Deaths of Despair Among Young and Middle-aged Adults

I have mentioned a number of times the multiple trends making life miserable for children and young adults in America.  The demonization of males and white people in general, the spread of ideologies of racism, hate and divisiveness.  Constant pimping of gender confusion and disaffirmation and promotion of bizarre sexuality.  Social media.  A general sense of purposelessness and lack of meaning in life.  A perfect recipe for despair, depression and giving up.  So no surprise that we see lots of drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness and unemployment among young adults, particularly working class whites.  But this has been going on long enough that it affects middle-aged members of the same group.

Also not surprising that we see a rise in “deaths of despair” in these age bands.  Suicides, intentional or unintentional drug overdoses, alcohol poisonings, not attending to obvious health needs, just giving up on being alive.  This is an analysis of trends in mortality and deaths of despair for young and middle-aged adults.  Note the differences by race and education.   And this author points out that other indicators like unemployment or even looking for a job and marriage rates also show that we have a lot of young and even middle-aged people who basically have given up on life.  (Substack Article)  You might also want to read the earlier pieces referenced in this one.  This is a substantial public health issue that is being ignored, because the impact is largely among whites and the working class. Where is the equity concern now?  (Case, Deaton Article)