What is causing "Deaths of Despair""?

[exitseven]

The life expectancy in the US had dropped slightly for the first time in decades. Surprisingly Covid was not the cause. The biggest rise in deaths have come from middle aged white men. The deaths are usually due to suicide, alcoholism, drug overdoses or systemic diseases related to obesity. Why is this happening?

What the heck?

[sage2021]

Let's take a look what has been happening in our country lately that have changed.
First, as you know, lay offs are back again. Amazon, 18,000, Microsoft 10,000 and another high tech corporation, 12,000. Most of the high tech jobs were probably held by white guys, and some were from Amazon. The Boarder Patrol guys have been commiting suicide, plus corporations I haven't heard about yet.
The war in Afghanistan ended, so a lot of military personnel were suddenly out of work. I don't know the stats on that.
When some people get depressed, they tend to over eat to comfort themselves.
Let's face it, a lot of men are having trouble finding someone to get into a serious relationship with, so, they aren't feeling the love. I guess it's fair to say the women have the same issue about finding love.
For some reason, America has turned against white males against any other race. They aren't getting hired for jobs like in the past. In fact, they are being frowned upon everywhere they look. Why this is happening, I don't know. 🤷🏼‍♀️
So, the two main things that can cause depression and divorce, and maybe suicide is love and money, or lack thereof.
This life in America 🇺🇸 isn't easy to make your way in like before 2020. Everything about it has changed and is still changing. Honestly, it's getting harder each day because everything is different and unfamiliar to us now.
Look at how long it took you to land a job again. I just hope you don't get laid off. What if you didn't have your family to see you through that situation! Lot's of people don't have any support and end up overeating for comfort, suicide cause they are at the end of their rope with no where to go, and despair is from the things I mentioned, plus other people will give you different opinions.
I'm barely hanging on myself over here.
Eggs at my store are $8.99 a carton. And eggs have become a hot item at the boarder.
Every darn day it's something new and on the negative side. A person can only take so much. 💔

[Daniela1982]

The real reason is that these people do not have God in their life. He will help you weather any storm in your life and give you peace, no matter what it is. People with no hope in tomorrow, or know of any way out, will be the ones who do these things. When you have hope that no matter what happens, whether life or death, you know that you have an eternal home so nothing will phase you. All you can do is wish others well, even though you know the outcome in the long run for them. You can lead a person to the fountain of youth, but you can't make them drink it.

[exitseven]

A lot of what you say is true.

[Daniela1982]

Yay! MHO :)

[exitseven]

😊😊😊

[WindAtMyBack]

Do you have a link to those numbers? The latest numbers I see from the CDC show an increase in longevity, not a decrease. It's also showing a decrease in suicides. The CDC probably has more recent numbers, but the complete report is not out.

"The biggest rise in deaths..."

What does this mean? For example if something is 2% of deaths and increases by 10%, it's a 0.2% increase in total deaths.

[exitseven]

cdc gov/surveillance/blogs-stories/deaths-of-despair html

[WindAtMyBack]

I was looking at something slightly more recent which showed a 2.1% decrease in suicide. I'm not seeing a breakdown of the others.

I'm seeing a decrease in overall life expectancy in the 2020 report, but COVID is the biggest contributor by far. Accidental injury is the second largest contributor. It's strange that accidents would go up so much in a year. It seems like too much change to be normal year-to-year fluctuations. It looks like there would be an overall increase in life expectancy without COVID.

I'd have to spend more time looking through it. I spend lots of time digging through government data. The CDC doesn't do a good job of presenting data. They have a lot of overlap with other agencies, but for some reason they do a poorer job at presenting the same exact data.

[msc545]

This is the result of intolerable stress secondary to the Pandemic.

[exitseven]

yes, covid screwed up a lot of people.

[msc545]

So true.

[dustybiker]

Most people don’t share their reasoning. People who are serious don’t want to alert people around them. You never know what is going on inside someone else's mind.

I believe mental health should be easily accessed. The suicide hotlines are for people still wanting help but at the end of their ropes. Mental health needs access far before people reach that stage.

People complain more about the huge cost over any sort of stigma associated with going to therapy these days. They want it but can’t afford it. That isn’t right.

[msc545]

People do not seem to understand the time and cost that it takes to become even margin Lee proficient at mental health work. In California where I live the minimum degree to be a mental health worker with any real credibility is a master's degree. That takes 6 years of school after high school. Has everyone hopefully realizes by this time college in the United States is almost never free. There are huge costs associated with obtaining even a master's degree in most cases. A PhD or MD following a bachelor's degree takes even longer and costs even more. By the time we get out of school we have spent quite a bit of time not earning much money if any at all. From a social standpoint other people are far ahead of us and own houses and have well-paying jobs and things of that sort that we don't have. When we finally do get work any license to practice we need to charge a reasonable amount of money for all the effort we've gone through all the stress we've gone through in all the money that we've spent and all the debt we have incurred. I'm very sorry that mental health is expensive but treating people with mental health problems is not exactly simple.

[msc545]

Sorry I made a mistake in the above statements it takes a total of about 3 years to get a master's degree in California not six. It can take much longer if you actually have to work during that period of time. Again that is the minimum degree acceptable to become a mental health worker in California and in most states.

[exitseven]

@msc545 yes, I went to school nights to get my masters degree. It took 5 years

[msc545]

Exactly. It isn't easy and it takes a long time and it costs a lot. Congratulations on your Master's degree!

[dustybiker]

@msc545 I clearly wasn’t knocking the practice, or the effort involved to get a license. I was knocking accessibility to the practice. That is the solution to @exitseven ‘s question.

[exitseven]

@msc545 thank you, I actually have two of them.

[msc545]

What subjects?

[Daniela1982]

Our medical insurance should cover mental health issues a lot more than they do now. This is why people don't get help. Being in debt for medical bills just adds to your depression or what else ails you. Instead of spending $Billions on Ukraine, they should take car of things at home too. I'm sure a lot of these shooters do this because they don't have the guts to commit suicide. What they just did maybe gave them motivation to kill themself. I have seen that happen.

[lightbulb27]

WAG: Broken relationships with insufficient support. They lost hope.

There's just not good support for men in society and we aren't good at it, we are better at dying as "heroes" then being emotionally vulnerable and seeking and finding support. Check out all the guys on the streets with signs...

[TrueConfection]

Lots of explanations came to mind and I decided to scroll through the other opinions before responding. @dansaiela1982 said it all in her first sentence.

[exitseven]

@TrueConfection Who knew that @daniela1982 could be so serious?

[Guy13]

Historical Cycle from 1920s forward based on economy numbers are available

[exitseven]

so it is because the economy sucks right now?

[Guy13]

I don’t know but often it correlates with suicide and Crimes like abuse too.

[NachtjaegerSS]

Let's start with the fact that men are seen as disposable, expendable, replaceable, interchangeable. Also, our culture portrays men as either bumbling idiots or violent predators who add no value to society.

Let's add how men are tormeted in divorce, "family courts", kept from seeing their children, having their retirement savings, home, and huge percentage of future earnings stolen from them; is it any wonder men have stopped giving a fuck?

[SnowedIn]

The extraordinary changes in the nation since 2020 would be enough to push many over the edge.

[jennifer_bloom]

People who do not have positive social relationships mistake pleasure for happiness and they buy chicken wings when they are depressed instead of baking a cake for their kids.

[Sparkie460]

Most likely it's because of the economy. People are struggling so they are drinking more, doing drugs and committing suicide.

[exitseven]

I wonder if there is more to it than that.

[Sparkie460]

It could be caused by covid

[exitseven]

The article I read said that was the assumption at first but after looking at the causes of death it was clearly something else.

[Sparkie460]

Of course they would deny it.

[joeldalton]

The lockdowns. They were 100% criminal crimes against humanity

[sage2021]

@joeldalton I am assuming you know that Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie died recently. She had a son who committed suicide two years ago. His friends said it was because he was depressed and because of the lockdowns. So what you say is true for some people.

[joeldalton]

@sage2021 True for almost everyone except the losers who don’t leave their homes anyway. Deaths, heart disease, obesity, alcohol and drug abuse, child abuse, suicide, spousal abuse, depression rates all skyrocketed because of this bullshit. Everyone who still thinks lockdowns were a good idea are criminally complicit.

[Msputiton]

I am not sure.

I can make a guess. But it would only be a guess

[Fuentes]

Fetanyl & Biden as our President

[exitseven]

It has risen in the last two years and it's mostly middle aged white guys. If you connect the dots...

[Anonymous]

Obesity and poverty are a big factor

[AngryCarl2]

Inflation. Also inflation.

[Bricealan]

Because Biden is President? Just guessing.