Mental Illness Caused by Economic Decline, Unemployment, Failing Businesses and Poverty

The following quote is from the Vice News ” an analysis published on Tuesday in The Lancet Psychiatry by doctors at the University of Zurich in Switzerland estimates that about 5,000 suicides were associated with the crisis, while roughly nine times as many self-inflicted deaths are linked to unemployment each year.” Vice News

This was an analysis of what is going on in Switzerland, but they further found the following about countries of the world…

“The psychiatrists analyzed the suicide rates and economic statistics of 63 countries from 2000 to 2011 and determined that unemployment is connected to approximately 45,000 suicides annually. According to their findings, unemployment elevated the relative risk of suicide by 20 to 30 percent throughout the world. Suicides related to unemployment accounted for about a fifth of annual totals worldwide, and the association was strongest in countries where being out of work is uncommon.”

https://news.vice.com/article/unemployment-is-killing-45000-people-each-year

I found this article which backed up what I already suspected. The economy is failing in many countries. In the US, Obama says the economy is on the upswing, but I don’t see it. Any small business owners you talk to will tell you that their businesses are suffering.

People are making wages that cannot keep up with the price of food and gas. Many people are out of work.

When people are living in poverty, it lowers their self esteem. When a man who was successful now cannot find work, or is struggling to save a failing business, it lowers their self esteem. When someone’s self esteem becomes crushed down, it will result in depression, anxiety and possibly suicide.

When people are in poverty, they have no quality of life. Every day is a struggle to survive and there is no room for pleasure. The lack of any pleasure can create mental illness.

When someone has to lose their home and their business, they suffer tremendous mental suffering. The worse the economy gets, the more mental illness and suicide we are going to see.

A 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the suicide rate from 1928 to 2007 rose and fell with the economy, spiking when the Great Depression began and reaching its all-time high in 1933, plummeting during World War II, rising again during the deep recession of the 1974-75 and the recession of the early ’80s, though peaking a few years after unemployment hit its post-war peak in 1982. The suicide rate dropped to its lowest level ever in the year 2000, when the dot-com boom was at its zenith and unemployment had bottomed out at 4 percent.  PBS newshour blog website

Marriages and other relationships are adversely affected when there are extreme financial strains on the family. Every relationship in the household will suffer.

I am sad to see the statistics presented in the link I gave you, but I am not surprised. The more the world economy turns down, the more mentally ill people we are going to have.