The Deadliest Kind of Economic Depression

Here’s a sobering kind of economic indicator: The number of suicides peak at the lowest point of a recession, according to Elizabeth Bernstein’s thoughful piece, “Angst Is Rising, but Many Must Forgo Therapy” in today’s Wall Street Journal Online.
Mind you, as a clinician on the front lines every single day, I haven’t seen evidence of this spike yet. In fact, I don’t think the recession or a depression will particularly affect the most seriously mentally ill patients. After all, they are on the receiving end of government benefits which, barring social cataclysm, is unlikely to end.
The people I worry about, though, are the middle-class clients, squeezed in every way possible. These are the folks who could lose their benefits if they lose their jobs, who are having to scale back just to feed their gas tanks, who are paying soaring prices at the grocery, and who have virtually no safety net, unlike the rich and the poor. They are, in my opinion, most at-risk for stopping or curtailing therapy, becoming more depressed and finally attempting suicide, some of them successfully.
See Bernstein’s article for a discussion on how many therapists and clients are managing in this miserable climate.Sphere: Related Content
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Your Economic State of Mind

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today published an editorial that captures what must really be the overarching mental health story of the year: What toll has our faltering economy taken on the American psyche?

Mention is made in the piece of a woman who killed herself after her home went into foreclosure. Surely she is neither the first nor the last. While our leaders focus on bail-outs and shake-outs, perhaps it is time that states and local governments pay attention to what is surely a growing mental health crisis.Sphere: Related Content
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