asymptomatic, how are we not drastically overestimating fatality rate?

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

#78

Post by username90 »

xigency wrote: post #48
username90 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comparing it to the flu seems to be arguing in bad faith along political lines rather than deeply examining the issue. No it isn't. Before vaccine a normal flu season killed 0.1% of the population in a year. Not 0.1% of infected, 0.1% of everyone. Those kinds of numbers are not good, but they are not a catastrophe either, especially if it is just a single year. And to me it looks like Corona is roughly that dangero…

Doing the math is an input but it isn’t the solution itself. The question of what to do is a policy decision which doesn’t have an objective right answer.

The moral thing to do is to ask whether someone in their 20's would choose to lock down for a few months in order to slightly reduce the risk of dying in their 80's. I think we all know the answer to that. It is only a dilemma of the person would choose to do it for themselves but not others, the current measures would not be done by almost anyone for themselves.

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

#79

Post by atomashpolskiy »

andybak wrote: post #58
nunodonato wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fortunately, more and more scientists and doctors are stepping up and being public about why all of this lockdown and social distancing thing is not only useless, but harmful. Unfortunately, not only they don't get much air time in mass media, as they end up being censored by YouTube. Makes you wonder why...

> Makes you wonder why... Come out and tell us. I'd like to hear a broad summary of your position. I do suspect it's a trifle more conspiracy-leaning than you're currently making out. Ending with a dog-whistle like this rather amplifies that impression. (I browse HN with showdead switched on which adds context to some comments that are easy to miss otherwise) I think there's a valid debate to be had about mortality,…

Conspiracy? Please. One example: two hour-long interviews of John Ioannidis from March and April have been removed by YT a few days ago. And he is very careful with picking words and stating opinions. But he happened to foretell (based on reasearch that he was doing at the time) the mortality rate comparable to seasonal flu when everyone was talking about 1-7%. My point is that if you give even slightest attention to alternative info sources, then you may clearly see, that COVID is 90% a political/economic issue.

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

#80

Post by runawaybottle »

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.

We’re particularly nuts if you want the short answer.
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