- COVID-19 is an epidemic in the United States with a low rate of fatality for most demographics
- Suicide is also an epidemic in the United States today with a fatality rate (by definition) of 100%
- It is time for the U.S. government to address the deadliest epidemic in the country today
Most people are well aware that the COVID-19 pandemic (and oppressive government lockdowns) have caused a dramatic escalation in mental health issues. This came at a time when there was already a global Mental Health Crisis.
This prompted the medical publication,
Psychology Today, to ask the question:
It’s an important issue. But it’s no longer a question.
The Suicide Epidemic in the United States
This Newsweek article frames suicide in the U.S. in more unequivocal terms.
The problem is that this article wasn’t written in 2021 or even 2020. It was written in
2013. In the United States, the suicide rate has been steadily rising since 1999.
Suicide was already identified as an “epidemic” as far back as 2013. And again in 2016. And again in
2018. Indeed, in 2016,
Foreign Policy went as far as calling the U.S.’s suicide epidemic
“a national security crisis”.
The National Center for Health Statistics recently released a major study, examining the national trends in suicide. The results are grim: The age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased a staggering 24 percent from 1999 to 2014. Increases were seen in every age group except for those 75 and above and in every racial and gender category except for black men. The national rate rose to 13 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014. Contrast that with homicide, which killed 5.1 Americans per 100,000 in 2013. We instinctively fear the murderer hiding in the bushes, but we are at far greater risk from ourselves. [emphasis mine]
This hasn’t stopped both Republicans and Democrats alike from continuing to ignore the Mental Health Crisis – and the suicide epidemic.
In 2019, the media re-discovered the suicide epidemic.
Suicide Is Becoming America’s Latest Epidemic
In 2017, 47,173 Americans killed themselves. In that single year, in other words, the suicide count was nearly seven times greater than the number of American soldiers killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars between 2001 and 2018.
A suicide occurs in the United States roughly once every 12 minutes.
And
then came the COVID-19 pandemic – and the oppressive government lockdowns that have accompanied it.
Covid-19 and the Suicide Epidemic
Confine a healthy person to their home and isolate them from human contact, and you can (and will) cause serious strain on their mental health. Psychedelic Stock Watch has previously chronicled the
explosion in mental health disorders since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But lock up someone who is potentially suicidal and you may have just issued that person a death sentence. Here’s
an even scarier suicide fact, courtesy of the CDC:
54% of those who kill themselves “did not have a known mental health condition.”
No warning.
Part of this hidden peril is the stigma that surrounds mental health disorders. Part of it is the
appalling failure of mainstream medicine to treat mental health disorders.
- Only ½ of those suffering from depression obtain any benefit from “first-line drugs”.
- Only 1/3rd of U.S. veterans receiving treatment for PTSD from the Department of Veterans Affairs obtain any benefit from their therapy.
- Current treatments for the 1+ billion people with substance abuse disorders are simply a joke – a bad joke. Tobacco companies cynically invest in “smoking cessation” products because of their abysmally low rate of success.
As a result, many don’t seek help.
Two-thirds of Americans exhibiting symptoms of depression don’t seek treatment.
While COVID-19 has a low fatality rate for most demographics, COVID-19
lockdowns are a ticking time-bomb that can push people of all ages over the brink. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15 – 19 year-olds.
Psychedelic drugs: the suicide vaccine
“Get vaccinated” the U.S. government tells its citizens, over and over and over – even though most have a minimal risk of death. It’s even sending its minions door-to-door to
encourage people to get the jab.
Meanwhile, suicide is a relentless and rising risk to all Americans. Tick, tock; someone else ends their own life.
American suicides are an epidemic and a tragedy. A second tragedy is that there is a class of drugs known to provide remarkable benefits in treating mental health disorders
that are not on the market: psychedelic drugs.
A suicide epidemic is a damning indictment of any government. It means that life has gotten so bad, for so many people, that they engage in the ultimate gesture of despair and hopelessness: suicide.
The U.S. government – both Republican and Democrat administrations – has been woefully negligent in addressing the Mental Health Crisis and the suicide epidemic in the United States.
These same politicians have demonstrated rabid zeal to make sure that Americans get their COVID-19 vaccines. Now they need to show equal determination and focus in addressing a much greater crisis: the U.S. suicide epidemic.
Fast-tracking psychedelic drug research and legalizing these substances (medicinally) so that they can broadly penetrate the healthcare system (and healthcare insurance) is Job #1 for the U.S. government – assuming that Republicans and Democrats have any concern at all for the well-being of Americans.
Who does Washington really represent?
Today, the White House and Congress have a severe optics problem.
a) Fanatical zeal to ‘encourage’ Americans to get injected with one of Big Pharma’s vaccines – for a virus with a very low mortality rate for most demographics.
b) Completely ignoring a suicide epidemic in the United States while one American kills themself roughly every 10 minutes.
A cynic might look at this and suggest that American’s political representatives in Washington are much more concerned about enriching multinational pharmaceutical companies than they are in actually looking after the well-being of Americans.
Addressing the suicide epidemic – immediately – would be a good way of reversing that perception. It’s time for the U.S. government to move forward on the Mental Health Crisis and psychedelic medicine.
"Make America Great Again."
"Bring Back America."
How about just keeping
Americans alive? Who does Washington really represent?
