Unfortunately Not a Real Pony

I know that PTSD is the one most commonly thrown around, but... I'd really like people to remember that there are a lot more mental illnesses related to trauma, and all of them will have much higher rates post-pandemic than they did before.

My family's hereditary psychotic disorder was, for all of us, activated by gaslighting and a fear of the government - plenty of people will develop something similar as a result of living in a fascist government that is literally kidnapping people off the streets.

Anxiety disorders? Yeah, living through a pandemic where you're not sure whether it's safe to run into the pharmacy today for your meds or if it'll kill you will cause that for you.

Addiction is a coping mechanism in response to stress - when your life is unbearable as is, you find something to distract you.

Kids being stuck at home, dealing with long-distance learning and having their childhood derailed, all with little support (or none, if their caregivers are abusive) are going to have huge rates of personality disorders and DID/OSDD at the end of all this.

Everyone stuck at home with an abuser, or worried whether they'll be able to afford food next month, or who buried loved ones, or who survived a horrific plague... all these people are going to be at higher risk of all sorts of trauma-related illnesses.

And that's just the *new* instances of mental illness. Serious societal collapse is not exactly conducive to managing your pre-existing stuff.

A Portugal-style "decriminalize drugs and get addicts actual help" would solve a lot of problems in the US.

It is also impossible at the moment, because attitudes toward drugs and especially addiction are so bad that people would rather watch their loved ones die than listen to a smidge of science.

Every time someone posts one of those "people who have a glass of wine with dinner are healthier than non-drinkers" studies, I just want to scream like the mad (in every sense of the word) scientist I am about how correlation is not causation!

In order to truly prove that a little bit of wine makes you healthier, you'd have to do a randomized trial in which you made half the participants drink and half not drink, which would not only get dismissed with prejudice by the IRB, but it also would not work!

And really, what groups of people are over-represented among the non-drinkers? Former addicts, poor people who can't afford alcohol, and people with health conditions/on medications that don't play well with booze. Shockingly (/s), these are people who tend to be less healthy than average.

(Also, I'm just really fucking pissed off because people use that line to try to pressure me into drinking.)

In college, I knew a woman who said "I'm against gambling because it's addictive, and I have to draw the line SOMEWHERE!"

She was totally cool with the existence of alcohol, and even alcohol being given to minors, despite the fact that she personally knew three alcoholics living in the same dorm.

I was a bad kid. I swore, I hung out with people my parents didn't like, I got into fights, I manipulated people, I didn't do my chores, I yelled at my parents, I stayed up well past bedtime, I did drugs, I acted all passive-aggressive around my family, I went out without telling anyone, I drove without a license, I played with fire and knives and chemicals, I talked back to my teachers... really, the only thing I didn't do was have sex (because I was terrified of it).

And you know what? I still didn't deserve any of the abuse my family doled out on me.