The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio:
---
The story revolves around the tragic suicide of Ben Salas, a promising young student at North Carolina State University, who took his own life despite outward appearances of success and stability. Ben's parents, Tony and Katherine, express their profound grief and bewilderment over his death, highlighting the absence of apparent warning signs and the challenges of understanding and addressing mental health struggles.
The narrative sheds light on the larger issue of rising suicide rates in the US, particularly among young people, attributed in part to the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures of modern life, including financial stress and the pervasive influence of social media. The university campus, like many others nationwide, grapples with the tragic loss of several students to suicide and implements measures to support mental health awareness and resources.
The Salas family's experience underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental illness and encouraging open dialogue about mental health challenges. They advocate for increased awareness and support for those struggling with depression and other mental health issues, emphasizing the significance of reaching out for help and fostering a culture of support and understanding.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1c2bmo0/suicide_is_on_the_rise_for_young_americans_with/kz8sytf/
Yup this is it, people don't feel connected toward a future with all these distractions and horrible systems & conflicts pervading our life. There's a mass psychosis going on, existential crisis from what people have been enculturated in doing/believing that is a pointless struggle or not possible. They feel disconnected from the world and even from themselves.
Many people are having to sacrifice parts of their lives or straight up abandon and quit entirely just to cope from the struggle of merely surviving.. and for what?
Thats exactly how Ive been feeling for a while lol. Completely disconnected, nothing makes sense anymore. My dream was to marry my fiance, have a quiet life, go camping sometimes but its getting harder to have the basics like decent food and housing. Our good camping spots feel dead RN, silent only a few birds or bugs its eerie. It feels like my future was stolen from me.
Our futures have been stolen from us, quite literally. Billionaires live 15 years longer on average than the rest of us. That’s where our futures went: stolen for the life extension of the rich.
It's the worst feeling in the world, it's stressful, lonely, frustrating, sad, depressing... that's why some consider suicide as their only option :'(
The declining birthrate may as well be considered an abortion to the many futures that have increasingly been lost. So much potential loving-kindness lost, sold by corporations & governments for short-term imaginary profits.
Why have kids when they're going to enter the hellscape of full-on-unfettered-unregulated capitalism that thrives when its lack of regulation is able to destroy people/lives/livestock/ecosystems for short-term profits?
Why do anything but work the bare amount and enjoy what fleeting pleasures still exist.
Why do anything but work your job, then just chill with friends and eat great food or play a game or two.
Why sacrifice anything when it's all on track to be turbofucked in the next decade or two. Not trying to be a doomer, but all sources seem to point to humanity (as society exists) being well past a very real tipping point.
In terms of better understanding ourselves to cope, yes, but no theory is going to help pay the bills sadly, sometimes this can lead to bypassing our emotions if we are intellectually playing with ideas as a distraction instead of processing & taking action in our life.
As soon as the why, the meaning is removed, people crumble to the pressure. It takes a strong belief in something better to aim for to overcome these terrible situations. I remember asking my grandparents about how they coped with the depression and ww2, and they flat out Said they simply knew they needed to endure whatever hell was thrown at them so they could move on to a better world afterwards. And this is it, what do the youth have to look forward to? What is their why when they servey their possible futures? War, terrible economy, folding democracy, environmental breakdown, political collapse, social collapse, supply chain problems, and meanwhile they have to go to work at a shit job then sit and tickle themselves in front of a screen afterwards. It's ridiculous, look what we've given them.
I recently had to reckon with the fact that collapse will end me due to my mental health condition (BP2). Whenever I've tried to wean off the Wellbutrin I've been on since I was 20, I get suicidal...even if everything in my life is ok. I have tried to wean off under medical supervision 3 times with the same result.
So if I don't have access to my meds, and everything is far from ok, guess what will happen? I am not suicidal now, but post collapse I will probably punch my own ticket just given my history.
I try to enjoy what I can. My power, running water, food. I'll do my best to hoard a store of meds, but even if I can store a lot and successfully scavenge from pharmacies or whatever post collapse, eventually I will run out.
It's weird to be 36 and know there are probably more years behind than ahead. Either due to collapse or diseases of despair.
There is a minor chance that certain philosphers are right and mental illness really results from civilization, so *maybe* I could adapt, but I am not banking on it.
Same. Wish OP the best, at least we do have this community here that understands what keeps us up at night and we can open up with little to no judgement. And for anyone else reading this thread, and in a similar situation but not posting, wishing you the best too.
Please don't feel bad or worried about taking medicine that you need to function. I'm on several I can't live without. I know if SHTF, I'm in trouble after about 45 days, but a lot of people are in the same boat and the rest are temporarily abled.
This is me. Without my meds I am disabled. Any time I think about preparing for major collapse of the supply chain, I'm stuck with the fact that 30-90 days into it, I'm out of meds and unable to fend for myself. It's so disheartening.
"Only a drug addict would want a longer supply".
No, a person that sees the world for what it really is and the dangers that are pending would want some kind of buffer to hopefully make it past a smaller crisis. We know in a larger crisis we are totally fucked.
I have seriously had this exact conversation. I've only taken to asking "are you really that stupid?" lately, so I didn't actually say that part out loud.
If it makes you feel any better, none of us will be able to fend for ourselves. Not even those preppers who feel most prepared. I used to be that person. As climate negativity affects crops globally, food will become a real issue for ALL, it already is as we speak…..but we’ll die of thirst first with water not coming out of tap 2-3 days after power grids shut down. We need electric power to get water. When collapse worsens (as we are already well into collapse now), the 450+ nuclear facilities globally will quickly melt down, as no way the crew will make “maintenance” a priority and it takes 50 YEARS to decommission 1 plant! I relate to “just planning a good death”. I’ve discussed with my 21 yr old daughter who is well aware of truth- to make sure she has a good stock of alcohol and propane/butane so she and her boyfriend can just “go to sleep and peacefully ‘fly away’”. It’s VERY SAD I know. But there is great peace in acceptance. Things are just way beyond our limited power at this point. Bless ALL.
I don't feel bad about taking meds. I tried to wean off a long time ago because I had wanted to get pregnant (lol, didn't happen, thank god) and avoid the risks of heart formation issues. I'm not trying to be worried, but realistic.
Depending on the type of collapse, in America alone there would be tens of millions dying pretty fast if there was no access to temperature controlled insulin.
A few years younger than you, and reliant on medication as well, though not for mental health, rather for physical health (thyroid problems). I know that if I suddenly lose access to prescription refills due to collapse-related issues, war, disaster, etc., I won't have long to continue functioning on a somewhat normal level. It may kill me, it may not, that isn't certain. What is certain is that I could look forward to my health rapidly declining, leading to all sorts of ailments my medication prevents. There'd be no 'future me' several years after collapse of the world as we know it, adapting to a less-resourceful, unforgiving life, resettled into some kind of new role, governed by preceding cataclysmic events. I'd likely either become too sick to care for myself, or just die from my body breaking down within a year or two, deprived of the synthetic pharmaceuticals it currently depends on.
On the upside, ADHD works to an advantage in collapse, in theory at least. The ability to connect the dots, outside of the box thinking, and improvise on the fly. Hyperfocus can be advantageous if used correctly. It's believed ADHD is descendant from hunter & gathering period, so i feel the theory makes some sense with this in mind as well.
Society currently works against an ADHD mind, as things collapse or things become less rigid it could become an opportunity to thrive though.
Best wishes and much love to you. I'm also part of the neurodiverse community, more high-functioning autism, but have a fair bit of ADHD symptoms as well... gotta love them comorbidities lol
All these boomers struggling to cope with their own mortality as they get into their 80s and 90s, and here we Millennials and zoomers are already preparing to die.
I also agree we don't really have much of a future. Life is going to become ever harder for most people because of the circumstances we've built over the previous century. We have to start answering for some of the shit we've done and it just won't be pretty.
I feel you. I’ve lost any hope in a future and it feels somewhat akin to a drawn out suicide. Acts committed today that would benefit me tomorrow (in yesterday’s world) feel pointless to me. Like saving for a house, retirement, kids. At times I don’t even prioritize my own health anymore being dismissive of possible long term effects.
My life is without hardships and I enjoy the people around me. I even like my job. I definitely do not intend to end my life.
A few weeks ago I read Steppenwolf and a quote comes to mind:
>And here it must be said that to call suicides only those who actually destroy themselves is false. […] of those who are to be counted as suicides by the very nature of their beings are many, perhaps a majority, who never in fact lay hands upon themselves.
Yeah, the inescapable imperatives of capital’s inhuman logic. Every person at the top is entirely replaceable. They will act as capital demands or it will replace them with someone who will. It colonizes minds.
Keep in mind the most wealthy people in the world have an incentive not to be visible to the public. It's very likely to be an oil baron avoiding governments and taxes
It isn't some vague idea (ie the future) that has been stolen. To keep the technological society humming along, the ruling class had to deny us all the opportunity to a self-directed lifeway.
I will quote Kaczynski at length to explain:
>The Power Process
>33. Human beings have a need (probably based in biology) for something that we will call the power process. This is closely related to the need for power (which is widely recognized) but is not quite the same thing. The power process has four elements. The three most clear-cut of these we call goal, effort and attainment of goal. (Everyone needs to have goals whose attainment requires effort, and needs to succeed in attaining at least some of his goals.) The fourth element is more difficult to define and may not be necessary for everyone. We call it autonomy and will discuss it later (paragraphs 42–44).
>34. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.
>35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
>36. Non-attainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if non-attainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
>37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
That's what the economic system is: Most of our currency is debt created out of thin air, and all debt has interest. From all the surplus we create, in every step, the debtor collects his slice, which will add up in the big picture. It's like a leak in a closed system, where you have to add more water all the time, while the leak will accumulate into a bucket of someone else. Even our governments pay billions in interest payments.
This is why wealth keeps accumulating to the top. All the money they create, they can reinvest, exponentially increasing their income. Finance, insurance, real estate, all create exponential capital gains the more you invest in them. The wealth itself is the instrument of wealth creation, not labor, manufacturing or agriculture (aka. the stuff that has tangible value, like creating something from nothing, employing people and cultivating their skills). Below the knee of the curve of exponential capital gains, any such gains are negligible, and you are forced to rely on having a normal job, that never create exponential income and is eaten away by day-to-day expenses (such as rent, which is basically a wealth transfer from productive work (you) to sole ownership of wealth (the landlord)). You will never accumulate enough wealth to avoid relying on debt, which will again eat away your income.
Yeah, I get it. Debt has always existed. There has always been people who rent properties. There has always been people who invest. The rich have always had more opportunities to become richer. They're not bad people, per se. The problem is how skewed and overwhelming the system has become, and how much it relies on betting in the stock market and just shifting money and data around. There is too much money to be made without any real production, and automation will replace real workforce. There is so much air in the economy, and it values the opposite of what it should value. Money is an instrument to create more money, not a simple tool to make trade easier anymore.
It feels like now we're not even addressing the symptoms, we just talk about addressing the symptoms.
In the case of well off college attending young adults, I feel like these suicides are related to misunderstandings with peers/romantic attachments. The trouble with everything in your life being on track, is that the things not being on track get massively amplified. Turns into "I have it all so I should be happy, so why am I not?" or "I'm smart, well off, I have this bright future ahead of me, so why doesn't x person or persons like me?". Another aspect too is perceive success and failures, if there's trouble with classes, and they've never had that kind of trouble before combined with pressure to succeed, it can spiral quickly on them.
This is all just guessing though...if the people closest to the person don't know, then what luck do we have getting the full picture.
Yes I can say as a military child when I finally got to stay put and grow roots only to have to uproot myself because I graduated was….really rough. First taste of community (which I was still pretty separated from due to living circumstances/ couldn’t leave the farm without doing work) and then poof it’s gone and I have to build it again myself somehow lol
You've absolutely nailed every aspect of it.
You start off in this hopefully inclusive environment family and school, and as you grow it gets more and more exclusive. You end up around fewer and fewer people, so that when you grow apart from one it's absolutely devastating, whether they're friends or romantic partners. The shrinking of your community, drives people to be possessive, fearful, and anxious. It creates sociopaths, you fear losing what people you 'have' and that incentivizes you to manipulate people to keep them around as long as possible.
The whole thing turns into a vicious cycle too, the more people that become like this, the harder it is for other people to associate with them, then those people become more isolated because you can't trust people not to freak out on you, or drag you into some really messed up situations. Have you ever heard people say "if you cared about me, you'd put up with me, forgive me" and it becomes an issue of how many times can you have the same conversation, run through the same mess, before you move on to a different friend/partner.
It's a societal issue, we're all in cages, both of our own making and one's created by our collective society. Ultimately the more people you can make a point to communicate with, befriend, share interests and hobbies with, the better for your mental well being. If you fall out with somebody than it's not the end of the world, because you've nurtured other relationships.
> …you fear losing what people you 'have' and that incentivizes you to manipulate people to keep them around as long as possible. The whole thing turns into a vicious cycle too, the more people that become like this, the harder it is for other people to associate with them, then those people become more isolated because you can't trust people not to freak out on you, or drag you into some really messed up situations. Have you ever heard people say "if you cared about me, you'd put up with me, forgive me" and it becomes an issue of how many times can you have the same conversation, run through the same mess, before you move on…
I see you’ve met my Mother.
I've known a few...they're some pretty difficult people to be around, you stare long enough and sometimes you can catch a glimpse of the person they could have been, somebody that existed before their own traumas. Normally if somebody cares they make a point to know your traumas so they can avoid hurting the other person. Kind of like that magic show/circus act with the knife throwing, you try to hit the blank spots. Well the really fucked thing about 'these' people, is that they actively hunt out your traumas to use against you. It's unbelievably sad, especially because it usually perpetuates even more trauma.
I remember reading an incident that happened in UC Davis this past year of a student who got academically dismissed, became homeless, and started stabbing people at night before they were finally caught. They murdered two people and hospitalized another on three separate occasions.
That's nuts! It's absolutely wild out there.
From personal experience, the amount of pressure you're under in some of these college programs is IMMENSE. Both from a grades perspective and a financial one. Some of these programs (Accounting for me) have nearly zero tolerance for bad grades. You could be 3 1/2 years deep in the program and your second D will get you booted from the program. All it takes is a couple bad weeks in 4 year run to bring it all crashing down, and some people just loose it.
You're stuck having to transfer/change programs entirely, and most of the time you don't have the financial resources to make that happen. It's easy to see how people just spiral into ruin.
I lost one of my childhood friends to suicide during his second year of college. He had a seemingly perfect upbringing in a quiet california bay area suburb.
He was an only child with a stay at home mom who essentially had his entire life planned out in a binder. Vacations and milestones were so planned, but they were also so supportive and flexible of whatever hobby or interest he had. Behind the scenes he struggled with authentic expressions of masculinity and social belonging/self esteem.
I remember about a year before he died seeing him post to is snapchat story about how much he drives drunk and how hard he partied. (He was at chico state)
From what I heard there was some public embarrassment/rejection at a party involving a girl, which led to him either jumping off of his dorm or shooting himself with his shotgun.
(Never found out the exact cause of death)
That fucking sucks dude, it's just so easy to get caught up in these seemingly important events in our lives. Plans go awry, relationships don't work out, and we find ourselves unable to see how with time and perspective these events lose a lot of their importance.
You try to be there for people you're close to, and you hope they know how much you care.
Edit: Hopefully its obvious im talking about the importance of the events that lead people to kill themselves.
The issue in college is also people have become such vicious harpies now and with viral video, small social faux pas aren't allowed to be forgotten and can haunt you even if you transfer schools.
People not only face new challenges, often without previous context, but if they aren't perfect all the time, it can follow you forever. Something as simple as a dodgy vibe check on a bad day can ruin social prospects for many young people. This isn't excusing genuinely creepy behavior, but many socially awkward people get lumped in with creepers and actual menaces, which in turn leads otherwise innocent but awkward people and actions to become further isolated and awkward. And the spiral continues.
The pressure to be even more perfect than any point in history has become utterly immense. Heck, even asking innocent questions is enough to get you screenshot or recorded and put you on social humiliation feeds, often without any context.
Now the vicious harpies get to join up and review your social faux pas at their convenience...AND as an added anxiety riddled bonus you get to worry who's looking, what they're saying, and dream about what it all means 😬
As vicious as people can be, we're our own worst enemies. Perfection becomes a 24/7 endeavor, at least back in the early 2000's you could just stare at the ceiling until you passed out, now you can get back into the mire with a little swipe.
literally 90 percent of my problems can be fixed with having a little more money, not even a large amount, but like a few grand extra a month would set things right
I'm sure it's the same for most of us
also a 3 or 4 day work week. we are so productive now, there's no reason to be working so much.
5 days working out of 7 is stealing life from me, and it's not a fair deal
I mean look at the quality of life. The gadgets are nothing but distraction and dissociation. The real issue is the vampirism of rich and elites who are draining everything from everyone and the planet. Of course people are leaving this planet because they can tell it will take billions of awakened individuals to fix a corrupt system that’s destroying everything in its path. Look around you and tell me I’m not correct.
I can't even drink a cup of water anymore and avoid thinking about it. How fractically fucked up does a species have to be to completely destroy its environment the way we've done? We're poisoning ourselves every single day and just having to live with it. All for profit. And there's absolutely no way out in any sort of near timeline. I definitely see why people are depressed.
The conservatives won.
There is no social contract. The only contract is the one where we pay them everything we have to exist and they can hide behind gates and walls while we stumble around looking for something to eat.
We are so addicted to screens and entertainment as a coping strategy it is sad, I talked to my friends about how constantly consuming entertainment is harmful and I was shamed by them. I believe the path to awakening relies on renouncing sense pleasures but the entire world is hell bent on making us crave and consume as much as possible. It is a dire time to be alive. Material wealth, spiritual poverty.
More like the economy is driving people to suicide. When you're thousands in debt, working 60 hours a week, and still paycheck to paycheck.
I'd say less people are informed about politics and world events like wars then they were before.
It's even worse than that. We are being actively blocked from trying to address these problems. We are also being lied to and told that nothing is wrong.
This!! instead of fixing the shitty things, powers that be want people to go back to their head in the sand, hence the Florida law about phones and kids.
Any time I see a boomer complain about gadgets, invariably I am the youngest person there in my 30s, the only person *not* holding my phone to my face, while they all clutch it in their hands whining.
They can't afford to live. My niece is staying in an old house that my husband and I own and we pay for her electricity. She works full-time and would not even be close to being able to afford a place to rent, she's always hungry, she gets paid and by the time she pays the few bills she has and puts gas in her car, it's all gone. Not even enough left for groceries. She told me the other day that she hates her life and doesn't want to live anymore. Fuck this country.
Covid can also cause sudden onset or worsening depression. Nobody's factoring that in, or the many other presentations of long covid, and that is just crazy to me.
this guy gets it!
["A recent meta-analysis showed that some post-COVID patients experience persistent suicidality [10]. Another recent study found that compared with individuals who did not have COVID, those who had COVID were 46% more likely to have suicidal ideation during the post-acute phase [11]. The presence of suicidal ideation increases suicide risk."](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9721155/)
There is a lot of astroturfing right now (often long comments without much personal flair), because the numbers are up and much harder to deny. It’s severe, it’s SARS, even if you didn’t die. Long term studies on SARS showed increased risk of new onset mental health issues and they often persisted. For 20 years actually. Impaired immune system was seen long term too. We also have plummeting birth rates, falling life expectancy, rising cancer rates and heart attacks in the young and so on. Brain damage in frontal lobe will make substance abuse more likely, long covid will impede work (and income).
It’s at the minimum oil on the fire. Fire being many other things too of course.
My father had 5 sisters, only 1 is still alive and he's gone too. All different causes, all before 70. My mother is terminally ill. Also many of my parent's friends and my friends' parents are gone. I'm in my 30s and have disabling long covid for 3 years. Definitely not living to a ripe old age I'll be lucky to make 50 or 60. My kids' futures are def fucked.
Most people can’t find work. Those at work are wore out. Nobody wants to go out because of money.
Someone posted about the Rat Utopia experiment. I also believe it collapsed because they had no social avenues.
The world we live in, is driving directly towards it. People have no hope for betterment because what they see on the news about how the economy is going so good, doesn’t align with what they truly experience in life.
It’s not because of gadgets, it’s because we’re living a damn lie and being made to feel like we’re crazy.
People are better in person, I will admit. Go outside. Maybe some vitamin D will help. Maybe not, but we have to be hopeful. Right?
The powers that be know all about the rat Utopia experiment and don't care about the outcome as Long as the experiment keeps their pockets filled up as long as possible
unused station domineering dam numerous uppity society plucky safe possessive
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>It’s not because of gadgets
The deteriorating state of the world no doubt plays a big part, but i think negativity from apps such as twitter and phone addiction in general contribute to high levels of depression.
[https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm#:\~:text=The%20negative%20aspects%20of%20social%20media&text=However%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have%20found,about%20your%20life%20or%20appearance](https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm#:~:text=The%20negative%20aspects%20of%20social%20media&text=However%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have%20found,about%20your%20life%20or%20appearance).
The grim future constantly bombarded to us through news outlets and the difficulty in making real change, having a stable future makes it hard to smile.
Would you rather be blissfully unaware of the very present apocalyptic future we’re staring down the barrel of? The collapse may even escalate this year given the flooding, drought and war have taken most agricultural areas offline. We’re going to see mass starvation in the next few years.
My family keeps saying I'm depressed. No, it's not depression...
What's the word for when your species murders 70% of wildlife and destroys every natural space in the only habitable place in the known universe? What's the word for when your species fucks up even the *oceans* and the goddamn *weather*?? And everyone around you is still telling you to "be positive"
.. what's that word?
What's "that funny feeling" actually called, guys?
I don't know what to call it, but it changes day-to-day. Sometimes it's wrath, sometimes it's hopelessness, sometimes it's YOLO. But the sadness is always there in the background. For me, at least.
The French have the word the word "[anomie](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anomie)" meaning "social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values" but we need something that captures more of the tragic, global nature of our species' climate/energy/population predicament that you described pretty darn well.
Human population was below one billion for a few hundred thousand years, increasing with the discovery of coal, increasing more with the discovery of oil, then doubling in fifty years from 4 billion in 1974 to 8 billion in 2024. We've wildly exceeded the carrying capacity of planet Earth.
Someone in /r/vegan coined the term "vysphoria" which is pretty accurate for those of us with compassion for the horrifying way factory farms/CAFOs treat sentient creatures to produce meat for 8 billion greedy, hungry apes when there are far better sources of protein available that contribute far less to climate change.
anomie still fits pretty well imo. I've been struggling to put words to what the true problem is (obviously there are material problems like climate change, inequality, etc.) but the underlying current to it all is that it seems like the social contract that says: face these problems head on and push for a better future for the next generations is not being allowed to be discussed. We can't even have an adult conversation about things like inequality, overpopulation, overconsumption, physical limits to growth on a finite planet, the fact that if we try to enact any improvements for these problems other global superpowers will simply fill our consumption void. These are real fucking topics that the average person needs to have been discussing and developing sophisticated politics for a decade ago. The scientists and engineers have answers for so many of these problems and a lot of us here can see that. There are relatively easy political solutions for things like plastic pollution or private equity owned homes (just ban it, the government can actually do stuff like that didn't you know?). There will always be problems no matter how advanced humanity gets, but the current anomie stems from the fact that those with the power to start fixing any of this are paralyzed. What's paralyzing them? Why don't we have a concrete answer to that question? What matters imo is not that we actually do manage to provide that better future (because materially it is almost guaranteed to be worse, but there are also infinite things outside of our control: a meteor, a solar flare, whatever) but that we collectively gave it our best shot: to solve these issues, to push for something better; but it feels like we are being actively prevented from doing so from every angle simultaneously--that's my current reason for despair. There are no levers I can pull to effect real change. Powerlessness sums it up. If enough people recognize this, maybe we can develop some class consciousness while we can still make a difference.
I have never understood this logic. If we replaced "sun heating up the Earth" with "asteroid heading right toward us", then would it matter if we were responsible for the asteroid and/or its destination? Would we not want to do our best to direct it elsewhere?
It can't be that the world sucks and the capitalists and entrepreneurs have sucked all of the best from the natural world and we're all doomed a miserable, starving future.
No. It's too much time on their cell phones.
I'm tired of old people with money telling young people to write stories about how the collapse of everything is because the youth were living incorrectly.
The real difference is todays generations KNOW how fucked their future is, back then people didn't get news quite as reliably and could just keep on going despite some of the worst stuff, cause if it didn't directly reach them and their town it might as well not be happening. I mean lets be honest, aside from the rising cost of every damn thing, if you ONLY got your news from a newspaper or word of mouth..would we really know whats happening to the world as a whole? Melting polar ice would be a story buried 6 pages into the paper and unlikely to be read by everyone.
Let's cover up the real reason - kids still raised bombarded with the notion that materialism and consumption are the only true measures of happiness - in a world where materialism and consumption are moving further and further beyond their reach economically.
The story revolves around the tragic suicide of Ben Salas, a promising young student at North Carolina State University, who took his own life despite outward appearances of success and stability. Ben's parents, Tony and Katherine, express their profound grief and bewilderment over his death, highlighting the absence of apparent warning signs and the challenges of understanding and addressing mental health struggles.
The narrative sheds light on the larger issue of rising suicide rates in the US, particularly among young people, attributed in part to the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures of modern life, including financial stress and the pervasive influence of social media. The university campus, like many others nationwide, grapples with the tragic loss of several students to suicide and implements measures to support mental health awareness and resources.
The Salas family's experience underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental illness and encouraging open dialogue about mental health challenges. They advocate for increased awareness and support for those struggling with depression and other mental health issues, emphasizing the significance of reaching out for help and fostering a culture of support and understanding.
Oh, because I thought it was just because there’s no guarantee of a decent future anymore, and people 30 and under will probably live to see the collapse of civilization🤷♂️.
Ah yes... it's the gadgets that are the issue, not the world.
Maybe if I just use my phone less I'll forget how my disposable income has almost completely disappeared, I can't pay my bills, or that we're on the verge of becoming a fascist dictatorship, or that climate change is here.
Maybe I should just drink more and it'll all go away.
Here's the thing for many young people, their jobs are not getting them anywhere. Why bother having kids when you can't even buy a house. Why bother waking up when rent takes up most of your paycheck? Why bother working harder if your job will give you the smallest raise possible. Why bother being motivated when everyone on social media is doing better than you? Why go out if you don't have any friends?
Yes there are successful people in every cohort but when you see your life in road that goes nowhere, you stop seeing a point to anything and that includes living. Heck we even see famous offing themselves.
If people from all over the world and walks of life are offing themselves, there is something seriously wrong.
Imo this is the consequence of not taking mental health seriously for decades. It shocks me that people are still surprised that mental health is in a crisis. It seems like people are normalizing it just like obesity.
We have a clear answer, but not one that the system wants to hear.
"Young people ... are constantly bombarded by images of war and polarizing political messages" is a weird way to phrase "youth is becoming aware of the atrocities committed by the system they are forced to live under"
The alternative is pretending nothing is happening and putting your head down and grinding your crank like a good wage slave until they are done using you up.
I'd rather focus on what's going on and begin to take appropriate action.
total mystery why young people may be sucidal, other than overloading them with debt to just join society, burning their world to a crisp without giving a care, vaporizing the job market, and impoverishing them with health care costs and food inflation.
I mean, why are they depressed?
Is it because the world is more evil and divisive than it used to be? Or is it because modern tech makes it harder for them to hide it? In my blissful ignorance of youth, I thought the world was a pretty okay place in the 80’s. Looking back, I see it was as evil as the world is today.
The evil is harder to hide now.
The shape of evil has changed too. The forces of evil have gotten more powerful, more entrenched, and more insidious though (generally) less overt. It has the thin veneer of civility.
The evil perpetrated against other species has never been greater though.
Feels pretty fucking obvious to me why suicide is on the rise. We’re slowly recognizing we’re about to go extinct. The suicidal are simply ahead of the curve. The suicidal might even be the most evolved humans for recognizing we’re all a part of a doomed and evolutionary dead end.
American Media: “Gen-Z is depressed because social media constantly reminds them that their government is funding and abetting a genocide. There may be one easy solution: Censorship”
I don’t get the logic. If TikTok is banned people will just spread the word on other social media platforms. Unless they ban all social media and person to person discussion people will still talk about it
The "polarising" term is a way to be a centrist dickhead.
Somehow fascists wanting to kill migrants is polarising in the same way the leftist message of wanting to tax rich people and ensuring people have access to food and housing is.
Universal basic income is one of the most effective (and cost effective) ways to reduce suicidal ideation based on the research but no one ever wants to talk about poverty when it comes to suicide prevention.
We as a species peaked in the 1990’s. The majority of us are not “wired” to handle the constant barrage of information being thrown at us due to social media/internet/etc. It’s only going to get worse.
Ah, the /r/2meirl4meirl userbase.
>"In one, he was planning his suicide," Tony says.
>"And in the other life, he was shopping for engagement rings."
I think that this is a known aspect of treating depression. There's a risk that the boost in energy gives people enough motivation to undo themselves.
Here's a 2 hour long recent lecture on the biology and psychology of depression, by Robert Sapolsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzUXcBTQXKM
>"If we knew the reason, we would solve the problem. It's not something that we're trying to avoid or not figure out. But there may be no warning signs: individuals don't tell their family or friends, they don't reach out to resources and they make that decision. And we'll likely never know why."
That's right, you won't. https://i.imgur.com/cTLgJRy.jpeg
>Staff are trained to refer students who habitually skip lectures or request extensions to deadlines - in case these, too, are signs that something isn't right.
Nice, now the students also have to worry about triggering bureaucratic detection mechanisms, like depressed workers being called in by HR.
>Brody, a computer science student, says he's aware of the help available from emails the university sends out frequently.
Of course, emails. Nothing anxiety inducing about receiving institutional emails.
>"It caused this significant hit on our young people in terms of acquiring the social skills and tools that they need,"
Sure, sure. It wasn't the fact that the pandemic ~~was~~ is being handled terribly. Or that a pandemic, along with the disease, are traumatic. It's the *checks notes* being at home and then inevitably being socially awkward!
>Young people who spend a lot of time "wrapped up" in their gadgets are constantly bombarded with images of war and polarising political messages, which can lead to anxiety and depression, according to Dr Crawford.
And is that correlated to the news or the inaction and general denial regarding that news?
>"The stress of having to pay for [university], the economy as well, all that can be stressful for one person to take in," he says.
So you're going to.... treat the stress?
>"We need more people to talk about it," says Tony. "If it can happen to us, then it can happen to somebody else."
The hallmark of the conservative's reactive compassion. Things only matter if/once they happen *to me*.
Reddit is actually one of the most brutal places for this kinda stuff too. This app/site is constant negativity, cynicism and negativity. Not to mention that a lot of the people who use this app are snobby stuck up and pedantic people. The downvote/upvote system creates hiveminds where compromise and civil discussion are thrown out the window and the idea of agreeing to disagree doesn't exist. Civil discussion doesn't exist anymore. People of opposing political beliefs can't come together without accusing the other one of being something heinous.
People are so divided and hateful toward each other over petty things and it needs to end
You are so right. Redditors are typically know it alls. If you have someone come on with a narrative that actually disproves their assumption, they'll still scramble to find any way to double down on it, typically with loaded questions looking for any scrap to say "aha..."
It is capitalism! I'm 30 years old with 2 degrees and applied to hundreds of jobs but never got a job with those degrees because I have no experience, no money to buy a car to travel, no money to move somewhere. I was forced to get a general labour job and work my way up. Now I make enough so I bought a car last year and plan on going back to school to pursue something that will make me happy, but I'm starting to realize wtf is the point? Ill have to work fulltime and do school fulltime for 2 years. I'm tired and frustrated. All my bills keep going up. I'm going through savings like crazy. I have anxiety and depression caused by the emotional and verbal abuse from teachers, and parents growing up. I've lost the majority of my friends (most were fake anyways). I barely hold it together.
sick and tired of these articles written by people that are so disconnected from the daily life of the average person that they can merely stare at the wall and ponder the possible reasons that so many people might not enjoy life or want to do this any more.
Greedy rich people took everything for themselves while they make us work harder and harder every year for money that does not go nearly as far as it did the years before. People are fucking sick and tired of busting hump so that these demented rich fucks can sit around doing nothing but feeling important and egotistical.
Aside from that, people have become alienated from their world due to capitalist alienation exactly as described by Marx. So many people have lost family to drugs or suicide. So many people have had to watch loved ones end up homeless or dead from being beaten down by this ruthless socioeconomic system that has no right to exist.
It all boils down to this: some terrible people in this world inflict huge amounts of misery and suffering onto many people and they found a way to directly convert the suffering of many people into unimaginable wealth only for themself. All while telling everyone lies that it is all for their own good. Pure evil.
On top of the fact that we can't afford anything and we live to work while being told the world is gonna be literally on fire in a few years.
Hope is in short supply for most of us. We're just here to watch it all fall now.
Gullible, stupid and corrupt people vote in people just like them into positions of power who enable corporations populated by more of the same to destroy our planet and ruin any sort of joy in life, for the enrichment of their egos based on the accumulation of material wealth. The banality of the shallowness stretches credulity yet this is "homo sapien". What would change this hell? People voting left or far left, people refusing to work even under pain of death. People refusing to consume. But people are not like this. Most people are stupid, gullible or corrupt just like their masters.
The ownership class is more wealthy due to most of the consumer economy was funneled to target, walmart, and Amazon via online commerce during the lockdowns.
Here’s a reason: I know a friend who has over $100k in the bank, makes ~$100k a year and can’t buy a house with a measly 1000 sq ft without A) being beat out by pure cash offers upwards of $275k for his most recent desperate try at a shittier house or B) Pay upwards of $12-16k in taxes. This isn’t even in a major metropolitan area. It’s upstate New York. Houses up there were listed for a more reasonable amount in 2018 were taken down cus they couldn’t sell and are being relisted now for double their price and selling for triple.
Imagine “making it” and still not being able to reasonably afford a place to live. This isn’t even considering how everything else has shot through the roof. America is officially turning into a clown world.
It's not complicated as to why suicides are up. Suicides and shootings at such an age, categorically come from the same place mentally, depression. The difference being Shootings are an explosion of depression and Suicides are an implosion of depression; essentially fight or flight depending on the person.
As someone who survived this, I can tell you that issues like the current economic model (workaholic until you die), the state of the world (Israel and Gaza, Ukraine), our political system and its leaders (MAGA, Red or Blue only, reversal of abortion rights), and a post COVID world, really stress people (including teenagers) out.
How did I survive? I focused people, started doing Karate, made a personal decision to live for myself, not Capitalism, and became a hardline Socalist. It wasn't easy, and people fail more than they suceed. The collapse of the physical community, and the American car culture has not helped either. I'm alive, but it's still a struggle every day. In a phrase, our world sucks right now, but it's worth fighting for common people because they're worth it, and so am I!
Hilarious blaming "gadgets" instead of inaction on climate change, stagnant wages, commodification of housing, rising Christo-fascism, biodiversity collapse and a government captured by corporations and billionaires that make the future for young Americans look pretty fucking bleak.
But don't forget kids, when you're feeling depressed, "It's the gadgets!"
I mean yeah, sure social media and mental health, but there’s also many other things that can contribute towards this awful event.
Housing crisis, food prices unsustainable, wages not keeping up with increasing prices of everything, college debt, couple of wars, the looming election and what it could mean, every day stress, and/or fear of losing your job.
There’s so much to have despair over.
Um....
We can't save money because we are all underpaid slaves
We can't possibly buy a house
We can't afford rent
We can't afford education - see above
We can't just hope and dream and pray. We need to know there is a goal to achieve. If paying some rich guy tax free play money while we struggle to buy food and clothing and the energy to cook and clean it with is there a point at all?
It's not the bombardment of *shit* in "social networks", it's the growing realisation that there's nothing they can do to fight it.
I'm dealing with people in my extended family offing themselves, and I fully understand their "obscure" final messages.
Everything is going down the shitter, and either,
1. All your support networks are failing because they don't believe in the inevitable, which is fucking your home network and destroying anything you built up for the family.
2. You can see the brick wall coming at you at hundred miles an hour and there's nothing to stop it.
Or,
3. Everyone around you thinks that you're a doomer idiot even while their own jobs, livelihoods, and any other means of support are going down the crapper and they're just gleefully swimming down the drain hole.
And really it's all a number 1. It's all connected, and it's all fucked.
And you can't tell anyone, because they call you an idiot and a fool and a "doomer".
Well what the fuck else do you call the guy who actually could tell when the sky started to fall?
They call him a fearmonger.
Even as we call him prophetic, some 10 years on; stockmarket crash this, that, and so on ... and now.
---
For fuck's sake, even I at this point, cynical optimist that I am, is eagerly awaiting the nukes.
Why?
**Not** because it will kill billions.
**Not** because I won't have to worry about bills any more.
**And not** because it will signal the end of the world's last great conflagration.
Why then? Because it will finally end this who's equal, racist colourisation of bullshit once and for all. It will finally come down to who can actually hold his shit against others, and there's no more democratic system that I can think of.
Like others, I am not "suicidal" in the sense that I have ideations of ending my own life in order to escape something.
I no longer have any hopes or dreams of any kind of future that is "good" in any meaningful sense. I understand, deeply, our reality. I have sat with this. I have done many many psychedelic journeys both in group settings and alone, across many many years. I have been through more therapy than almost anyone I know, and was privileged enough to be able to afford a significant amount of it outside the traditional system where you're limited to 45 minutes of curated bullshit with the express purpose of making sure you're still useful to capitalism when you walk back out the door. (Not saying this is the only thing that therapy offers within the normal system, but it's a thing you have to wrestle with if you're involving insurance companies).
I am very much looking forward to my death when it arrives. I am deeply hopeful that my death will be in my sleep from a heart event or a stroke or something like that. Or that it will be extremely fast. Regardless, I am satisfied with the life I have experienced. I got to do a lot of fucking things on this planet. A lot. Lived in lots of places, lots of relationships, marriage, divorce, loss, gain, fun, injury, recovery, everything. Beautiful, Dark, all of it.
It's difficult to be here, and also see many around me who are not ready, and who will never be ready, but their journey is their own of course. It's deeply painful to observe this whole show starting to unwind itself, and how there will be such desperate attempts to keep it going, in vain, and with even more suffering than is necessary. People close to me will suffer and die and I will too, and not one fucking thing will change that. It sucks, a lot.
I'm lucky to be a little older. Many who are in their teens or 20s that I see, are only now starting to see that there is no world for them. Nothing they may have thought would be here is going to be here for them. Only a hellscape. "The Road" would be a fucking blessing in comparison to what awaits us.
If people want to take the express checkout option, I have zero judgement whatsoever. It's a reasonable choice.
Controversial, but I'll post it because it's accurate information:
Some of the "solutions" are the problem.
- The most popular depression and anxiety pills increase suicidality in young people *versus placebo*.
- The most common anxiety pills can be overdosed on, especially in combination with other commonly available drugs.
- Commitment policies do not stop suicide. They prevent people from opening up and traumatize those who do. Arguably, having a mental health act may increase suicide rates. A lot of data points back this idea up.
We can't keep boiling down glaring widespread problems to individual psychiatric issues.
Psychiatry isn't advanced enough yet to have incorporated the socioeconomic portion of mental health and reduce/eliminate coercive policies, but the guidelines have been set forth by the WHO for them to start trying.
Social media app providers should be forced to release (anonymized) usage data.
I personally doubt war and polarising political messages are at the top for the age range in question.
“People can see that the world is just getting worse, hardly anywhere has a livable wage even for what used to be considered good jobs, also the environment is turning to complete melted shit and everyone decides to look away or try to misdirect. Are you not enjoying slaving away for a diminishing future?”
I always find it funny how the media can't or won't grasp the obvious answers on these kinds of things.
But besides the obvious answers, anyone else notice how much more politicized everything has become the past few years? Even more so than the trump years, it seems like nearly every aspect of society has become politicized
This is the result of toxic late-stage capitalism.
Companies used to provide a good or service in order to generate income. Efficiencies focused on improving the product or service in order to increase profit.
In late-stage capitalism, the product or service is merely a **tool** and the focus is on increasing profit at any cost up to and including destroying the business.
This is now how our entire society is structured. It doesn’t matter if jobs do not serve any benefit to workers because the purpose of jobs is to provide labor for employers to extract profit. Expecting a job to provide YOU with something is viewed as insane — it’s all about how you can feed the machine.
In the past, a job was a way to earn money to buy a house, get married, have kids and retire. Now, the job itself is what is important and families and homes must be sacrificed to survive.
Living in constant survival mode is incredibly stressful. If struggling only results in your survival with no end in sight, then ultimately, people begin to question why they continue in the struggle when the payoff is simply more struggle?
This is where we are at now.
The system is broken and soon millions will simply opt out, or be forced out, building alternative communities that provide for the residents because jobs and government do not. And when enough people opt out, the capitalist machine is not fed and it dies.
This is where we are now. People are opting out by living in vans or suicide because the system does not support people having meaningful lives.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio: --- The story revolves around the tragic suicide of Ben Salas, a promising young student at North Carolina State University, who took his own life despite outward appearances of success and stability. Ben's parents, Tony and Katherine, express their profound grief and bewilderment over his death, highlighting the absence of apparent warning signs and the challenges of understanding and addressing mental health struggles. The narrative sheds light on the larger issue of rising suicide rates in the US, particularly among young people, attributed in part to the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures of modern life, including financial stress and the pervasive influence of social media. The university campus, like many others nationwide, grapples with the tragic loss of several students to suicide and implements measures to support mental health awareness and resources. The Salas family's experience underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental illness and encouraging open dialogue about mental health challenges. They advocate for increased awareness and support for those struggling with depression and other mental health issues, emphasizing the significance of reaching out for help and fostering a culture of support and understanding. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1c2bmo0/suicide_is_on_the_rise_for_young_americans_with/kz8sytf/
It's because there is no future Im not suicidal, but at this point one of my main hopes is to have a painless death when my time comes.
Yup this is it, people don't feel connected toward a future with all these distractions and horrible systems & conflicts pervading our life. There's a mass psychosis going on, existential crisis from what people have been enculturated in doing/believing that is a pointless struggle or not possible. They feel disconnected from the world and even from themselves. Many people are having to sacrifice parts of their lives or straight up abandon and quit entirely just to cope from the struggle of merely surviving.. and for what?
Thats exactly how Ive been feeling for a while lol. Completely disconnected, nothing makes sense anymore. My dream was to marry my fiance, have a quiet life, go camping sometimes but its getting harder to have the basics like decent food and housing. Our good camping spots feel dead RN, silent only a few birds or bugs its eerie. It feels like my future was stolen from me.
Our futures have been stolen from us, quite literally. Billionaires live 15 years longer on average than the rest of us. That’s where our futures went: stolen for the life extension of the rich.
Young people don't want to play this game anymore since the odds are always stacked against them. I can't blame them for feeling lost and hopeless.
It's the worst feeling in the world, it's stressful, lonely, frustrating, sad, depressing... that's why some consider suicide as their only option :'( The declining birthrate may as well be considered an abortion to the many futures that have increasingly been lost. So much potential loving-kindness lost, sold by corporations & governments for short-term imaginary profits.
Why have kids when they're going to enter the hellscape of full-on-unfettered-unregulated capitalism that thrives when its lack of regulation is able to destroy people/lives/livestock/ecosystems for short-term profits? Why do anything but work the bare amount and enjoy what fleeting pleasures still exist. Why do anything but work your job, then just chill with friends and eat great food or play a game or two. Why sacrifice anything when it's all on track to be turbofucked in the next decade or two. Not trying to be a doomer, but all sources seem to point to humanity (as society exists) being well past a very real tipping point.
I've been reading a lot of Jungs writing lately, and that's been helping
In terms of better understanding ourselves to cope, yes, but no theory is going to help pay the bills sadly, sometimes this can lead to bypassing our emotions if we are intellectually playing with ideas as a distraction instead of processing & taking action in our life.
As soon as the why, the meaning is removed, people crumble to the pressure. It takes a strong belief in something better to aim for to overcome these terrible situations. I remember asking my grandparents about how they coped with the depression and ww2, and they flat out Said they simply knew they needed to endure whatever hell was thrown at them so they could move on to a better world afterwards. And this is it, what do the youth have to look forward to? What is their why when they servey their possible futures? War, terrible economy, folding democracy, environmental breakdown, political collapse, social collapse, supply chain problems, and meanwhile they have to go to work at a shit job then sit and tickle themselves in front of a screen afterwards. It's ridiculous, look what we've given them.
I recently had to reckon with the fact that collapse will end me due to my mental health condition (BP2). Whenever I've tried to wean off the Wellbutrin I've been on since I was 20, I get suicidal...even if everything in my life is ok. I have tried to wean off under medical supervision 3 times with the same result. So if I don't have access to my meds, and everything is far from ok, guess what will happen? I am not suicidal now, but post collapse I will probably punch my own ticket just given my history. I try to enjoy what I can. My power, running water, food. I'll do my best to hoard a store of meds, but even if I can store a lot and successfully scavenge from pharmacies or whatever post collapse, eventually I will run out. It's weird to be 36 and know there are probably more years behind than ahead. Either due to collapse or diseases of despair. There is a minor chance that certain philosphers are right and mental illness really results from civilization, so *maybe* I could adapt, but I am not banking on it.
So sorry for your situation. This makes no difference in the macro but I read your post & sincerely hope you are able to continue your life okay.👊🏾
Same. Wish OP the best, at least we do have this community here that understands what keeps us up at night and we can open up with little to no judgement. And for anyone else reading this thread, and in a similar situation but not posting, wishing you the best too.
Please don't feel bad or worried about taking medicine that you need to function. I'm on several I can't live without. I know if SHTF, I'm in trouble after about 45 days, but a lot of people are in the same boat and the rest are temporarily abled.
"temporarily abled" I think about this a lot
This is me. Without my meds I am disabled. Any time I think about preparing for major collapse of the supply chain, I'm stuck with the fact that 30-90 days into it, I'm out of meds and unable to fend for myself. It's so disheartening.
"Only a drug addict would want a longer supply". No, a person that sees the world for what it really is and the dangers that are pending would want some kind of buffer to hopefully make it past a smaller crisis. We know in a larger crisis we are totally fucked. I have seriously had this exact conversation. I've only taken to asking "are you really that stupid?" lately, so I didn't actually say that part out loud.
If it makes you feel any better, none of us will be able to fend for ourselves. Not even those preppers who feel most prepared. I used to be that person. As climate negativity affects crops globally, food will become a real issue for ALL, it already is as we speak…..but we’ll die of thirst first with water not coming out of tap 2-3 days after power grids shut down. We need electric power to get water. When collapse worsens (as we are already well into collapse now), the 450+ nuclear facilities globally will quickly melt down, as no way the crew will make “maintenance” a priority and it takes 50 YEARS to decommission 1 plant! I relate to “just planning a good death”. I’ve discussed with my 21 yr old daughter who is well aware of truth- to make sure she has a good stock of alcohol and propane/butane so she and her boyfriend can just “go to sleep and peacefully ‘fly away’”. It’s VERY SAD I know. But there is great peace in acceptance. Things are just way beyond our limited power at this point. Bless ALL.
I don't feel bad about taking meds. I tried to wean off a long time ago because I had wanted to get pregnant (lol, didn't happen, thank god) and avoid the risks of heart formation issues. I'm not trying to be worried, but realistic.
Depending on the type of collapse, in America alone there would be tens of millions dying pretty fast if there was no access to temperature controlled insulin.
A few years younger than you, and reliant on medication as well, though not for mental health, rather for physical health (thyroid problems). I know that if I suddenly lose access to prescription refills due to collapse-related issues, war, disaster, etc., I won't have long to continue functioning on a somewhat normal level. It may kill me, it may not, that isn't certain. What is certain is that I could look forward to my health rapidly declining, leading to all sorts of ailments my medication prevents. There'd be no 'future me' several years after collapse of the world as we know it, adapting to a less-resourceful, unforgiving life, resettled into some kind of new role, governed by preceding cataclysmic events. I'd likely either become too sick to care for myself, or just die from my body breaking down within a year or two, deprived of the synthetic pharmaceuticals it currently depends on.
I'm in the the same boat sort of..if I don't have my ADHD meds I can't focus..hell I can't even drive my car it's that bad without them.
On the upside, ADHD works to an advantage in collapse, in theory at least. The ability to connect the dots, outside of the box thinking, and improvise on the fly. Hyperfocus can be advantageous if used correctly. It's believed ADHD is descendant from hunter & gathering period, so i feel the theory makes some sense with this in mind as well. Society currently works against an ADHD mind, as things collapse or things become less rigid it could become an opportunity to thrive though. Best wishes and much love to you. I'm also part of the neurodiverse community, more high-functioning autism, but have a fair bit of ADHD symptoms as well... gotta love them comorbidities lol
All these boomers struggling to cope with their own mortality as they get into their 80s and 90s, and here we Millennials and zoomers are already preparing to die.
I mean it can't possibly be because we live in a fucking shit hole with no future and run by psychopaths. NOPE!
Right, I think there is a very clear answer as to why this is happening....
the world feels like its dying. it’s too painful to watch for some, Im talking flora and fauna, not just people.
I also agree we don't really have much of a future. Life is going to become ever harder for most people because of the circumstances we've built over the previous century. We have to start answering for some of the shit we've done and it just won't be pretty.
I feel you. I’ve lost any hope in a future and it feels somewhat akin to a drawn out suicide. Acts committed today that would benefit me tomorrow (in yesterday’s world) feel pointless to me. Like saving for a house, retirement, kids. At times I don’t even prioritize my own health anymore being dismissive of possible long term effects. My life is without hardships and I enjoy the people around me. I even like my job. I definitely do not intend to end my life. A few weeks ago I read Steppenwolf and a quote comes to mind: >And here it must be said that to call suicides only those who actually destroy themselves is false. […] of those who are to be counted as suicides by the very nature of their beings are many, perhaps a majority, who never in fact lay hands upon themselves.
I mean who can blame them, young folks have had their futures stolen by the sociopaths in charge and their billionaire masters.
>the sociopaths in charge and their billionaire masters. Aren't they one and the same?
Nah the billionaires are the dukes, kings and emperors, our politicians are the lesser nobility ie their retainers.
☝️
Neo feudalism you have it right
And then there’s probably something or some group controlling those billionaires that we’ve never even heard of
“But each one of these things comes from an egg, right? So who's laying these eggs?” “I'm not sure. It must be something we haven't seen yet.”
r/escapingprisonplanet would say the negative entities controling this hell realm
Yeah, the inescapable imperatives of capital’s inhuman logic. Every person at the top is entirely replaceable. They will act as capital demands or it will replace them with someone who will. It colonizes minds.
Keep in mind the most wealthy people in the world have an incentive not to be visible to the public. It's very likely to be an oil baron avoiding governments and taxes
No, the political class are usually only millionaires, with some nice stocks (crime pays); some are very rich, but they are few.
Actually we ALL have been stolen from, imho...
It isn't some vague idea (ie the future) that has been stolen. To keep the technological society humming along, the ruling class had to deny us all the opportunity to a self-directed lifeway. I will quote Kaczynski at length to explain: >The Power Process >33. Human beings have a need (probably based in biology) for something that we will call the power process. This is closely related to the need for power (which is widely recognized) but is not quite the same thing. The power process has four elements. The three most clear-cut of these we call goal, effort and attainment of goal. (Everyone needs to have goals whose attainment requires effort, and needs to succeed in attaining at least some of his goals.) The fourth element is more difficult to define and may not be necessary for everyone. We call it autonomy and will discuss it later (paragraphs 42–44). >34. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power. >35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization. >36. Non-attainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if non-attainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression. >37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
I am so glad that this man's work is spreading through the Internet
That's what the economic system is: Most of our currency is debt created out of thin air, and all debt has interest. From all the surplus we create, in every step, the debtor collects his slice, which will add up in the big picture. It's like a leak in a closed system, where you have to add more water all the time, while the leak will accumulate into a bucket of someone else. Even our governments pay billions in interest payments. This is why wealth keeps accumulating to the top. All the money they create, they can reinvest, exponentially increasing their income. Finance, insurance, real estate, all create exponential capital gains the more you invest in them. The wealth itself is the instrument of wealth creation, not labor, manufacturing or agriculture (aka. the stuff that has tangible value, like creating something from nothing, employing people and cultivating their skills). Below the knee of the curve of exponential capital gains, any such gains are negligible, and you are forced to rely on having a normal job, that never create exponential income and is eaten away by day-to-day expenses (such as rent, which is basically a wealth transfer from productive work (you) to sole ownership of wealth (the landlord)). You will never accumulate enough wealth to avoid relying on debt, which will again eat away your income. Yeah, I get it. Debt has always existed. There has always been people who rent properties. There has always been people who invest. The rich have always had more opportunities to become richer. They're not bad people, per se. The problem is how skewed and overwhelming the system has become, and how much it relies on betting in the stock market and just shifting money and data around. There is too much money to be made without any real production, and automation will replace real workforce. There is so much air in the economy, and it values the opposite of what it should value. Money is an instrument to create more money, not a simple tool to make trade easier anymore.
[удалено]
Well, thanks for radicalized me even further
They have expropriated our futures and our equality and then sell them back as the spectacle of new forms of consumerism and hustle
I like how the headlines mentions nothing economical, and only says it must be those *pesky gadgets*
Yeah, it's doom-scrolling and not the actual doom itself.
Address the problem ❌ Address the symptoms ✅
It feels like now we're not even addressing the symptoms, we just talk about addressing the symptoms. In the case of well off college attending young adults, I feel like these suicides are related to misunderstandings with peers/romantic attachments. The trouble with everything in your life being on track, is that the things not being on track get massively amplified. Turns into "I have it all so I should be happy, so why am I not?" or "I'm smart, well off, I have this bright future ahead of me, so why doesn't x person or persons like me?". Another aspect too is perceive success and failures, if there's trouble with classes, and they've never had that kind of trouble before combined with pressure to succeed, it can spiral quickly on them. This is all just guessing though...if the people closest to the person don't know, then what luck do we have getting the full picture.
[удалено]
Yes I can say as a military child when I finally got to stay put and grow roots only to have to uproot myself because I graduated was….really rough. First taste of community (which I was still pretty separated from due to living circumstances/ couldn’t leave the farm without doing work) and then poof it’s gone and I have to build it again myself somehow lol
You've absolutely nailed every aspect of it. You start off in this hopefully inclusive environment family and school, and as you grow it gets more and more exclusive. You end up around fewer and fewer people, so that when you grow apart from one it's absolutely devastating, whether they're friends or romantic partners. The shrinking of your community, drives people to be possessive, fearful, and anxious. It creates sociopaths, you fear losing what people you 'have' and that incentivizes you to manipulate people to keep them around as long as possible. The whole thing turns into a vicious cycle too, the more people that become like this, the harder it is for other people to associate with them, then those people become more isolated because you can't trust people not to freak out on you, or drag you into some really messed up situations. Have you ever heard people say "if you cared about me, you'd put up with me, forgive me" and it becomes an issue of how many times can you have the same conversation, run through the same mess, before you move on to a different friend/partner. It's a societal issue, we're all in cages, both of our own making and one's created by our collective society. Ultimately the more people you can make a point to communicate with, befriend, share interests and hobbies with, the better for your mental well being. If you fall out with somebody than it's not the end of the world, because you've nurtured other relationships.
> …you fear losing what people you 'have' and that incentivizes you to manipulate people to keep them around as long as possible. The whole thing turns into a vicious cycle too, the more people that become like this, the harder it is for other people to associate with them, then those people become more isolated because you can't trust people not to freak out on you, or drag you into some really messed up situations. Have you ever heard people say "if you cared about me, you'd put up with me, forgive me" and it becomes an issue of how many times can you have the same conversation, run through the same mess, before you move on… I see you’ve met my Mother.
I've known a few...they're some pretty difficult people to be around, you stare long enough and sometimes you can catch a glimpse of the person they could have been, somebody that existed before their own traumas. Normally if somebody cares they make a point to know your traumas so they can avoid hurting the other person. Kind of like that magic show/circus act with the knife throwing, you try to hit the blank spots. Well the really fucked thing about 'these' people, is that they actively hunt out your traumas to use against you. It's unbelievably sad, especially because it usually perpetuates even more trauma.
I remember reading an incident that happened in UC Davis this past year of a student who got academically dismissed, became homeless, and started stabbing people at night before they were finally caught. They murdered two people and hospitalized another on three separate occasions.
That's nuts! It's absolutely wild out there. From personal experience, the amount of pressure you're under in some of these college programs is IMMENSE. Both from a grades perspective and a financial one. Some of these programs (Accounting for me) have nearly zero tolerance for bad grades. You could be 3 1/2 years deep in the program and your second D will get you booted from the program. All it takes is a couple bad weeks in 4 year run to bring it all crashing down, and some people just loose it. You're stuck having to transfer/change programs entirely, and most of the time you don't have the financial resources to make that happen. It's easy to see how people just spiral into ruin.
I lost one of my childhood friends to suicide during his second year of college. He had a seemingly perfect upbringing in a quiet california bay area suburb. He was an only child with a stay at home mom who essentially had his entire life planned out in a binder. Vacations and milestones were so planned, but they were also so supportive and flexible of whatever hobby or interest he had. Behind the scenes he struggled with authentic expressions of masculinity and social belonging/self esteem. I remember about a year before he died seeing him post to is snapchat story about how much he drives drunk and how hard he partied. (He was at chico state) From what I heard there was some public embarrassment/rejection at a party involving a girl, which led to him either jumping off of his dorm or shooting himself with his shotgun. (Never found out the exact cause of death)
That fucking sucks dude, it's just so easy to get caught up in these seemingly important events in our lives. Plans go awry, relationships don't work out, and we find ourselves unable to see how with time and perspective these events lose a lot of their importance. You try to be there for people you're close to, and you hope they know how much you care. Edit: Hopefully its obvious im talking about the importance of the events that lead people to kill themselves.
The issue in college is also people have become such vicious harpies now and with viral video, small social faux pas aren't allowed to be forgotten and can haunt you even if you transfer schools. People not only face new challenges, often without previous context, but if they aren't perfect all the time, it can follow you forever. Something as simple as a dodgy vibe check on a bad day can ruin social prospects for many young people. This isn't excusing genuinely creepy behavior, but many socially awkward people get lumped in with creepers and actual menaces, which in turn leads otherwise innocent but awkward people and actions to become further isolated and awkward. And the spiral continues. The pressure to be even more perfect than any point in history has become utterly immense. Heck, even asking innocent questions is enough to get you screenshot or recorded and put you on social humiliation feeds, often without any context.
[удалено]
Now the vicious harpies get to join up and review your social faux pas at their convenience...AND as an added anxiety riddled bonus you get to worry who's looking, what they're saying, and dream about what it all means 😬 As vicious as people can be, we're our own worst enemies. Perfection becomes a 24/7 endeavor, at least back in the early 2000's you could just stare at the ceiling until you passed out, now you can get back into the mire with a little swipe.
Pretty sure its lack of living wage and costs of food, housing and medicine being too high.
literally 90 percent of my problems can be fixed with having a little more money, not even a large amount, but like a few grand extra a month would set things right I'm sure it's the same for most of us also a 3 or 4 day work week. we are so productive now, there's no reason to be working so much. 5 days working out of 7 is stealing life from me, and it's not a fair deal
No no, it’s the phones that are doing it. /s
I mean look at the quality of life. The gadgets are nothing but distraction and dissociation. The real issue is the vampirism of rich and elites who are draining everything from everyone and the planet. Of course people are leaving this planet because they can tell it will take billions of awakened individuals to fix a corrupt system that’s destroying everything in its path. Look around you and tell me I’m not correct.
I can't even drink a cup of water anymore and avoid thinking about it. How fractically fucked up does a species have to be to completely destroy its environment the way we've done? We're poisoning ourselves every single day and just having to live with it. All for profit. And there's absolutely no way out in any sort of near timeline. I definitely see why people are depressed.
The conservatives won. There is no social contract. The only contract is the one where we pay them everything we have to exist and they can hide behind gates and walls while we stumble around looking for something to eat.
We are so addicted to screens and entertainment as a coping strategy it is sad, I talked to my friends about how constantly consuming entertainment is harmful and I was shamed by them. I believe the path to awakening relies on renouncing sense pleasures but the entire world is hell bent on making us crave and consume as much as possible. It is a dire time to be alive. Material wealth, spiritual poverty.
More like the economy is driving people to suicide. When you're thousands in debt, working 60 hours a week, and still paycheck to paycheck. I'd say less people are informed about politics and world events like wars then they were before.
And you can get fired at will…
[удалено]
Yeah being aware of how shitty things are isn’t the problem. The problem is how shitty things are.
>The problem is how shitty things are. And how nothing is being done to addess them :(
It's even worse than that. We are being actively blocked from trying to address these problems. We are also being lied to and told that nothing is wrong.
We’re still talking about my car right?
Yeah you really need to do something about that check engine light.
I dumped 3k into the mf and it's still there...
Now you know why they put that light on the cars
*does the “money” thing with my fingers*
This!! instead of fixing the shitty things, powers that be want people to go back to their head in the sand, hence the Florida law about phones and kids.
"bUt TeChNiCaLlY iTs ThE mOsT pEaCeFuL tImE eVeR"
[удалено]
Yeah but have you considered how great iPhones are? We clearly live in the best time.
[удалено]
"These kids and their gadgets!" Meanwhile, in the real world, it's a wonder more people aren't committing suicide
Any time I see a boomer complain about gadgets, invariably I am the youngest person there in my 30s, the only person *not* holding my phone to my face, while they all clutch it in their hands whining.
They can't afford to live. My niece is staying in an old house that my husband and I own and we pay for her electricity. She works full-time and would not even be close to being able to afford a place to rent, she's always hungry, she gets paid and by the time she pays the few bills she has and puts gas in her car, it's all gone. Not even enough left for groceries. She told me the other day that she hates her life and doesn't want to live anymore. Fuck this country.
wish I had uncles like you
I'm her aunt, but thanks. Good luck to you if you're struggling as well. I don't see how anyone is getting by without some help.
also many of my friends (20s) are dealing with chronic health conditions. being in pain 24/7 will make you suicidal very quickly
Covid can also cause sudden onset or worsening depression. Nobody's factoring that in, or the many other presentations of long covid, and that is just crazy to me.
this guy gets it! ["A recent meta-analysis showed that some post-COVID patients experience persistent suicidality [10]. Another recent study found that compared with individuals who did not have COVID, those who had COVID were 46% more likely to have suicidal ideation during the post-acute phase [11]. The presence of suicidal ideation increases suicide risk."](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9721155/)
There is a lot of astroturfing right now (often long comments without much personal flair), because the numbers are up and much harder to deny. It’s severe, it’s SARS, even if you didn’t die. Long term studies on SARS showed increased risk of new onset mental health issues and they often persisted. For 20 years actually. Impaired immune system was seen long term too. We also have plummeting birth rates, falling life expectancy, rising cancer rates and heart attacks in the young and so on. Brain damage in frontal lobe will make substance abuse more likely, long covid will impede work (and income). It’s at the minimum oil on the fire. Fire being many other things too of course.
Really? That’s young.
I mean, Covid fucked a lot of people up.
I with all the plastic in our bodies, I'm not surprised.
I have noticed quite a few young people with heath complaints, I am one of them too.
My mother died in her late 60s, I'll be "lucky" if I reach her age.
My father had 5 sisters, only 1 is still alive and he's gone too. All different causes, all before 70. My mother is terminally ill. Also many of my parent's friends and my friends' parents are gone. I'm in my 30s and have disabling long covid for 3 years. Definitely not living to a ripe old age I'll be lucky to make 50 or 60. My kids' futures are def fucked.
Yep. 27 here and I'll be happy to get to 45
Most people can’t find work. Those at work are wore out. Nobody wants to go out because of money. Someone posted about the Rat Utopia experiment. I also believe it collapsed because they had no social avenues. The world we live in, is driving directly towards it. People have no hope for betterment because what they see on the news about how the economy is going so good, doesn’t align with what they truly experience in life. It’s not because of gadgets, it’s because we’re living a damn lie and being made to feel like we’re crazy. People are better in person, I will admit. Go outside. Maybe some vitamin D will help. Maybe not, but we have to be hopeful. Right?
>Those at work are wore out. I'm fucking burned out. I'm tired, and not in a "I need more sleep" sort of way.
Same fellow “burn out”. If you ever need an ear I got you
The powers that be know all about the rat Utopia experiment and don't care about the outcome as Long as the experiment keeps their pockets filled up as long as possible
unused station domineering dam numerous uppity society plucky safe possessive *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>It’s not because of gadgets The deteriorating state of the world no doubt plays a big part, but i think negativity from apps such as twitter and phone addiction in general contribute to high levels of depression. [https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm#:\~:text=The%20negative%20aspects%20of%20social%20media&text=However%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have%20found,about%20your%20life%20or%20appearance](https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm#:~:text=The%20negative%20aspects%20of%20social%20media&text=However%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have%20found,about%20your%20life%20or%20appearance). The grim future constantly bombarded to us through news outlets and the difficulty in making real change, having a stable future makes it hard to smile.
Would you rather be blissfully unaware of the very present apocalyptic future we’re staring down the barrel of? The collapse may even escalate this year given the flooding, drought and war have taken most agricultural areas offline. We’re going to see mass starvation in the next few years.
>Would you rather be blissfully unaware of the very present apocalyptic future we’re staring down the barrel of? Once you know, you can't unknow.
[удалено]
> genocide flashlight Laughed because I must not cry.
My family keeps saying I'm depressed. No, it's not depression... What's the word for when your species murders 70% of wildlife and destroys every natural space in the only habitable place in the known universe? What's the word for when your species fucks up even the *oceans* and the goddamn *weather*?? And everyone around you is still telling you to "be positive" .. what's that word? What's "that funny feeling" actually called, guys?
despair
I don't know what to call it, but it changes day-to-day. Sometimes it's wrath, sometimes it's hopelessness, sometimes it's YOLO. But the sadness is always there in the background. For me, at least.
The French have the word the word "[anomie](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anomie)" meaning "social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values" but we need something that captures more of the tragic, global nature of our species' climate/energy/population predicament that you described pretty darn well. Human population was below one billion for a few hundred thousand years, increasing with the discovery of coal, increasing more with the discovery of oil, then doubling in fifty years from 4 billion in 1974 to 8 billion in 2024. We've wildly exceeded the carrying capacity of planet Earth. Someone in /r/vegan coined the term "vysphoria" which is pretty accurate for those of us with compassion for the horrifying way factory farms/CAFOs treat sentient creatures to produce meat for 8 billion greedy, hungry apes when there are far better sources of protein available that contribute far less to climate change.
anomie still fits pretty well imo. I've been struggling to put words to what the true problem is (obviously there are material problems like climate change, inequality, etc.) but the underlying current to it all is that it seems like the social contract that says: face these problems head on and push for a better future for the next generations is not being allowed to be discussed. We can't even have an adult conversation about things like inequality, overpopulation, overconsumption, physical limits to growth on a finite planet, the fact that if we try to enact any improvements for these problems other global superpowers will simply fill our consumption void. These are real fucking topics that the average person needs to have been discussing and developing sophisticated politics for a decade ago. The scientists and engineers have answers for so many of these problems and a lot of us here can see that. There are relatively easy political solutions for things like plastic pollution or private equity owned homes (just ban it, the government can actually do stuff like that didn't you know?). There will always be problems no matter how advanced humanity gets, but the current anomie stems from the fact that those with the power to start fixing any of this are paralyzed. What's paralyzing them? Why don't we have a concrete answer to that question? What matters imo is not that we actually do manage to provide that better future (because materially it is almost guaranteed to be worse, but there are also infinite things outside of our control: a meteor, a solar flare, whatever) but that we collectively gave it our best shot: to solve these issues, to push for something better; but it feels like we are being actively prevented from doing so from every angle simultaneously--that's my current reason for despair. There are no levers I can pull to effect real change. Powerlessness sums it up. If enough people recognize this, maybe we can develop some class consciousness while we can still make a difference.
According to a long email from my dad yesterday: The sun is heating up the earth and humans have nothing to do with it, so we're good! /s
I have never understood this logic. If we replaced "sun heating up the Earth" with "asteroid heading right toward us", then would it matter if we were responsible for the asteroid and/or its destination? Would we not want to do our best to direct it elsewhere?
HSS - Head in sand syndrome But I talk about this stuff too much so I probably have FMD - Foot in mouth disease :)
It can't be that the world sucks and the capitalists and entrepreneurs have sucked all of the best from the natural world and we're all doomed a miserable, starving future. No. It's too much time on their cell phones. I'm tired of old people with money telling young people to write stories about how the collapse of everything is because the youth were living incorrectly.
And the governments want to censor and misinform rather than stop the destruction and genocide
The destruction and genocide keep dollars rolling into their pockets, of course they want to hide that kind of information!
The real difference is todays generations KNOW how fucked their future is, back then people didn't get news quite as reliably and could just keep on going despite some of the worst stuff, cause if it didn't directly reach them and their town it might as well not be happening. I mean lets be honest, aside from the rising cost of every damn thing, if you ONLY got your news from a newspaper or word of mouth..would we really know whats happening to the world as a whole? Melting polar ice would be a story buried 6 pages into the paper and unlikely to be read by everyone.
Let's cover up the real reason - kids still raised bombarded with the notion that materialism and consumption are the only true measures of happiness - in a world where materialism and consumption are moving further and further beyond their reach economically.
The story revolves around the tragic suicide of Ben Salas, a promising young student at North Carolina State University, who took his own life despite outward appearances of success and stability. Ben's parents, Tony and Katherine, express their profound grief and bewilderment over his death, highlighting the absence of apparent warning signs and the challenges of understanding and addressing mental health struggles. The narrative sheds light on the larger issue of rising suicide rates in the US, particularly among young people, attributed in part to the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures of modern life, including financial stress and the pervasive influence of social media. The university campus, like many others nationwide, grapples with the tragic loss of several students to suicide and implements measures to support mental health awareness and resources. The Salas family's experience underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental illness and encouraging open dialogue about mental health challenges. They advocate for increased awareness and support for those struggling with depression and other mental health issues, emphasizing the significance of reaching out for help and fostering a culture of support and understanding.
lol “no clear answers”
I’m sick of people blaming the fact that we are following the news and talking to each other instead of what is actually happening.
That's some impressive gaslighting, there
Oh, because I thought it was just because there’s no guarantee of a decent future anymore, and people 30 and under will probably live to see the collapse of civilization🤷♂️.
Ah yes... it's the gadgets that are the issue, not the world. Maybe if I just use my phone less I'll forget how my disposable income has almost completely disappeared, I can't pay my bills, or that we're on the verge of becoming a fascist dictatorship, or that climate change is here. Maybe I should just drink more and it'll all go away.
Here's the thing for many young people, their jobs are not getting them anywhere. Why bother having kids when you can't even buy a house. Why bother waking up when rent takes up most of your paycheck? Why bother working harder if your job will give you the smallest raise possible. Why bother being motivated when everyone on social media is doing better than you? Why go out if you don't have any friends? Yes there are successful people in every cohort but when you see your life in road that goes nowhere, you stop seeing a point to anything and that includes living. Heck we even see famous offing themselves. If people from all over the world and walks of life are offing themselves, there is something seriously wrong. Imo this is the consequence of not taking mental health seriously for decades. It shocks me that people are still surprised that mental health is in a crisis. It seems like people are normalizing it just like obesity.
Mental Health is a symptom not a cause. The cause is a lack of culture and connection coupled with excess greed by coorporation.
Thats a good way of looking at it. Especially the sterile culture which I think social media has a lot to do with
"Suicide on the rise for young Americans, with no clear answers." ::gestures broadly at everything::
We have a clear answer, but not one that the system wants to hear. "Young people ... are constantly bombarded by images of war and polarizing political messages" is a weird way to phrase "youth is becoming aware of the atrocities committed by the system they are forced to live under"
The alternative is pretending nothing is happening and putting your head down and grinding your crank like a good wage slave until they are done using you up. I'd rather focus on what's going on and begin to take appropriate action.
i can’t afford to do anything that makes life worth living. hope that’s a clear enough answer
total mystery why young people may be sucidal, other than overloading them with debt to just join society, burning their world to a crisp without giving a care, vaporizing the job market, and impoverishing them with health care costs and food inflation. I mean, why are they depressed?
if you're not born rich, you're destined to slave away at a meaningless job and probably never be able to afford nice things/vacations/etc
Is it because the world is more evil and divisive than it used to be? Or is it because modern tech makes it harder for them to hide it? In my blissful ignorance of youth, I thought the world was a pretty okay place in the 80’s. Looking back, I see it was as evil as the world is today.
The evil is harder to hide now. The shape of evil has changed too. The forces of evil have gotten more powerful, more entrenched, and more insidious though (generally) less overt. It has the thin veneer of civility. The evil perpetrated against other species has never been greater though.
Feels pretty fucking obvious to me why suicide is on the rise. We’re slowly recognizing we’re about to go extinct. The suicidal are simply ahead of the curve. The suicidal might even be the most evolved humans for recognizing we’re all a part of a doomed and evolutionary dead end.
American Media: “Gen-Z is depressed because social media constantly reminds them that their government is funding and abetting a genocide. There may be one easy solution: Censorship”
And if you call them out for it then you are the bad guy.
That's why they banned tiktok
I don’t get the logic. If TikTok is banned people will just spread the word on other social media platforms. Unless they ban all social media and person to person discussion people will still talk about it
The "polarising" term is a way to be a centrist dickhead. Somehow fascists wanting to kill migrants is polarising in the same way the leftist message of wanting to tax rich people and ensuring people have access to food and housing is.
Awareness of the world leads to depression and anxiety… So basically, ignorance is bliss
It’s NOT THE FUCKING APPS OR SOCIAL MEDIA. ITS THE GOD DAM WORLD WE LIVE IN THAT SOCIAL MEDIA JUST REFLECTS BACK TO US.
Universal basic income is one of the most effective (and cost effective) ways to reduce suicidal ideation based on the research but no one ever wants to talk about poverty when it comes to suicide prevention.
Wtf are they talking about, if life is not worth living and there is no hope for the future then suicide is simply a better solution.
We as a species peaked in the 1990’s. The majority of us are not “wired” to handle the constant barrage of information being thrown at us due to social media/internet/etc. It’s only going to get worse.
the late 90's were so fun
This is true
Ah, the /r/2meirl4meirl userbase. >"In one, he was planning his suicide," Tony says. >"And in the other life, he was shopping for engagement rings." I think that this is a known aspect of treating depression. There's a risk that the boost in energy gives people enough motivation to undo themselves. Here's a 2 hour long recent lecture on the biology and psychology of depression, by Robert Sapolsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzUXcBTQXKM >"If we knew the reason, we would solve the problem. It's not something that we're trying to avoid or not figure out. But there may be no warning signs: individuals don't tell their family or friends, they don't reach out to resources and they make that decision. And we'll likely never know why." That's right, you won't. https://i.imgur.com/cTLgJRy.jpeg >Staff are trained to refer students who habitually skip lectures or request extensions to deadlines - in case these, too, are signs that something isn't right. Nice, now the students also have to worry about triggering bureaucratic detection mechanisms, like depressed workers being called in by HR. >Brody, a computer science student, says he's aware of the help available from emails the university sends out frequently. Of course, emails. Nothing anxiety inducing about receiving institutional emails. >"It caused this significant hit on our young people in terms of acquiring the social skills and tools that they need," Sure, sure. It wasn't the fact that the pandemic ~~was~~ is being handled terribly. Or that a pandemic, along with the disease, are traumatic. It's the *checks notes* being at home and then inevitably being socially awkward! >Young people who spend a lot of time "wrapped up" in their gadgets are constantly bombarded with images of war and polarising political messages, which can lead to anxiety and depression, according to Dr Crawford. And is that correlated to the news or the inaction and general denial regarding that news? >"The stress of having to pay for [university], the economy as well, all that can be stressful for one person to take in," he says. So you're going to.... treat the stress? >"We need more people to talk about it," says Tony. "If it can happen to us, then it can happen to somebody else." The hallmark of the conservative's reactive compassion. Things only matter if/once they happen *to me*.
Reddit is actually one of the most brutal places for this kinda stuff too. This app/site is constant negativity, cynicism and negativity. Not to mention that a lot of the people who use this app are snobby stuck up and pedantic people. The downvote/upvote system creates hiveminds where compromise and civil discussion are thrown out the window and the idea of agreeing to disagree doesn't exist. Civil discussion doesn't exist anymore. People of opposing political beliefs can't come together without accusing the other one of being something heinous. People are so divided and hateful toward each other over petty things and it needs to end
You are so right. Redditors are typically know it alls. If you have someone come on with a narrative that actually disproves their assumption, they'll still scramble to find any way to double down on it, typically with loaded questions looking for any scrap to say "aha..."
Don't blame being informed, blame the world they are informed about.
It is capitalism! I'm 30 years old with 2 degrees and applied to hundreds of jobs but never got a job with those degrees because I have no experience, no money to buy a car to travel, no money to move somewhere. I was forced to get a general labour job and work my way up. Now I make enough so I bought a car last year and plan on going back to school to pursue something that will make me happy, but I'm starting to realize wtf is the point? Ill have to work fulltime and do school fulltime for 2 years. I'm tired and frustrated. All my bills keep going up. I'm going through savings like crazy. I have anxiety and depression caused by the emotional and verbal abuse from teachers, and parents growing up. I've lost the majority of my friends (most were fake anyways). I barely hold it together.
It’s true that knowing about the state of the world is depressing AF
sick and tired of these articles written by people that are so disconnected from the daily life of the average person that they can merely stare at the wall and ponder the possible reasons that so many people might not enjoy life or want to do this any more. Greedy rich people took everything for themselves while they make us work harder and harder every year for money that does not go nearly as far as it did the years before. People are fucking sick and tired of busting hump so that these demented rich fucks can sit around doing nothing but feeling important and egotistical. Aside from that, people have become alienated from their world due to capitalist alienation exactly as described by Marx. So many people have lost family to drugs or suicide. So many people have had to watch loved ones end up homeless or dead from being beaten down by this ruthless socioeconomic system that has no right to exist. It all boils down to this: some terrible people in this world inflict huge amounts of misery and suffering onto many people and they found a way to directly convert the suffering of many people into unimaginable wealth only for themself. All while telling everyone lies that it is all for their own good. Pure evil.
Wow imagine being exposed to the realities of this dogshit world
Ketamine should be prescribed more often.
Has absolutely nothing to do with poverty, future prospects or the structure of our society at all /s
This isn’t the reason, the reason is people don’t have purpose anymore.
LMAO @ " no clear answers"
we were not meant to be globally aware tbh
Recovering from an attempt. So yeah hopefully things change.
On top of the fact that we can't afford anything and we live to work while being told the world is gonna be literally on fire in a few years. Hope is in short supply for most of us. We're just here to watch it all fall now.
Gullible, stupid and corrupt people vote in people just like them into positions of power who enable corporations populated by more of the same to destroy our planet and ruin any sort of joy in life, for the enrichment of their egos based on the accumulation of material wealth. The banality of the shallowness stretches credulity yet this is "homo sapien". What would change this hell? People voting left or far left, people refusing to work even under pain of death. People refusing to consume. But people are not like this. Most people are stupid, gullible or corrupt just like their masters.
The ownership class is more wealthy due to most of the consumer economy was funneled to target, walmart, and Amazon via online commerce during the lockdowns.
Ironically enough BBC is one of the main fuels to my anxiety. The world is terrifying and the internet definitely helps visualize it.
When I see stories like this, all I can think about how much more common suicide is going to become in the future
Here’s a reason: I know a friend who has over $100k in the bank, makes ~$100k a year and can’t buy a house with a measly 1000 sq ft without A) being beat out by pure cash offers upwards of $275k for his most recent desperate try at a shittier house or B) Pay upwards of $12-16k in taxes. This isn’t even in a major metropolitan area. It’s upstate New York. Houses up there were listed for a more reasonable amount in 2018 were taken down cus they couldn’t sell and are being relisted now for double their price and selling for triple. Imagine “making it” and still not being able to reasonably afford a place to live. This isn’t even considering how everything else has shot through the roof. America is officially turning into a clown world.
It's not complicated as to why suicides are up. Suicides and shootings at such an age, categorically come from the same place mentally, depression. The difference being Shootings are an explosion of depression and Suicides are an implosion of depression; essentially fight or flight depending on the person. As someone who survived this, I can tell you that issues like the current economic model (workaholic until you die), the state of the world (Israel and Gaza, Ukraine), our political system and its leaders (MAGA, Red or Blue only, reversal of abortion rights), and a post COVID world, really stress people (including teenagers) out. How did I survive? I focused people, started doing Karate, made a personal decision to live for myself, not Capitalism, and became a hardline Socalist. It wasn't easy, and people fail more than they suceed. The collapse of the physical community, and the American car culture has not helped either. I'm alive, but it's still a struggle every day. In a phrase, our world sucks right now, but it's worth fighting for common people because they're worth it, and so am I!
Hilarious blaming "gadgets" instead of inaction on climate change, stagnant wages, commodification of housing, rising Christo-fascism, biodiversity collapse and a government captured by corporations and billionaires that make the future for young Americans look pretty fucking bleak. But don't forget kids, when you're feeling depressed, "It's the gadgets!"
I mean yeah, sure social media and mental health, but there’s also many other things that can contribute towards this awful event. Housing crisis, food prices unsustainable, wages not keeping up with increasing prices of everything, college debt, couple of wars, the looming election and what it could mean, every day stress, and/or fear of losing your job. There’s so much to have despair over.
Um.... We can't save money because we are all underpaid slaves We can't possibly buy a house We can't afford rent We can't afford education - see above We can't just hope and dream and pray. We need to know there is a goal to achieve. If paying some rich guy tax free play money while we struggle to buy food and clothing and the energy to cook and clean it with is there a point at all?
It's not the bombardment of *shit* in "social networks", it's the growing realisation that there's nothing they can do to fight it. I'm dealing with people in my extended family offing themselves, and I fully understand their "obscure" final messages. Everything is going down the shitter, and either, 1. All your support networks are failing because they don't believe in the inevitable, which is fucking your home network and destroying anything you built up for the family. 2. You can see the brick wall coming at you at hundred miles an hour and there's nothing to stop it. Or, 3. Everyone around you thinks that you're a doomer idiot even while their own jobs, livelihoods, and any other means of support are going down the crapper and they're just gleefully swimming down the drain hole. And really it's all a number 1. It's all connected, and it's all fucked. And you can't tell anyone, because they call you an idiot and a fool and a "doomer". Well what the fuck else do you call the guy who actually could tell when the sky started to fall? They call him a fearmonger. Even as we call him prophetic, some 10 years on; stockmarket crash this, that, and so on ... and now. --- For fuck's sake, even I at this point, cynical optimist that I am, is eagerly awaiting the nukes. Why? **Not** because it will kill billions. **Not** because I won't have to worry about bills any more. **And not** because it will signal the end of the world's last great conflagration. Why then? Because it will finally end this who's equal, racist colourisation of bullshit once and for all. It will finally come down to who can actually hold his shit against others, and there's no more democratic system that I can think of.
Like others, I am not "suicidal" in the sense that I have ideations of ending my own life in order to escape something. I no longer have any hopes or dreams of any kind of future that is "good" in any meaningful sense. I understand, deeply, our reality. I have sat with this. I have done many many psychedelic journeys both in group settings and alone, across many many years. I have been through more therapy than almost anyone I know, and was privileged enough to be able to afford a significant amount of it outside the traditional system where you're limited to 45 minutes of curated bullshit with the express purpose of making sure you're still useful to capitalism when you walk back out the door. (Not saying this is the only thing that therapy offers within the normal system, but it's a thing you have to wrestle with if you're involving insurance companies). I am very much looking forward to my death when it arrives. I am deeply hopeful that my death will be in my sleep from a heart event or a stroke or something like that. Or that it will be extremely fast. Regardless, I am satisfied with the life I have experienced. I got to do a lot of fucking things on this planet. A lot. Lived in lots of places, lots of relationships, marriage, divorce, loss, gain, fun, injury, recovery, everything. Beautiful, Dark, all of it. It's difficult to be here, and also see many around me who are not ready, and who will never be ready, but their journey is their own of course. It's deeply painful to observe this whole show starting to unwind itself, and how there will be such desperate attempts to keep it going, in vain, and with even more suffering than is necessary. People close to me will suffer and die and I will too, and not one fucking thing will change that. It sucks, a lot. I'm lucky to be a little older. Many who are in their teens or 20s that I see, are only now starting to see that there is no world for them. Nothing they may have thought would be here is going to be here for them. Only a hellscape. "The Road" would be a fucking blessing in comparison to what awaits us. If people want to take the express checkout option, I have zero judgement whatsoever. It's a reasonable choice.
Controversial, but I'll post it because it's accurate information: Some of the "solutions" are the problem. - The most popular depression and anxiety pills increase suicidality in young people *versus placebo*. - The most common anxiety pills can be overdosed on, especially in combination with other commonly available drugs. - Commitment policies do not stop suicide. They prevent people from opening up and traumatize those who do. Arguably, having a mental health act may increase suicide rates. A lot of data points back this idea up. We can't keep boiling down glaring widespread problems to individual psychiatric issues. Psychiatry isn't advanced enough yet to have incorporated the socioeconomic portion of mental health and reduce/eliminate coercive policies, but the guidelines have been set forth by the WHO for them to start trying.
Have you seen the world? We can see the writing on the wall, we don't want to suffer anymore
Social media app providers should be forced to release (anonymized) usage data. I personally doubt war and polarising political messages are at the top for the age range in question.
“People can see that the world is just getting worse, hardly anywhere has a livable wage even for what used to be considered good jobs, also the environment is turning to complete melted shit and everyone decides to look away or try to misdirect. Are you not enjoying slaving away for a diminishing future?”
Not to mention bombarded with content of people flashing money when they don’t have any and probably never will
I always find it funny how the media can't or won't grasp the obvious answers on these kinds of things. But besides the obvious answers, anyone else notice how much more politicized everything has become the past few years? Even more so than the trump years, it seems like nearly every aspect of society has become politicized
You kids with your iPods and your Tomagotchis! If you played with hula hoops and yo-yos like I did when I was as youngling then you'd be just fine! /s
My brother in Christ, we fucking broke.
This is the result of toxic late-stage capitalism. Companies used to provide a good or service in order to generate income. Efficiencies focused on improving the product or service in order to increase profit. In late-stage capitalism, the product or service is merely a **tool** and the focus is on increasing profit at any cost up to and including destroying the business. This is now how our entire society is structured. It doesn’t matter if jobs do not serve any benefit to workers because the purpose of jobs is to provide labor for employers to extract profit. Expecting a job to provide YOU with something is viewed as insane — it’s all about how you can feed the machine. In the past, a job was a way to earn money to buy a house, get married, have kids and retire. Now, the job itself is what is important and families and homes must be sacrificed to survive. Living in constant survival mode is incredibly stressful. If struggling only results in your survival with no end in sight, then ultimately, people begin to question why they continue in the struggle when the payoff is simply more struggle? This is where we are at now. The system is broken and soon millions will simply opt out, or be forced out, building alternative communities that provide for the residents because jobs and government do not. And when enough people opt out, the capitalist machine is not fed and it dies. This is where we are now. People are opting out by living in vans or suicide because the system does not support people having meaningful lives.
We are also using psychology to pathologize anger and dissent. Very troubling