Deaths of Despair = Suicides + Alcohol-Related + Drugs
I moved from the US to Europe and one thing that surprised me is people don’t actually dread the holidays. I promise you this is related to this chart.
In the US I spent 8 of the last 12 Christmases alone. Of those 4 Christmases where I was not alone, one was spent with my friends parents (who are Pentecostal; my friend and his wife cut contact with them one year later. The mom yelled at me and lost her shit when I went outside for a break away from the chaos). And another was with my landlords family (MAGA takes from crazy people, with my favorite being “I don’t believe in the constitution because no one follows it, so I only follow God’s law”.) But that landlord was actually pretty good by landlord standards.
What I’ve found is that people only invite you over for Christmas if and only if they want a guest to “keep the peace so people have to be on their best behavior.” After the Pentecostal Christmas, I have declined going to Christmases if I figure out that is why I am wanted there. Fucked up to do to someone already alone.
Some people will go “go to a soup kitchen” or “volunteer” online, which, to be honest, is given by people who have never done that during the holidays. It’s good for sure but people will always ask you “why are you alone on Christmas” and you are constantly reminded that you are alone. It’s okay to do this once or twice, but when you are with a lot of people it will be brought up a lot. Or you have to deal with an asshole, that’s another issue. A lot of these are also ran by religious groups shoving shit down your throat (I lived in conservative areas most of my life, so this was always an issue). People will do anything but invite you to a normal Christmas. You know, liberal lecture bullshit.
My standards aren’t high, I promise you they aren’t. My fucking expectation is not DV, political fights, religious shit shoved down my throat, liberal lectures, or constantly reminded I am alone. That’s apparently too much to ask for in the US.
The point I am getting is that there is worse than being alone, it’s being surrounded by people that make you feel alone. US holidays are full of political fights, liberal lectures, and power moves (“if you want to celebrate the holidays, you gotta fit in with our weird religious bullshit”). It’s fucking awful and I could see why someone would OD or drink themselves brain dead to avoid the holidays ahead of time, or right after so people don’t have to find their bodies on the holidays. It’s fucking November 2nd and I’m already fucking dreading it. I get this chart; even when we are supposed to celebrate being together it brings out the worst in the US.
I’m going to Spain for 3 kings day. I think Christmas is permanently fucked for me.
Thank you,
I promise my life is a lot better than it was in the US. I’m a lot happier here.
It’s just hard being in a new country trying to integrate into a new culture alone. I’m doing well, but I know the holidays will be hard, especially with what is going on at home.
hey at least thanksgiving doesn’t exist. maybe the move for someone who hasn’t committed is to go somewhere that doesn’t observe any of the american holidays and then there’s no holiday to be alone on?
my favorite 4th of july as an adult was the one i happened to be in canada.
my favorite 4th of july as an adult was the one i happened to be in canada.
I was actually in Whistler on 4th of July last year. Loved it, was a great time!
I was actually looking into going to Spain over the holidays, but everyone was ranting and raving about how great 3 kings day was in Early January, so I’m saving my money up to make that trip. I may just book a cabin and snowshoe in the woods this Christmas.
The point I am getting is that there is worse than being alone, it’s being surrounded by people that make you feel alone.
real.
I’m going to Spain for 3 kings day
Yoooo cool! Welcome here! Will you be near Madrid? HMU if you’d like to meet someday
I haven’t booked yet but I was leaning on Barcelona. Would be down for Madrid tho.
I like hiking as well. Is Madrid near any mountains? Sorry if I sound like an ignorant American. I know about the Pyrenees and that’s about it.
I live near the Arctic Circle in Norway. I just want sun 😭
You’ve got mountains “nearby” in American distance (i.e. few hours drive) almost anywhere in Spain.
Madrid is less than an hour away from the Sistema Central, a mountain range crossing northeast to southwest around central Spain, dividing the Central Mesa in the Submeseta Norte and Submeseta Sur. It’s not the tallest mountains of the country, but they’re still quite respectable with the highest peak, Peñalara, rising to 2400m above sea level.
I can’t guarantee sun in winter anywhere in Spain, that depends a lot on how lucky you get, it’s like a 50/50 in most regions outside the north which is cloudier.
Regardless of your choice of stay: welcome whenever you arrive!
Thanks for posting this, you put to words something I didn’t know I felt
It’s crazy. I thought I’d feel better about this in Europe but they just don’t understand this feeling. They know shit is fucked up in the US. Norwegians have an exceptional understanding of our culture but that’s the tip of the iceberg. They know the tech sector, know the big cities but haven’t been to conservative America. Not only do they not understand the conservatives, they don’t understand the callousness libs have towards people fleeing having a boot on their neck. The LGBTQIA+ community is the only group that understands.
If this PhD doesn’t work out I want to be a writer. I’ve been told I’m good at it at least.
Bro, I am so jealous. Even the hell of modern UK is still a utopia compared to the burger reich.
I know even Norway isn’t perfect, but please, do me a favor and never waste a day. You deserve good things, and this PhD opportunity sounds great. Keep up with writing. And Norway is culturally really cool.
I needed this comment badly.
Thank you so much.
I won’t let it go to waste.
Amerikkka wasn’t even able to keep itself in one piece for 10 years without the Soviet Union.
Looks like the person who compiled this chart blames China entering the WTO lol
I am once again tapping the “Americans are not just illiterate, they engage in competitive illiteracy” sign, this time with historical literacy. This is literally just willfully ignoring reality and grasping for something that explains why this is someone else’s fault.
Contraliteracy
:magneto-perfection:
global capitalism does something globally capitalistly, and now for once the imperial core suffers as well, where before it was only the periphery:
“it’s because of those devious chinese”
Yeah. Like I thought it was common knowledge that the Soviet Union at least kept the porks too scared to just nakedly act on their own class interests enough to keep capitalism going.
Now here we are, another gilded age. The rich are thriving and they’re just partying it up while we’re starving and jobs are nonexistent.
actually it was y2k
All the computer clocks in HR went back to 1900 and many employees were forced to work an extra 100 years of overtime
China joined the WTO on December 11, 2001
yeah that’s definitely the only important event that happened at the end of 2001 on the 11th day of a month
it’s been the great depression since 2009
ACTUALLY, the term “depression” defined by GDP contraction rather than material conditions of people’s daily livespeople are paying each other to eat so much dogshit
Catchphrase material.
Fent has to be a pretty big part of that. Like 30 fucking people ive met died from it within 3 years.
yeah it definitely is, in fact its most of the uptick it looks like
Buddy of mine in recovery but still on a solid daily does of methadone took an offered crack hit (we as a household with another dude who died of ling cancer a few years back could all stop smoking crack at hit 2 and therefore became where dealers would weigh up and ironically we got soooo much free crack) and the dude has been smoking fent off it, he has been doing heroin for 20 years before slowing down and by now he’s basically off all of it but with his at the time methadone laden tolerance and generally knowing his risks. Cause he was told.therr was maybe some residue, but he isnt dead so he is smart about what he csn handle and just scorching the screen led to him getting fucked up hard. What’s around right now would easily kill someone without a tolerance. In general what were the bas parts of them were really fucking chill sonce around 2010, there are boarded off alleys now for deals. Things getting bad hit these places like s fucking bombshell they’ve been my neighborhood between living there or adjacent snd spending most of my time and things are fucking ghastly.
The beatings will continue until morale improves
It’s going to increase further, prices aren’t dropping, and a lot of vulnerable people who were just barely keeping their head above water will lose medicaid soon.
And of course the Democrats aren’t doing a fucking thing except patting themselves on the back about how all the suffering will give them a good midterm election next year.
Non US guy here - why did the rate peak in 1900’s and why did it decrease in 1930’s? I thought that’s the Great Depression?
1933 was the New Deal. it didn’t help all americans and it took years to be implemented but it very meaningfully improved the lot of millions long before the economy “recovered” (corporate profits) with the outbreak of WW2
Prohibition
Prohibiton was implemented in 1920 and reversed in 1933
I guess to be more clear, people were drinking super fucking hard leading up to prohibition and even when repealed there were a fair bit of people it did work on who kept sober, like, say youre a 12 year old in 1920 and 25 in 1933, there is a decent chance that booze just wasnt really part of your upbringing and also now you can’t afford it anyway. It wasn’t like the streets were flooded with whiskey and everyone became drunks again immediately, ww2 did that and even then, it is absolutely fucking crazy how mainstream absolutely hardcore alcoholism was in the US prior to prohibition. It led to people trying cool new drugs like heroin instead. There are interviews with heroin users in the 40s and 50s who said it got big among the youth of the time cause they saw thr destructive effects alchohol had on their parents and felt at least nodding out essnt hurting anyone else
The Great Depression started in 1929 and slowly resolved throughout the thirties.
DeepSeek said the spike in the 1900s was caused by the stresses of rapid industrialization and urbanization, which were mitigated in the 1910s by Progressive Era reforms.
Edit: And WWI.
Don’t forget WWII guess the spike happens before that nvm.I was including it as one of the mitigating factors. That’s what I thought you meant, actually.
The Shared Sacrifice of the World Wars: While tragic, wars can create a powerful sense of collective purpose and social integration, which Émile Durkheim’s theory suggests lowers suicide rates.[1]
The same theory of collective sacrifice explains why the Arduous March didn’t fracture social cohesion in the DPRK.
Slop machine ↩︎
Fuck…
he thought cash for clunkers was going to fix the whole economy.deleted by creator
deleted by creator
