Look at the date on this article – from the AP, citing CDC numbers. This wasn’t posted until Nov 4th of 2022! Two days ago. Almost two full yrs after these deaths all occurred. If you can sense anger & frustration as I type, let me explain:
In March 2021, if you look back in our posts below, you’ll see that the CDC released numbers on suicide deaths from the first yr of the p@ndemic. The claim was, & the headlines were: “suicide has been flat YOY vs 2019.” I’m not making this up…it’s back in those former posts.
We were being led to believe, still in the heart of the p@andemic, what we were all living thru was not impacting our MH. Take politics out of it bc that’s always divisive (forget measures that we were asked to comply w for public health, bc again those decisions just divide ppl) – you CANNOT have a global p@ndemic, see routines & jobs & identities ripped away, & NOT have negative MH outcomes. But there we were, being told that was the case & that suicide deaths were flat.
At the time, the CDC (& whatever other powers that be that communicate on these things) folded many other forms of death in the category of “other.” They did not specify what “other” meant. But the # was huge.
Fast fwd to September of 2021 (6ish months later), & it’s finally revealed that overdose deaths DID climb – over 30k YOY, & that the combined suicide & overdose deaths were HIGHEST ever on record.
It’s why it’s so frustrating to just see these stats, NOW, on alcohol-related deaths. Examples include alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal & certain other diseases (I shared a story a yr ago of a friend, Rob, dying from alcohol withdrawal. This personal.)
There were more than 52,000 such deaths in 2020, up from 39,000 in 2019.
It’s time we call this all for what it is: emotional pain & deaths of despair – TOGETHER. Ppl are in pain, & try to numb the pain bc we don’t teach proper MH tools as a society.
Don’t let authorities split this up. It’s all a systemic problem that must be discussed/attacked, together & – DIFFERENTLY than what we’ve been sold for so long.