Q: Is there a strong correlation between being lonely and being heavier?

H: Being lonely has several relations to eating 'worse' food, and more of it. An economical standpoint (at least in the US). A social activities promote things other than eating to fill time. A 'rewards' perspective, where lacking other forms of joy fatty, sugary, salty foods fulfill a basic stimulation requirement.

It would be interesting if a mental health research institution designed and ran a fundamental research study to determine if one, some, all, or more (possible) of these causes were related.

No, it's quite well established, actually.

At what point do we admit that the structure of our society amounts to animal abuse?

Relieving themselves of (to them) unbearable misery is a goal, quite possibly the most rational of all goals.

I can't find the study now. But it was documented that Viet Cong soldiers had overall less PTSD years after the Vietnam War than Americans. And the extrapolation was that Viet Cong soldiers, defending their country and people from a foreign invader, were more easily able to justify their actions and thus didn't feel the remorse, guilt, and fear during fighting that their American counterparts did.

Perhaps that isn't the whole story, but I'd bet that part of the reason American vets struggle with PTSD so much is that not all of them can rationalize and defend the things the American army does in other countries around the world. It is almost always involved in offensive invasions, especially of lands where neither the natives nor the insurgents trust them or want them involved. And I think being so face to face with injustice and having to perpetrate it without any moral salve that you are doing the right thing is hard, especially in our digitally connected, personally disconnected world.

I don't think so. Doctors and veterinarians have an unusually high rate of suicide, partly because they have access to highly lethal means of suicide but also because they've become inured to mortality. For most people, the practical realities of death are somewhat foreign, which creates a psychological barrier between the urge to cease existing and the means of making that happen.

The vast majority of suicidal impulses are temporary; the vast majority of people who attempt suicide do not go on to die by suicide. While it is entirely believable that some people are afflicted with unbearable and intractable misery, that is certainly not true for most people who die by suicide.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/

It would be similar to how cats go off alone to die when they are sick.

Oh, so not THAT valuable.

Evolution isn't directed, and there is no end state. Attributing positive effect to every mutation verges on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology.

You can look into this further: a lack of physical activity tends to worsen depression, and a hunter-gatherer with reduced mobility and/or other issues that make it hard to interact with the group is most certainly a resource drain. It goes on and on.

Evolution isn't directed but structures and instinct that are truly against the organisms interest are the exception, not the norm.

Bollocks. There is very close to zero evolutionary pressure against (and, of course, even less than that for) having a small percentage of individual of a species decide to off themselves. Especially when it's older males (the most likely age group to commit suicide).

Better the sick person dies voluntarily than infecting everyone else with a deadly disease

If a tribe can do that, and increase calorie intake simultaneously then there's a double benefit.

Older males [who can't hunt or defend and after trained in anything else] who would end their own lives would improve the survival chances of their own offspring, it seems?

I think it's more that they want to unburden themselves, but knowing that doing so will burden their close ones is what keeps them from doing it.

Quite nightmarish, if you think about it.

Your comment assumes a positive change is impossible.

I almost killed myself when I was in high school but decided not to because I didn't want to hurt my family. That bought me enough time to get things straightened out and now I am very thankful to be here.

It comes down to the fact that most people don't want to acknowledge their incredible privilege in being relatively unburdened by depression, I think.

I happen to know attempting suicide can be quite severely painful. Most people who try do not risk it lightly. And much of the time, in my experience, it's those "people around you" who are to blame for the person wanting to die in the first place. If we're being honest, most of us don't truly do everything we reasonably can to help those with aspirations towards suicide. Many people act as some of those in this comment section are, telling people they're being selfish and weak. How the fuck on Earth does that help matters? And before you assume I only care about myself or something, my best friend just killed himself a few months ago and I cried nonstop for days. I still support his right to do what he did.

It becomes blindingly obvious to me when a person has no idea what it's like living with chronic treatment resistant depression as soon as they open their mouths. It's just ignorance and priviliege and a total misunderstanding of the problem to blame someone who is suicidal for wanting to end their own suffering.

Does suicide have place in a modern society? Probably not, but at the same time the fact people continue to kill themselves show that people really don't care about the issue. Actions speak louder than words.