Re:Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for middle-aged ...
by mfer on Monday December 02, 2019 @12:58PM
(#21684868)
> Don't you think these things are directly related?
From what I've read there isn't a strong relation between them. Some of it is obvious. The system has been roughly the same for many years but the change happened to mental health anyway.
As I start to read studies on it I learn there are other factors affecting mental health.
The people who study these things are predominantly saying it's related. Why should we think it is?
A friend of mine had some minor mental health issues going into their 20s. Lack of meaningful opportunity paired with obscenely expensive and inaccessible healthcare helped drive those to become major health issues, including drug addiction, due to intoxicating themselves to "help" distract from their grim reality.
Absolutely I think it would have been different had they had access to general preventative healthcare from the start so they could get routine dental, physical, etc. Would they be cured of their mental health problems? Probably not. Would the effects have been less destructive? Yeah, I would bet on it.