Hostility in America

I’m disgusted with the mental illness and the insanity in our country. We recently witnessed numerous pipe bombs sent in the mail to various individuals in the Democratic Party and the murders of members of a Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue during a religious service. 

These two examples of hateful violence question sanity. Even though we are the most powerful country in the world, we know that we rank poorly compared to other industrial nations as far as happiness [we’re not in the top 10], life expectancy [we’re not in the top 10], and income inequality [we’re number 1]. One way to view our mental health is to take a look at the data regarding suicide, homicide, alcohol, drug use and hate crimes. The following statistics are alarming and point to its threat.

According to information provided by Gun Violence Archive, in 2018, we’ve had 47,220 gun incidents. From this total, there were 11,984 deaths due to guns.  However, that does not include 22,000 suicides. In addition, only 3.1% of the total of incidents involved were for a defensive use of weapons. So much for the rationalization that a gun makes one safer.

For a look at the 10 leading causes of death for Americans ages 15 to 24, three of the 10 include suicide, homicide, drugs and alcohol.  In fact, suicide is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. Furthermore, two age group populations have the most suicide mortality -those under 25 years of age or 15.8% and those over 65 years of age or 13.3%.

In the medical Journal Lancet, it was reported that drinking alcohol was associated with nearly 1 in 10 deaths of people ages 15 to 49. The researchers reported that in their opinion, there was no amount of alcohol that was healthy. Turning to drug use, there’s an estimated increase in illicit drug use for Americans aged 12 or older, since 2002.Moreover, in 2016, there were 214 million prescriptions written for opiate pain medication. This is a rate of 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people. Further, one in five people receive prescription opiates, long-term for non-cancer pain in primary care settings.

To Be Continued