mainly because of drug and substance abuse and suicide. Highlights the need for mental health treatment and perhaps more education around the perils of self medicating.
What's driving drug and substance abuse and suicide in the United States? Why is our mental health so poor? I think there's root causes to these questions and I think they point to our extreme income inequalities.
Just like the top-level issue (overall mortality), this is likely multi-faceted and caused by several sub-issues. ODs can largely be traced to drug policies (overperscription, non-treatment, economic incentives to tamper with drugs, ect)
We have a pretty substantial "loser class". People that have jobs that don't pay well and aren't held in esteem. Many within this group don't feel they have a chance at upward mobility (and may be right). This has been especially hard on middle-aged people who've seen a tremendous growth in suicidality (which is still less than younger folks, but has seen explosive growth).
We don't treat mental illness and heavily stigmatize it. We engage in a number of habits that likely result in poor mental health. There's less face to face interaction. We spend large amounts of time sitting perfectly still in the same exact spaces, and have poor diets.
There's likely a ton of things that are contributing. I'm not sure there's a silver bullet, singular "cause" that's driving this.
> The death rate among African Americans is up 4 percent, Hispanics 7 percent, whites 12 percent and Native Americans 18 percent. The rate for Asian Americans also has increased, but at a level that is not statistically significant.
I wonder about the racial differences too. Why are Asian Americans and African Americans much lower? Don't they deal with the same income inequalities?
